SummerFest’s bracing worldview

An unforced “East Meets West” program, including genuine masterpieces by Chausson and Mendelssohn, capped the opening weekend of SummerFest La Jolla 2003, a three-weekend chamber music gathering in this crowded beach town.

This festival, now in its 18th summer, will offer 14 additional performances and a private concert in La Jolla, and one event in Costa Mesa, through Aug. 18. Cho-Liang Lin, now in his third season as artistic director, has put together another bracing and provocative series.

Sunday afternoon in Sherwood Auditorium at the Museum of Contemporary Art, in a program that was a repeat of Saturday night’s, the centerpiece was Ernest Chausson’s Concerto for Violin, Piano and String Quartet, a sometimes forgotten gem from 1891. Daunting and haunting, the piece demands self-effacing virtuosity from its two soloists and equal focus from the accompanying quartet. It was in worthy hands.

Garrick Ohlsson, making his first appearance in the festival, was the game, fluent and resourceful pianist. His partner was violinist Gil Shaham, a familiar in La Jolla. They made the demanding music seem easy and inevitable, and were assisted tightly by the young, accomplished Miami String Quartet -- Ivan Chan, Cathy Meng Robinson, Chauncey Patterson and Keith Robinson.

Wu Man -- a virtuoso on the pipa, the ancient Chinese lute -- began the afternoon with two brilliantly played and affecting solo pieces from the traditional Chinese repertory, “Little Bright Moon” and “White Snow in Spring.”

Chinary Ung’s 16-year-old, still coloristically startling tone poem, “Spiral,” for cello, piano and percussion, showed off not only the composer’s fervid imagination but also the teamwork and skills of cellist Felix Fan, pianist Aleck Karis and percussionist Steven Schick.

The afternoon ended splendidly with an inspired performance of Mendelssohn’s sublime Octet for Strings. The players were violinists Adele Anthony and Maureen Nelson, violist Eve Wickert, cellist Ralph Kirshbaum and the four members of the Miami String Quartet.

For 2003, SummerFest has added an urban bonus long needed: valet parking. Such would never be necessary in Santa Cruz, Carmel or San Luis Obispo, but in this jammed-on-the-weekend resort, it is overdue. Even at $8 a pop.

Sunday afternoon’s concert in the 500-seat Sherwood Auditorium was not sold out. Given the quality of the performances, it should have been. Music lovers: If you want to see the art survive, bring your children and grandchildren to an adult concert. One exposure can work miracles.