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Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Chamber makes the most of Mozart
The music of Mozart is often the opening gambit of concerts, and so it was Monday night at the Seattle Chamber Music Festival at Lakeside School.
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The G Major Piano Trio (K. 496) is a rather slight work but possesses its own sense of tuneful felicity. It is somewhat lopsided in its demands: The pianist has the most notes certainly, with the violinist a close second and the cellist a distant third. What is particularly pleasing in the work, in addition to its engaging manner, is the way one instrument trades phrases with another, especially the piano and violin.
Proponents were familiar (violinist Ani Kavafian and cellist Toby Saks) and unfamiliar (pianist Shai Wosner). There was time, in the long-ago days when the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival had a Seattle season, that Kavafian appeared on local stages regularly. Thanks to the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, we get to hear her occasionally. She always has something to say, which indeed she did in this Mozart. Saks, as founding artistic director of the festival, is, of course, well-known. She made a generally smooth contribution. Wosner, trained in Israel and the United States, is making his festival debut this season. He may be young but he has plenty of talent and a true collaborative spirit. His studies with Emanuel Ax were revealed in every measure. Together, the three made a fine impression.
Beethoven wrote several sonatas for cello and piano, with the A Major among the most important. There was much to admire in cellist Ronald Thomas and pianist Alon Goldstein's performance. Thomas has an expansive view of the work coupled with tonal variety. All that was welcome. After an occasionally problematic opening Allegro, he came to eloquent terms with the Scherzo and final movement. The capacity audience expressed its approval loudly. Goldstein, who studied with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, proved to be an able partner.
The evening ended with Shostakovich's searing Piano Quintet in G Minor. The performance was clouded by the sudden death of cellist Robert deMaine's mother earlier in the day. He agreed, remarkably and generously, to play Monday night but left for Chicago yesterday. The reading was filled with memorable and poignant moments, all the more so under the circumstances.
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