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The Seattle Chamber Music Festival entered its second quarter-century Monday night at Lakeside School with a minimum of speeches and maximum of music, as well as warm sun and loud applause.
There is plenty for which to be grateful. Over 25 years, the festival has grown increasingly secure in its musical profile and place in the community. Rightfully so. Concerts are now routinely excellent rather than merely routine. Musicians seem to get better and better each season, always with some new faces dotting the landscape of veterans.
Although founding artistic director Toby Saks, a cellist by trade, did not play opening night, she was in the audience, meeting and greeting the capacity house. Major credit should go to her for shrewd judgment and determination, but also to a wise and stable administration and an earnest, hard-working board of trustees.
Familiar faces abounded throughout the concert of Beethoven, Dohnanyi and Ravel. But there was also a new face that should be noted right away: violist Richard O'Neill, who made a smashing debut with Dohnanyi's Piano Quintet in C Minor. A native of Sequim, the young musician is already making his way in the highly competitive world of music with an Avery Fisher Career Grant and Grammy Award nomination this year. He has played in London and Paris, recorded for three labels and collaborated with leading musicians. His teachers include two from Seattle -- violinist Milton Friedmann and violist Donald McInnes, formerly a member of the University of Washington faculty.
The Hungarian composer is more generous than some in giving the violist a chance to shine, and O'Neill took every advantage with his big, resonant sound, facile technique and secure musicality. Over the past 25 years, the festival has introduced any number of important musicians to Seattle. O'Neill is the latest.
He was joined by violinists Ida Levin and Paul Rosenthal, cellist Ronald Thomas and pianist William Wolfram. Levin, Rosenthal and Thomas are festival veterans, with Rosenthal given credit by Saks for giving her the idea to found a festival and encouragement along the way. Levin and Thomas have long been standbys, and they bring their lucid sense of music and strong presence to whatever they do. Wolfram was remarkably self-effacing, unfortunately, in the performance.
Thomas and violist Cynthia Phelps opened the concert with Beethoven's witty duo for the two instruments, subtitled "With Two Eyeglasses Obbligato." Phelps, principal violist with the New York Philharmonic, is another festival regular and a welcome presence. The two made merry music and gave the new season the kind of cheery send-off it deserved.
Ravel's extraordinary Piano Trio was the other bookend. In the hands of violinist Carmit Zori, cellist Steven Doane and pianist Alon Goldstein, the work was given its due.
What made the performance so memorable was not only its technical acuity and keen ensemble but its rare combination of mystery, elusiveness and dynamic energy. Its folk rhythms had character while others enjoyed a kind of slippery grace.
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