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AND HEARD INTERNATIONAL CONCERT REVIEW
A Festive Close for the Olympic Music
Season: Bernard Jacobson reviews the final concert,
7.9.2008 (BJ)
You could have a wonderful time even without the music. On a good
weather day, the Olympic Music Festival’s Quilcene farm is an
idyllic spot. The tree-limbs sway gently in a balmy breeze. The
donkeys line up amiably to be fed. Dressed as informally as you
choose, you can lounge on hay-bales or pews in the barn and chat
with visitors from as nearby as Port Townsend and as far away as
Bellingham.
But the most impressive thing about the festival Alan Iglitzin
started back in 1984 is that the music is often as superb as the
environment. Closing out the 25th season on September 7, the N-E-W
Trio vividly demonstrated why, since coming together at Kneisel Hall
in Blue Hill, Maine, four years ago, it has been winning prizes and
garnering enthusiastic reviews all over the country.
If the family initials of the three members–cellist Gal Nyska,
pianist Julio Elizalde, and violinist Andrew Wan–supply a rather
awkward name, there is nothing remotely awkward about their playing.
From the beginning of Beethoven’s G-major Trio, Op. 1 No. 2, by way
of the Ravel Trio, through to the splendidly rumbustious gypsy rondo
that concludes Brahms’s G-minor Piano Quartet, the performances
revealed not merely gifted instrumentalists but sensitive and
stylistically savvy interpreters. Aside from individual virtuosity,
there was a welcome flexibility and warmth of expression in
everything they did, as well as a perfection of balance that spoke
of excellent instincts.
Pianist Elizalde played at just the right volume level for the
changing demands of the music. His tone was crystalline in the upper
reaches of the keyboard and never became harsh in even the biggest
chords, so that Wan and Nyska were able to make their well-focused
violin and cello lines effective without needing to force.
Evidently the “voice” of the trio, Elizalde provided charming and
unpretentious introductions to the works on the program. Usually
Iglitzin does the introductions himself, but he was clearly happy to
yield that function to his young colleague. And when he came on
stage to take the viola part in the Brahms, it was as if the four
musicians had been playing together all their lives. I don’t know
whether 55 years of professional music-making keeps you young–youth
is an overrated quality, anyway. But Iglitzin is living proof that
it can keep you good.
Bernard Jacobson
This review also appeared in the Seattle Times.