San Francisco Classical Voice

Here's the one thing Wu Han and Finckel, who are responsible for programming the festival here, have not done: play together at Music@Menlo. They are too busy, perhaps, running the festival and its numerous educational programs, although each has performed separately here in previous years. But no joint performance — that is, until now. On Tuesday, at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Palo Alto, they opened the festival's fourth season together, playing the 1934 Shostakovich Cello Sonata, Op. 40, in a performance for the ages. Together, they brought the roof down.

This brilliant and romantic work by the 27-year-old Shostakovich (whose centennial is celebrated by the festival along with Mozart's 250th) sounded as brilliant and romantic as you might imagine the composer's 1934 premiere was, when he was madly in love, sending letters to a young woman (not his wife) about "waves of joy and fierce passion." The aggressive cello theme of the opening Allegro, followed by the piano's more withdrawn, even questioning sound, leads to a peaceful, meandering, singing passage for the two instruments.

This being Shostakovich, sadness and torment cannot be far away, even in an otherwise upbeat flow of "joy and passion." By the second movement, Wu Han's piano and Finckel's cello both sang haunted phrases, as the music's romanticism turned the corner and the idea of loss came to the fore. The third movement, Largo, is a perfect finale, with its big sound, brilliant runs, and breakneck speed. Pianist and cellist end up with stunning precision at the movement's heaven-storming end. The festival audience, however learned and sophisticated, leaned forward as one, ready to explode in applause. Fortunately, they refrained.

It was fortunate not to have the interruption of applause, because there is one more movement, an Allegro, after that "perfect finale." That section contains the work's most complex and involved music — not at all what you might expect from a young man in love. Rather, the Allegro is a foreshadowing of the tortured times yet in the future for the composer.

One key element in the splendid performance of the Cello Sonata was missing from the 1944 Shostakovich Piano Trio No. 2 that followed. Three great artists — violinist Ani Kavafian, cellist Peter Wiley, and pianist Derek Han — each shined technically and musically. But the chemistry, the close-knit ensemble feeling of the sonata, was just not there. Han followed while Kavafian and Wiley both led, in their separate ways. And yet, with those wonderful individual performances and the full measure of Shostakovich's best permeating the work, it too was a gorgeous festival experience.

As for Mozart, the festival artistic directors selected a delightfully unusual program, to the relief of music lovers who have heard the same works over and over again this year. A true rarity: Three short gems, titled Church Sonatas, were performed with two violins, cello, and organ (James Welch). Also known as Epistle Sonatas, these are among 17 such single-movement instrumental compositions that Mozart wrote to be used after the reading of the Scriptures during Mass.

Somewhat — but not much — more usual Mozart fare bracketed the festival debut of St. Mark's 71-rank, 4,419-pipe Casavant Frères organ (first installed in 1957 and repeatedly expanded, renovated, and embellished ever since). The 1787 C Major Piano Sonata for four hands featured Wu Han and Derek Han (unrelated, except in their musical union). A concert-closing 1785 Piano Quartet in G Minor brought Wu Han back to the stage — resplendent as usual, in a gossamer shawl and hand-painted shoes — along with Kavafian, Wiley, and violist CarlaMaria Rodrigues.

In addition to the No. 1 Birthday Boy of a festival titled "Returning to Mozart," some other composers and the super-talented young people performing their music must be acknowledged. If you live in or near Palo Alto, be advised of the terrific musical bargain at St. Mark's at 6 p.m. whenever an 8 p.m. concert is scheduled. Young musicians participating in the festival's Chamber Music Institute's International Program give free concerts in the church on these days. On Tuesday, the Mo”t Trio — violinist Yuri Namkung, cellist Yves Dharamraj, and pianist Michael Mizrahi — gave sparkling performances of Beethoven's Piano Trio in D Major ("Ghost") and Brahms' Piano Trio No. 3 in C Minor. Separately and together, these are musicians you will want to hear repeatedly in coming years.

If you haven't managed to attend festival concerts, there are two ways to catch up with past events: American Public Media both broadcasts and offers free downloads of the music, while live recordings of the previous years' concerts are available from Music@MenloLIVE.