World class Festival returns to Menlo
Music@Menlo hit the ground running in its seventh season as the peninsula’s prestigious chamber music festival. Founders and artistic directors Wu Han and David Finckel have devoted this season to the music of Felix Mendelssohn with a series of five concerts exploring his life and music. Additionally, four lectures by musicians and musicologists and 35 free talks, master classes and performances, plus an Open House on Saturday July 25, extend an extraordinary thank-you to the public.
Last year’s festival attendance increased to 80,000 and many of this year’s events are filling fast. Their schedule is available at www.musicatmenlo.org.
Mendelssohn was a gifted prodigy on the order of Mozart and is often compared to him. Exploring his prodigy years was pianist Orli Shaham, who delivered a lecture on Friday, July 17, on the eve of the festival. After a rigorous grounding in J.S. Bach’s counterpoint and fugue, the young Felix composed at break-neck pace, writing over 100 pieces from age 11 to 14. Along with his accomplished sound came a surprising maturity. Shaham argued that this may well have been due to the ear of his older sister, Fanny, a composer in her own right.
Hugely popular through his life, he was instrumental in Bach’s revival and a champion of Beethoven. Seeking to popularize music, he sought a unified Germanic school of music. Nonetheless, his star was tarnished almost into obscurity due to the calumnies of the jealous, Wagner chief among them, and he has only recently regained his due.
Concert I, held Saturday July 18, explored the influence of Bach and Mozart on the young Felix, and then followed with two of his early works.
The St. Lawrence String Quartet, a renowned quartet in residence at Stanford when not on the road, took the stage for selections from Bach’s Art of Fugue, a definitive set of variations on a 12-note sequence, and a piece Felix was steeped in.
Formidable violinist Geoff Nuttall, taking the second violin part, played the sequence with fragile simplicity. Scott St. John repeated the phrase higher, with deeper bowing, and then cellist Christopher Costanza’s entrance—massive, sorrowful. This quartet playing this piece was a gift.
Their lines interwove, thickened by violist Lesley Robertson. Her entrance in Contrapunctus IV is particularly luscious, followed by a full-bodied unison that somehow maintained its lightness of foot. In a lightning exchange, the two violins finished each other’s phrases, cueing with nods.
I was reminded that I much prefer live concerts, but with string quartets it is a must. Those enmeshed lines are best untangled by the eye. As I watched the cellist, his fingers shook a slow vibrato and my ear focused on a deep long-held note. And seeing a violist’s quick fingers I could draw her mezzo out of the cluster of voices.
Bach’s spaced entrances and dance of line resolved as each instrument found it way to a final chord.
Violinist Arnaud Sussmann, bass player Scott Pingel and bassoonist Dennis Godburn joined in for Bach’s “Ricercar a 6”, the finale from Musical Offering, a piece which inspired Mendelssohn to write its sequence into his own work.
Mozart’s Adagio and Fugue in C Minor was likewise inspired by Bach, and in turn informed young Felix. Pringel returned to add the lowest note of his bass, a bone-warming C.
And finally, the Mendelssohn. He wrote Sinfoniesatz no. 13 at the age of 14, with six musical strands to embellish on Bach. At 15, his Sextet in D Major added piano and bass for an unusual sound that established his mature ear. Pianist Wu Han alternated with strings, venturing past light arpeggios into punishing rainbows of notes. The Adagio’s simpler beauty presaged his melodic gifts, and the final movement was sheer piano fireworks. A 15-year-old Mendelssohn demonstrated his piano virtuosity, awing Europe, and Wu Han reprised it for us with a smile, and with jaw-dropping fluidity.
—Adam Broner
This article originally appeared in the Piedmont Post. Photo: Wu Han, pianist and festival co-founder. Photo by Christian Steiner.
Concert II is performed Friday, July 24 at 8:00 at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church, July 25 is open house, and Concert III starts Monday, July 27 at 8:00 at the Stent Family Hall at Menlo School. Complete info at