On a High Note

Sometimes, one finds musical inspiration in the most unexpected places. On Saturday, it was in the dining/all-purpose room of St. Thomas Aquinas College, the campus tucked into the rugged landscape between Ojai and Santa Paula. Here, pianist Juana Zayas gave a piano recital of impressive strength and emotional depth, contending with Mozart, Chopin, Liszt and Debussy.

The acoustics in this space may not be ideal--nuances got lost somewhere around the high, sloping rafters--but Zayas transcended the limitations of the venue. Zayas’ connection with the college, which periodically hosts musicians for lecture-concerts, goes back a few years, when one of her sons was in attendance.

Hers is the case of a monstrously gifted pianist who stepped off the career track to devote time to her children, ignoring the call of the world concert stage. Cuban-born and now New York-based, Zayas didn’t come from out of the blue. Her recording of the Chopin Etudes was originally recorded in 1983. It was reissued on CD on the Music & Arts label in 1995 and is a stunning recording. Her New York debut at Lincoln Center was critically acclaimed.

In her recital Saturday, Zayas showed commanding range, from the profound calm of the Adagio in Mozart’s Sonata in F, K. 332 to the tour de force of the finale of Beethoven’s Sonata in F minor, Opus 57, a cascading flurry of notes, neatly executed and with spirit intact. Her reading of Chopin’s Waltz in A minor, Opus 34, No. 2 had a seductive quality and Lizst’s “St. Francis of Paola walking on the waves” captured the work’s bombastic beauty, rumbling intensity and triumphant punch line.

In short, it was a great night of music-making in this idyllic academic alcove, a nice atmosphere in which to hear music. Zayas is a fine example of what is called a natural virtuoso, with no compunction for either overt pyrotechnics or overly wrung sentiment. She merely buries her head in the music and, aided by deft fingers, reveals its richness.

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Middle-Name Basis: When the New West Symphony’s maestro, Boris Brott, struck up the band two weeks back, it was a good-news/bad-news scenario. When it came to attending to the music of the mostly Mozart program, under the title “Amadeus” (you saw the movie, now hear the music!), all was well.

In the first half, the modest-sized classical orchestra served up the Overture to Don Giovanni, and the Clarinet Concerto in A, K. 622., finely realized by the young soloist Ivan Marin Garcia. Garcia was particularly persuasive on the pained tenderness of the Adagio, which plays like an essay on mortal vulnerability, sandwiched between buoyant allegros. Opening the concert’s second half, the Newbury Park High School Concert Choir took the stage and provided impressive choral on Mozart’s Regina Coeli, K. 276.

Then came the bad news. Staging a cheeky version of Pushkin’s “playlet,” “Mozart and Salieri,” featuring actors Paul Latrielle and David Millbern in period dress, and an apron-donning Brott in a singing cameo, proved to be a gross distraction and had no place on a concert stage. It had more to do with “Amadeus” film star Tom Hulce than the man who penned some of the most profound music in Western civilization.

Grace was saved when the orchestra cleanly surveyed the Haffner Symphony, capturing its generally bright, life-affirming essence. Brott leads his charges with a commanding sense of control, forsaking neither detail nor energy.

The presumed motive for deviating from the music may be admirable, in a sense. Yes, marketing is important if we’re to keep classical music alive and are to recruit new, young audiences, but what’s with this nagging tendency to refer to Mozart on a familiar, middle-name basis? Do the great composers really need to be reduced to tabloid-esque characters, pumped through the Hollywood filter? It’s high time the classical world got over the “Amadeus” kitsch and restored decorum. Let Mozart be Mozart again.

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More Jazz in the Chapel: The ongoing Sunday evening series of jazz concerts in the architecturally unique Church of Religious Science continues this week with guitarist Larry Koonse, one of the finest and most forward-thinking of Los Angeles-based players. Koonse will be the guest soloist with pianist Theo Saunders, bassist Chris Symer and drummer Michael Stephans, who themselves make up a solid trio.

Koonse’s resume includes work with Cleo Laine, Jimmy Rowles, Mel Torme, Toots Theilmanns and orchestral appearances. He is also one-fourth of the L.A. Jazz Quartet, an impressive and original-sounding group that performs cerebral music, despite the band name, which generally goes against the L.A. jazz tide of refried West Coast cool and bebop.

BE THERE

Larry Koonse plays Sun., 7:30 p.m., at the Ventura County Church of Religious Science, Santa Clara and Laurel streets in Ventura. Tickets are $12; 642-4358.