The La Jolla Music Society’s SummerFest has returned, bigger than ever with 90 events in the span of four weeks.
For Friday’s opening concert, bigger was not necessarily better, but those present will not forget the spectacle of four concert grand pianos on stage at Baker-Baum Concert Hall, played by Garrick Ohlsson, Joyce Yang, Wynona Yinuo Wang and SummerFest Music Director Inon Barnatan.
These gifted pianists lavished their exceptional techniques and musicality on the “Quatuor Concertant No. 1, Opus 230” by Carl Czerny.
Czerny was Beethoven’s best piano student and became a renowned performer. His piano exercises — over 100 volumes — are still heard in practice rooms today.
He was a very influential piano instructor. Among his students were Franz Liszt and Theodor Leschetizky; Barnatan and Ohlsson can trace their pianistic pedigrees back to Czerny.
“Quatuor Concertant” was written for four of Czerny’s students, each a countess or noblewoman. It is a flamboyant medley of once-popular operatic arias and a theme from Paganini’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Each pianist was given their own tune and the opportunity to take the lead, at times embellished by fusillades of runs and arpeggios from the others.
It is challenging to synchronize four pianos, but Barnatan and company played with precision. Wang, a young artist in residence, held her own against her celebrated colleagues. At one point, she stepped aside of her keyboard to play a triangle part. Yang milked a trill for comedy. A rollicking good time was had by all.