Chamber music fest comes to a ravishing close

Concert review |

All summer long, the Seattle Chamber Music Society's Summer Festival — at Lakeside School in July and Overlake School in August — has been studded with star turns from its deep roster of talent. That so much luster is produced for such an impressive length of time — 17 concerts over six weeks — has much to do with musicians like cellist Robert deMaine, who has played in almost every concert or recital this season.

When the festival ended its 2008 run on Friday night, cellist deMaine was there, again, helping to bring it to a memorable close.

Actually, he and pianist Andrew Armstrong almost stole the show before the concert even began, with their recital performance of Rachmaninoff's riveting Sonata for Cello and Piano in G minor. Armstrong played the piece a month earlier at a Lakeside concert with another cellist, and the second time around was even better than the first. Thank you, Mr. deMaine.

After being blown away by the recital, I had very high expectations for the concert proper. Well, it was a very hot night — the hottest this summer — so maybe that's why I felt like a temperature-sensitive Goldilocks tasting her three bowls of porridge.

The first try, Vitezslav Novák's Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano in D minor, was too hot.

Novák piles on the Eastern European folk-angst, much in the manner of his compatriots Dvorák (who was far better at it) and Smetana, whose Trio in G minor was performed to a standing ovation the Wednesday night prior. In fact, Novák's Trio sounds like a lesser version of Smetana's — a resemblance that was further underscored by two of the players being the same, violinist Scott Yoo and pianist Andrew Armstrong.

The second try, Beethoven's Quintet in C Major, was too cold — at least for the first half.

Violinists Erin Keefe and Joseph Lin, violists Che-Yen Chen and Richard O'Neill, and cellist Amit Peled seemed to be keeping the music at arm's length during the first and second movements, being careful but never really coalescing in spirit. Fortunately, Beethoven's intellectualizing falls away in the rollicking third movement, and the players began to have more fun. The ever-stoic Keefe even cracked a smile after she deftly landed the lightening-strike opening of the finale; after that, all the players seemed to come alive, joyfully weaving in and out of each other in kaleidoscopic patterns.

The piece that was just right — Brahms' Trio for Violin, Cello and Piano in B Major — is such a ravishingly gorgeous work that it seems impossible to play badly.

From the languid opening caress of the piano and cello, to the dance-like furor of the second movement, the hushed cathedral majesty of the Adagio, and the anxiously attractive finale, this piece swells with the very best kind of Romantic fervor. In the seasoned hands of Ida Levin on violin, Anton Nel on piano, and Robert deMaine on cello, the music bloomed rapturously on that hot night. Thank you, again, Mr. deMaine.

That memory might be enough to keep me going until next summer's festival.

Sumi Hahn: sumi@bewodo.org