CLASSICAL MUSIC : SummerFest Star Pianist Returning for S.D. Concert

Among the savored memories of the 1989 La Jolla SummerFest, pianist Yefim Bronfman’s incandescent performance in the Shostakovich E Minor Piano Trio stands out. The 33-year-old Russian-born virtuoso returns Feb. 16 to play another Shostakovich opus, the G Minor Piano Quintet, this time with the Guarneri String Quartet at Civic Theatre.

In a phone interview earlier this week from Los Angeles, where Bronfman had just played the Mozart C Minor Piano Concerto with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Bronfman contrasted the two Shostakovich works.

“The Piano Trio is a truly tragic piece,” Bronfman said, “while the Piano Quintet is basically a satiric work. Its bittersweet ending says in so many words, ‘that’s reality and we had better smile at it.’ ”

Bronfman praised the Shostakovich Piano Quintet for its relevance to the public mood as the Persian Gulf War begins.

“Shostakovich’s music goes well with the times we are living in. After I played the Quintet last week in New York with the Emerson Quartet, a colleague came backstage to tell me how the piece parallels the current war. It’s all so depressing, yet it’s happening at a distance, just as the war is not happening outside our windows.”

A native of Tashkent, U.S.S.R., Bronfman received his basic keyboard training in the Soviet Union, and it is no surprise that he champions the music of Shostakovich and Prokofiev. For his first solo recording, he chose the fiery Seventh and Eighth Piano Sonatas of Prokofiev. And he is scheduled to record all five Prokofiev Piano Concertos with the Israel Philharmonic and conductor Zubin Mehta.

When Bronfman was 14, he and his family left the Soviet Union to emigrate to Israel. Typical of the harsh Cold War Soviet attitudes toward citizens who emigrated, Bronfman was shunned by his classmates and called a traitor by his teacher, who, he recounted, also defected later. Bronfman continued his studies in Israel and within a year launched his performing career in the West.

“One day I found myself auditioning for Mehta in his office without having anything so enormous in mind,” Bronfman explained. “He engaged me on the spot.”

Mehta not only paved the way for the young pianist’s debut with the Israel Philharmonic but also his first performance with the Berlin Philharmonic and in North America with the Toronto Symphony. Bronfman has maintained a laudable balance among solo recitals, symphony engagements, and chamber music programs.

“All music is related. What I’ve learned from chamber music is to listen to more than my own part. So when I play Beethoven sonata, for instance, I am thinking how it could be played by string quartet.”

With the thaw in East-West relations, Bronfman has been able to arrange a concert tour to the Soviet Union this December, his first visit since his family left for Israel.

“I’ll be playing some duo recitals with violinist Isaac Stern and performing with orchestras in Leningrad and Moscow. I’m hoping to make a live recording the complete Brahms Violin Sonatas with Stern in Leningrad Philharmonic Hall.”

Although he has not yet negotiated his repertory with the Soviet orchestras, he leans to the large-scaled Rachmaninoff or Brahms concertos.

“To play Mozart in Moscow would be a mistake. Their interpretation of Mozart is very primitive, and the sound of their woodwinds is just not appropriate for Mozart. If I play the Rachmaninoff Third or the Prokofiev Third, they play those pieces by memory.”

The other Talmi. Flutist Er’Ella Talmi will make her local debut in a chamber music concert at the East County Jewish Community Center on Feb. 18 at 7:30 p.m. Talmi is a former principal flute with the Israel Chamber Orchestra and is married to San Diego Symphony music director Yoav Talmi. In this program of flute quartets by Mozart, Pleyel, and contemporary Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim, Er’Ella Talmi will be joined by symphony concertmaster Igor Gruppman, principal viola Nancy Lochner and cellist Mary Oda Szanto.

Vocal opportunity. Under the aegis of West Coast Lyric Opera, a vocal ensemble called “Las Voces” is being formed to perform classical and popular music of Latin America. The new ensemble will be directed by Xiomara Di Maio, a Venezuelan choral conductor and vocal coach living in San Diego. Di Maio made her conducting debut in Caracas with the Coral Venezuela. Auditions for the new group, for which a knowledge of Spanish is not required, will be held Feb. 23-24 from 1-5 p.m. at the Francis Parker School Suzuki Heritage Center in Linda Vista. Singers should prepare two songs in contrasting style and language. Appointments and further information at 544-1014.

Unusual this week. Accompanied by the San Diego Cine-Phonic Orchestra, the classic Charlie Chaplin silent film “The Gold Rush” will be screened today at 7:30 p.m. in El Cajon’s East County Performing Arts Center. . . .

Cast members from the San Diego Opera’s production of “Albert Herring” will perform popular opera arias and operetta favorites at the free noon-hour concert in front of the downtown Civic Theatre on Wednesday.