By Eileen Wingard in La Jolla, California
The second night of Summerfest’s 40th anniversary season featured music from Vienna. It opened at the Conrad’s Baker-Baum Concert Hall with a lilting rendition of Johann Strauss II’s famous Emperor Waltz, arranged for string quartet, piano, flute and clarinet by Arnold Schoenberg.
It seemed strange to associate Schoenberg, known for his atonal music, with the lighthearted, accessible melodies of Strauss’ waltzes, but apparently, Schoenberg loved Strauss’ music.
Summerfest Director, Israeli-born pianist, Inon Barnatan, juxtaposed this as the opener of the program, Vienna 1900, with Schoenberg’s own Verklarte Nacht, which concluded the program. Both, the Strauss arrangement and his tone poem were written when Schoenberg was 25 years old.
The six performers of the Emperor Waltz exemplified the diversity of the Summerfest participants. First violinist, Randall Goosby, and cellist. Sterling Elliot, are winners of the Sphinx Competition, which fosters African-American musicians in classical music; American-born second violinist, Elli Choi, of Chinese descent; Belgian-born violist, Dimitri Murrath; American-born flutest, Rose Lombardo; South Korean-born clarinetist, Yoonah Kim; and Israeli-born pianist Inon Barnatan comprised the group.
They performed the five waltzes of this work idiomatically, with beautiful ensemble. Listening, one could imagine twirling couples waltzing in turn of century Vienna.
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Eileen Wingard, a retired violinist with the San Diego Symphony Orchestra, is a freelance writer specializing in coverage of the arts.