Festival Musicians July 15 Playing Mozart Quintet (Voices of Music Photo)

VANHAL QUARTET AT VOM FESTIVAL DISCOVERY AT HANNA CENTER

A near-capacity crowd of 220 filled the Sonoma Hanna Boys Center Auditorium July 15 for the opening concert of the fourth Valley of the Moon Music Festival. This Festival presents gems of the Classical and early Romantic periods performed on instruments of the composer’s era, which presents a few challenges and many rewards to the modern ear.

Festival founders and co-directors Tanya Tomkins and Eric Zivian inserted an unfamiliar treasure by Johann Baptist Vanhal between two familiar works by his younger contemporaries: Beethoven’s C-Sharp Minor Sonata, Op. 27, No. 2, and Mozart’s Viola Quintet in G Minor from 1787. All three men overlapped in Vienna during its prominence as the musical center of Europe.

We’re accustomed to hearing Beethoven on the modern piano, with its long tonal decay and brilliant resonance, so hearing Mr. Zivian play Beethoven on the small Mozart-era piano brought something fresh to savor. As Prof. Nicolas Mathew explained in a pre-concert lecture, music of the day was performed in small rooms to small groups.

They would have found Mr. Zivian’s instrument’s crystalline notes and lightness of sound perfect, but even in the medium-sized Hanna Auditorium, his sensitive interpretation felt intimate, expressing the sonata’s profound emotions. It was written in 1801 in an improvisatory style (“Sonata quasi una fantasia” is Beethoven’s title) when the composer was experiencing the anguish and fear of impending deafness. The iconic first movement (adagio sostenuto) that prompted a music critic to suggest the sobriquet “Moonlight,” has the rhythm and mood of a funeral march. Mr. Zivian played with delicacy at a tempo that seemed just right, holding the damper pedal (operated by the knee) throughout as Beethoven directed in his score, creating a subtle drone of sound that heightened the lament’s poignancy.

The second allegretto movement was almost insouciant in mood, though intimation of loss lurked at the edges. In the third movement, presto agitato, Mr. Zivian maximized Beethoven’s anguish and fury. Every note sounded with clarity; there was no muddiness of sound. Toward the end of the movement, after two low bass chords that seemed to express hopelessness, the pianist paused for a few beats. Then energy returned with the final furious runs and the end was like a pledge not to give up, shouted angrily into the wind.

The Vanhal Quartet for oboe and strings in F Major, Op. 7, No. 1, should be performed more often. It’s a celebration of great beauty by a prolific composer who was once the toast of Vienna—someone Mozart emulated and Haydn admired. The ensemble of Marc Schachman, oboe, violinist Carla Moore, Kati Kyme, viola, and William Skeen, cello, blended seamlessly and generously. The quartet is in four movements, and in the first allegro moderato a sweet, lilting melody is introduced which the oboe picks up and carries forward. Close harmonies follow in duets and ensemble playing. The second movement is simply glorious, one of the loveliest I’ve heard ever, and through which Mr. Schachman’s oboe line wove a spell. The third menuetto-triomovement began as a straitlaced dance, moving into something free-flowing and pastoral, with especially lovely pairings of oboe and violin. The fourth movement (presto) was a startling and harmonious explosion of sound. The appreciative audience, presumably most of whom were hearing Vanhal’s music for the first time, brought the ensemble back for three curtain calls.

A long intermission followed. The audience then heard Mozart’s String Quintet (Viola Quintet) in G Minor, K. 516. Before beginning, the players – Toma Iliev and Kati Kyme, violas; Tekla Cunningham and Carla Moore, violins; and cellist Tomkins – joined Prof. Mathew in speaking from the stage about the quintet form. Ms. Moore commented that this quintet is orchestral, with the extra viola filling out the sound and Ms. Tomkins revealed that the 1787 piece, so full of pathos and emotion, is rife with intimations of death and mourning.

The first movement, allegro, contains a plaintive theme that begins in unison and then passes from violin to violas to cello. Ms. Cunningham’s violin playing was unutterably sweet and rich, and Ms. Tomkins’ expressive use of rubato throughout the movement gave a poignant and emotional grounding to the music. The balance between the instruments was perfect and clear as they blended and then gave phrases and themes to one another. Particularly thrilling were the duets between Ms. Kyme and Mr. Iliev. The second movement Minuetto was played dramatically, with lyrical passages sliced by violent, accented chords. The third movement (adagio ma non troppo) is a funereal lament. Ms. Cunningham’s playing took the lead, and the quartet in turn followed. The depth of sorrow in this interpretation was heartrending.

The concluding movement, adagio-allegro, began with a lovely singing and deftly phrased lament by Ms. Cunningham. Surprisingly, the mood lightened and at the end the key shifted into G major rather than returning to the plaintive G minor, so that the piece ends on a positive and consoling affirmation.

It was an inspired and inspiring performance, and many in the audience gave a standing ovation. Following multiple curtain calls members of the audience and musicians met for gratis food and wine in the Center’s sunny patio.