MUSIC REVIEW : SummerFest ’89 Opens on Strong Note

In accord with its high standards, the La Jolla Chamber Music Society opened its fourth annual summer festival at Sherwood Auditorium with three rousing performances.

SummerFest ’89 artistic director Heiichiro Ohyama constructed a pleasantly varied program Friday night that opened with a Telemann Trio Sonata in C Minor, followed by the Benjamin Britten “Phantasy” Quartet, Op. 2; it closed with Brahms’ exuberant B-flat Major String Sextet, Op. 18.

Oboist Gerard Reuter, a member of the Dorian Wind Quintet, made a stunning first impression in the Telemann and the Britten. One of the few newcomers on this program of SummerFest veterans, Reuter proved to be the perfect foil to flutist Damian Bursill-Hall in the Trio Sonata. The two wind players traded deftly turned and vividly etched lines in a lean but vigorous contrapuntal conversation.

In the “Phantasy” Quartet, Reuter’s keen, penetrating timbre cut through the delicate string accompaniment without overwhelming it. He responded to the composer’s dense arabesques with a sensuously shaded cantilena that was nothing short of mesmerizing.

David Golub provided a fleet, vigorous keyboard accompaniment in the Telemann, but his aggressive attacks gave him away as a pianist drafted for harpsichord duty.

Cellist Peter Reijto was a trusty collaborator in both the Telemann and the Britten, and Eugene Drucker’s violin supplied a sweet innocence in the “Phantasy” Quartet when it was called for. Violist Cynthia Phelps’ dark timbre could not have been more apt for the work’s pathos.

After the intensity of the program’s first half, however, the Brahms Sextet was a minor disappointment. It took the better part of the first movement for the players to forge a cohesive ensemble, and even then they continued to move in and out of focus. The players did not fully encompass this youthful work and give it a coherent interpretive stamp, but there were several exquisite moments, such as the serene close of the second movement and the vibrant scherzo.

First violinist Andres Cardenes’ strong, decisive approach was perhaps too stern for this optimistic composition, and he remained uncharacteristically aloof from his collaborators. Violinist Julie Rosenfeld, violist Francesca Martin and cellist Diane Chaplin--three-quarters of the Colorado Quartet--as well as violist Phelps and cellist Gary Hoffman made up the rest of the Brahms ensemble.

Hoffman handled his virtuoso solos with aplomb and great conviction, but a more burnished sonority from his instrument would have better complemented the idiom.

The opening-night crowd was almost a full house at the auditorium, which holds about 500. The festival continues through Aug. 27.