Music Review : Second Concert at La Jolla SummerFest ’90

SummerFest Artistic Director Heiichiro Ohyama proved again Sunday that inspired cronyism produces the strongest chamber music performances.

At the second public concert in SummerFest ’90 in Sherwood Auditorium at the San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art here, Ohyama, again surrounded by a distinguished group of gifted, high-achieving and musically affectionate cronies, put together a sensible--if hardly provocative--program consisting of Mozart’s Piano Trio in G, K. 564, Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro and Dvorak’s Piano quartet in E-flat, Opus 87.

Because of the character of the pieces, the evening moved steadily from Mozartean containment to Dvorakian climax.

The Quartet, played passionately by a tight ensemble of obviously close colleagues, made all its dramatic points in a sometimes overwrought reading, one that might have been more effective at lower dynamic levels--the acoustics in Sherwood Hall are clear enough to project even the most understated musical rhetoric, after all.

Still, with such serious artists as pianist David Golub, violinist Gyorgy Pauk, violist Toby Hoffman and cellist Gary Hoffmancqb, to ask for a lesser commitment is practically insulting. If this piece emerged almost embarrassing in its emotional stridency, what was needed in the first place was restraint on the part of the composer.

Restraint without wimpiness marked the buoyant and articulate performance of the famous Ravel piece accomplished by harpist Deborah Hoffman, assisted by violinists Julie Rosenfeld and Cho-Liang Lin, flutist Carol Wincenc, clarinetist David Peck and Hoffman’s brothers, violist Toby and cellist Gary.

The second evening of the fifth SummerFest series began with an elegant but well-spoken account of the Mozart Trio, a reading special in its balance of forward thrust and relaxed lyricism, played by violinist Pauk, cellist Ronald Leonard and pianist Emanuel Ax. It was a reminder that the finest chamber performances combine personal response with selfless execution.