Music Review : Chamber Festival

The third of Chamber Music/LA’s “Affair With Brahms” concerts, at the Japan America Theatre, turned out to be a birthday party.

The main offering on Brahms’ 156th birthday was his Piano Quartet in C-minor. Pianist Ayke Agus joined violinist Christian Bor, violist Milton Thomas and cellist Jeffrey Solow in a full-blooded performance Sunday afternoon that cascaded passionately from tenderness to raw energy.

Violinist Yukiko Kamei, with Kenneth Cooper at the harpsichord, started the proceedings with a fastidious and somewhat small-scaled account of J.S. Bach’s Sonata in E, BWV 1016. Cooper followed as soloist in three sonatas by Domenico Scarlatti (K. 175, 208, 119). He vividly brought to life the flamenco dissonances and quirky rhythms of the two outer sonatas, with a lyrical movement sandwiched between.

Douglas Moore’s deliciously tongue-in-cheek “Said the Piano to the Harpsichord”--for piano, harpsichord and narrator--lent a spirit of good-natured high jinks to the party, and gave opportunity for a trio of brief, unannounced Brahmsian gifts. Soprano/narrator Josephine Mongiardo offered “Sontag” and “Standchen” with ear-catching rubato, and Cooper and Agus presented the full house with a playful Hungarian Dance.