Music Reviews : Engaging Third Program at Chamber Music/LA Fest

After the third program in this year’s Chamber Music/LA Festival, it became easy to remember why one so eagerly looks forward to the annual event at the Japan America Theatre: Not only is the music making of consistently high quality, but the programs are conceived with uncommon vision and intelligence.

There were two works from our century on the Sunday program, one eight years old, the other 50. As different as Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet and Toshi Ichiyanagi’s “Paganini Personal” for marimba and piano are, both have strong connections with the past.

“Paganini Personal” is in many respects a traditional set of variations on Paganini’s famous caprice. In its roughly 10 minutes, the engaging work displays timbral, rhythmic and melodic variety.

In this performance, the local premiere, marimbist Shinichi Ueno proved both technical wizard and sensitive interpreter; pianist Shunsuke Kurakata collaborated effectively.

It is to the music of Bach that Shostakovich looked back in writing his Quintet in G minor, Opus 57. The five musicians--pianist Jerome Lowenthal, violinists Paul Rosenthal and Christiaan Bor, violist Marcus Thompson and cellist Stephen Kates--effectively capitalized on the work’s baroque traits, eloquently shaping the extended fugal adagio, delivering the spun-out melodies with arching lyricism and balancing the various contrapuntal lines perfectly. And, where the music demanded, the five generated passion and excitement to match.

The program opened with a potent account of Mendelssohn’s Quintet in A, Opus 18, played by violinist Yukiko Kamei, violist Milton Thomas, Rosenthal, Thompson and Kates.