Pianist Ralf Gothoni is warmly grounded

Since 1991, four pianists have learned that they were stalked by a foundation in Kalamazoo, Mich. The Irving S. Gilmore Foundation secretly tracks down unconventional musicians who might make a difference, then awards each of these unsuspecting pianists $300,000 to do something interesting with. Thus far, the most famous “winner” has been Leif Ove Andsnes, a Norwegian who has become a major star but who also devotes himself to projects such as running an exceptional chamber music festival in a small fishing village in Norway.

Recently, the Philharmonic Society of Orange County has brought two other Gilmore Artists to the Southland. Last month, the latest honoree, Piotr Anderszewski, a charismatic Pole, was the spectacular soloist with the Australian Chamber Orchestra at the Orange County Performing Arts Center. And Tuesday night, the intriguing Finnish pianist Ralf Gothoni appeared with the Northwest Chamber Ensemble at the Irvine Barclay Theatre.

The 1994 Gilmore Artist, Gothoni has had a quixotic career. He is conductor of the Northwest Chamber Orchestra in Seattle as well as principal guest conductor of the Turku Philharmonic in Finland. He has run a major Finnish summer opera festival and has written operas himself. He currently operates the Forbidden City Music Festival in Beijing. He writes books. He is known as an idealistic educator. He is also a compelling pianist.

For the program in Irvine, Gothoni traveled with two string players from his Seattle orchestra -- concertmaster Marjorie Kransberg-Talvi (who played viola on this occasion) and cellist Page Smith -- along with his wife, Elina Vahala, a young Finnish violinist. The program consisted of piano quartets by Mozart and Schumann along with Alfred Schnittke’s Violin Sonata No. 2.

Vahala was clearly the evening’s star and the Schnittke her showpiece. When written in the early ‘60s, this sonata was a shocker. The Russian composer was undergoing a change from his early, modernist Soviet music to his bizarrely polystylistic later works. The sonata jars with its rhythmically jerky percussive attacks on a G-minor chord that is climactically hammered by the pianist 46 times until the piano nearly collapses under the chord’s weight. The violin startles by constantly lunging from sliced-out chords to alarming slides to sweet, seductive gestures. You never know where you stand in this music.

Both violinist and pianist threw themselves into the sonata, Gothoni producing stunning resonances and Vahala offering a vividly athletic performance that managed to appear untamed but was, in fact, perfectly in control.

Vahala’s athleticism wasn’t quite as fascinating in the piano quartets, although she was nonetheless an enlivening force. When seated, she wrapped one leg around her chair as if to keep herself from flinging around too wildly. Her tone is sleek and sometimes seemed insufficient next to the richer viola, cello and piano sounds. But the energy from all three string players was impressive. Rather than dominate as he might, Gothoni acted more inclined to keep the performances grounded and focus his impulsive colleagues.

The Piano Quartet in G minor, K. 478, is one of Mozart’s most intense chamber works, and the performance was almost as ferocious as the Schnittke. Schumann’s Piano Quartet in E flat major, Opus 47, has a more robust spirit, and here the ensemble was a joy. In the slow movement, which is based on an incandescent melody, the four players seemed to glow under the same light, as if in a trance. Under it all, though, Gothoni’s beautiful touch and warmth seemed to flavor everything. The Gilmore clearly knows what it is doing.