MUSIC REVIEW : Interpretation Key to Hot SummerFest

SummerFest ’89 continues to surprise its Sherwood Hall audiences--and for all the right reasons. Some surprises have come from exotic repertory--rare specimens such as the recent Mel Powell opus String Quartet and Edward Elgar’s Piano Quintet. But even when the programming has not been that unusual, the interpretations have consistently offered new insights into familiar music.

Friday night’s concert to a full house of about 500 listeners provided two such unexpected journeys.

Ravel’s F Minor String Quartet, a staple of the quartet circuit, usually receives a kid-glove approach that savors its translucent harmonies and hovers over its delicate textures. In the hands of, say, the Tokyo String Quartet, the piece borders on a precious parody of every flowery textbook definition of musical Impressionism. Friday’s Ravel offering was quite another matter.

Unlike an ensemble that has long worked together to produce a finely blended sound, the four SummerFest string players do not regularly work together. Violinists Masuko Ushioda and Julie Rosenfeld, and violist Toby Hoffman exhibit strong, individual musical personalities, which gave both a less refined texture and a far more energetic, vibrant interpretation of the piece. Bold, animated, even angular describe the three fast movements.

In the Ravel piece’s slow movement, Hoffman’s luminous, sensual solo was nothing less than a revelation. Second violinist Rosenfeld (she is the Colorado String Quartet’s first violin) played with equal bravura to Ushioda’s forthright lead. Only the overly proper--almost aloof--cellist Peter Reijto failed to share this unusual but vigorous vision of the work.

Violinist Cho-Liang Lin made Beethoven’s E-flat Piano Trio, Op. 70, No. 2, soar with his simultaneously elegant and passionate playing. Lin’s enthusiasm for the work riveted this listener’s attention from the first phrase. He was well-partnered at the keyboard by David Golub, whose crisp, well-accented realization of the score exploited its asymmetrical phrases and structure with uncommon grace.

Cellist Ralph Kirshbaum shared this approach to the Beethoven composition, and his phrasing admirably mirrored Lin’s. But in contrast to Lin’s ever-smiling sonority, Kirshbaum rarely emerged from a labored grimace.

Between the Beethoven Trio and the Ravel Quartet, five SummerFest wind players gave Hindemith’s Kleine Kammermusik, Op. 24, No. 2, an emotionally restrained but engaging performance, one that refuted the work’s reputation as a relic of well-crafted neoclassical carpentry.

On most programs, this reading would have been exemplary, especially with bassoonist Dennis Michel’s plaintive declamations and flutist Damian Bursill-Hall’s deftly sculpted lines. (The other players were oboist Allan Vogel, clarinetist David Peck and Richard Todd, French horn.)

Friday night, however, it was diminished by its stellar company.