LINDSAY DEUTSCH
San Francisco Classical Voice
July 11, 2005

Sonoma’s Green Sizzle

By Janos Gereben

Rohnert Park, pop. 40,000, is a pleasant rural community some 3,000 miles west of Carnegie Hall. It is here that Jeffrey Kahane has created an annual chamber-music series, part of the Green Music Festival, that could be comfortably at home in any metropolis.

The opening concert of the sixth season, on Friday, featured a rich program, played by extraordinary musicians in a way that was hot, to a fault, sizzling, and often brilliant.

Kahane opened the program pointedly with a contemporary work, a special one, before getting to Brahms and Mendelssohn. He selected well: Osvaldo Golijov's Last Round is a most exciting and satisfying new work. Played by the St. Lawrence String Quartet joined by a quartet composed of violinists Chee-Yun and Lindsay Deutsch, violist Aloysia Friedman and cellist Alisa Weilerstein, plus Stephen Tramontozzi (contrabass), this tribute to Astor Piazzolla first rocked, then enchanted the hall.

The cry of the bandoneón
Written in 1996, to mark the death of passionate composer/amateur pugilist Piazzolla four years before, Last Round opens with "Movido, urgente," a headlong rush into a sonic explosion imbued by the spirit, if not the actual presence, of the bandoneón.

The sweep of Last Round was such that nothing mattered, not even the St. Lawrence's excessively cute dark glasses for the curtain calls... of which there were four, unusual at chamber music.

A Brahms-Golijov connection
There was a fascinating transition to Brahms' desperately passionate serenade to Clara Schumann, the Piano Quartet in C minor, Op. 60.

Lindsay Deutsch violinist

Kahane's thundering opening chords on the piano were answered by the excited close-order harmonies from Chee-Yun, Weilerstein, and the exceptional violist Nokuthula Ngwenyama. The concert's concluding work, the Mendelssohn Octet in E-flat major, was a well-performed miscalculation. The Golijov-Brahms equation was carried too far with a "hot," dramatic reading of the work. In the Mendelssohn, and unfailingly throughout the evening, Chee-Yun played with focus and grace, providing a point of reference to the evening's brilliant debut, that of 20-year-old Deutsch. Discovering Deutsch Not so much senior in years as having the advantage of a long and distinguished career, Chee-Yun's security and mastery "comes naturally," but the tall and thin Deutsch (reportedly a devoted handball player!) surprised and delighted with her equal, mannerism-free concentration, verging on serenity, showing fine maturity even during the most physical and demanding passages.

Kahane — whose playing in the Brahms was remarkable even against what one expects from this pianist — has been long advocating both Golijov and Deutsch. Friday night served as a big "I told you so!" for Kahane. By the way, the departing music director of the Santa Rosa Symphony (for Denver) promised he will stay with Green Music Festival, continuing with this outstanding chamber-music series. The 2005 series continued Sunday, with Chee-Yun and Deutsch in the Prokofiev C Major Sonata for Two Violins, the St. Lawrence and Ngwenyama in the Mozart String Quintet in D Major, and Chee-Yun, Weilerstein, and pianist Jon Kimura Parker in Tchaikovsky's Piano Trio in A minor. On July 14, Kahane and Ngwenyama will play the Schumann "Fairy Tales for Viola and Piano," cellist Peter Wyrick joins Deutsch for the Kodßly Duo, Op. 7, Dvorßk's Piano Quartet in E-flat Major ending the series, with Deutsch, Ngwenyama, Wyrick and Kahane.