La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest series continues through Aug. 26 at the Conrad Prebys Performing Arts Center
BY LUKE SCHULZE
AUG. 4, 2023 12:54 PM PT
Two sides of Robert Schumann served as bookends for Wednesday evening’s “Fantastic Tales” concert at La Jolla Music Society’s Baker-Baum Concert Hall, an event just as carefully and successfully sculpted as this season’s other SummerFest offerings.
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Thomas Adès is this Summerfest’s composer-in-residence, though his roles in the festival take many forms. He was pianist/conductor for Leos Janácek’s Concertino for Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, Two Violins, Viola, and Piano. This is a surprising, programmatic work — multicolored, long on humor and showing Janácek’s mastery of timbre and color. Focusing on narrative over virtuosity, this is as much a story as a concerto.
Adès knows this piece: he played and directed superbly, from memory, taking the ensemble through their respective character roles, eliciting from them a vibrant array of timbres and personalities. Clarinetist Mark Simpson was especially vivid on sopranino clarinet, playing staccato passages with color and intensity; horn player Stefan Dohr joined Adès in the first movement duet, playing with broad tone and deep expression. Violinists Blake Pouliot and Diana Cohen and violist Rostad were masterful in their bowing and articulations, as they alternatively writhed, argued, and sang in the third movement. Bassoonist Eleni Katz was as she has been in other concerts, thoughtful and expressive with a handsomely shaped sound.