MUSIC REVIEW : Passionate, Stunning Finish to SummerFest

LA JOLLA —  SummerFest ’90 artistic director Heiichiro Ohyama saved his best surprises for the festival’s final concert Tuesday night. The Colorado String Quartet offered stunning performances of two rarely played pieces, Mozart’s First String Quartet, K. 80, and Alberto Ginastera’s Second String Quartet. And violinist Mark Peskanov made his only festival appearance in the Tchaikovsky Piano Trio in A Minor.

Celebrity night it was not, but passionate music making took center stage.

Peskanov and cellist Gary Hoffman let out all the stops for the Tchaikovsky, throwing themselves into a robust, Old World performance that ignored the fashionable politesse of many current chamber music performances. When Peskanov, for example, stretched a rubato out of one of his emotion-drenched melodies, the motivation came from his inner depths.

Hoffman matched Peskanov’s big, rosiny sound, although that timbre was 180 degrees removed from the pointed, supple tone he had produced the previous evening in two Mozart piano quartets. Yet for all this muscle, when it came to rapid figuration, each string player sailed through with lucid definition.

Pianist Andre-Michel Schub handled the bravura piano part with such commanding facility, clarity and intelligence that it seems positively churlish to complain that his effort nevertheless appeared deficient. But in the company of these two string players, more sense of abandon and a deeper touch--even some old-fashioned heavy pedaling--was required. On the other hand, perhaps Schub’s holding back was wise--otherwise the Sherwood Auditorium stage might have experienced a nuclear meltdown.

Tuesday’s performance by the Colorado Quartet revealed just how far this ensemble has grown since its local debut in 1986. The players brought buoyant rhythms and polish to Mozart’s effervescent early opus that proved all the more impressive when followed by a gutsy reading of Ginastera’s fiery 1958 opus. In both style and form, the Ginastera Second String Quartet is one of the few worthy heirs to Bartok’s six-quartet canon. It even boasts a middle movement bristling with those eerie special effects Bartok chose for his “night music” passages.

The Colorado String Quartet demonstrated an uncommon equilibrium that allowed the players to pummel Ginastera’s driving ostinatos without impairing their sonic unity or ensemble cohesion. Despite this admirable internal balance, first violinist Julie Rosenfeld and violist Francesca Martin should be singled out for their voluptuous, lyrical solo flights.