Los Angeles Times - 07.08.2019

L ATIMES.COM/CALENDAR WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 2019E3

LA JOLLA — Summer-
Fest, the La Jolla Music So-
ciety’s chamber music festi-
val, always had a lot going for
it, not least location. Who
doesn’t want to be in La Jolla
in August? Escaping the
heat and humidity has been
especially attractive to top
East Coast and Midwest
musicians, and the society
seemed able to afford them,
often to the consternation of
equally impressive SoCal
players.
The festival’s venue at
the Museum of Contempo-
rary Art San Diego added to
the attraction. It felt like a
destination, offering an
often-striking exhibition
with a concert. You entered
the small theater via a bal-
cony that dramatically
looked down on the ocean.
The only problem was
that the theater, obviously
not designed for music, had
institutional acoustics. Giv-
en that the society is a major
classical music presenter
during the winter season, it
needed something better.
Now, in some ways, it has
that with the Conrad Prebys
Performing Arts Center,
which opened in April.
The village-like square
designed by Epstein Joslin
Architects of Cambridge,
Mass., has a 513-seat formal
concert hall along with two
smaller, flexible venues. The
acoustical design is by Ya-
suhisa Toyota, who has be-
come the world’s leading ac-
oustician in the 16 years
since the opening of his
masterpiece, Walt Disney
Concert Hall.
Furthermore, Summer-
Fest, which had its opening
concerts last weekend and
runs through Aug. 23, has
new blood. This is the first
festival under the music di-
rectorship of enterprising Is-
raeli pianist Inon Barnatan.
With both a new hall and
new artistic direction, kinks
were certain to need working
out. If there was promise, we
owed patience, even if at
Sunday’s matinee program
that patience was tried, with
mistakes old and new. The
promise offered hope.
Architecturally, Baker-
Baum, as the main hall is
called, is a throwback. It is
neither in Toyota’s ground-
breaking vineyard style nor
the spectacular new devel-
opment that he and Frank
Gehry produced with
Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal,
an oval with suspended bal-
cony. Rather this is a tradi-
tional European design,

with audience facing the

stage. The walls are wooden

lattice. The back of the stage

can open up for a full-sized

movie screen.

From where I satin the

small balcony, the theater

had little sense of intimacy,

visually or acoustically. Feng

shui-clueless cup holders

were strategically placed at

the base of seat backs, just

where you expected to put

your foot and just where

they will be the most annoy-

ing anytime someone bends

down to pick up a drink dur-

ing the performance. The

sound, as is a Toyota hall-

mark, proved clear and no-

ble, but it lacked corporeal

immediacy or strong bass.

Quiet passages had a lovely

delicacy. But a flute or piano

at forte could turn aurally

glaring.

Separating acoustics

from psycho-acoustics is al-

ways tricky with new halls,

and it was especially so on

Sunday. Barnatan used the

screens for brief recorded vi-

deo introductions to the

afternoon’s four works.

There the pianist and other

performers were big, as if in a

feature film, and the sound

was amplified. Then when

the musicians came on-

stage, seated behind a big,

blank screen (used with vi-

deo backdrop in only one

piece), they appeared di-

minished physically and

sonically. Plus, how much

more personable it might

have been for the pianist to

address the audience?

Barnatan’s program-

ming is a refinement of that

of the previous director, vio-

linist Cho-Liang Lin. Most of

the repertory is standard,

and most of the performers

are from elsewhere, includ-

ing the three distinguished

ensembles that will play all

of Beethoven’s string quar-

tets over three concerts.

New music is mostly segre-

gated to two programs cu-

rated by David Lang. That’s

where you find most of the

younger composers, Califor-

nians and a 50-50 mix of men

and women. The stage is

large, and Barnatan has no-

tably invited Mark Morris’

dance company to premiere

work.

Still, this is a festival, in a

border town and a village

overlooking one of the great

experimental music centers

that peers in one direction

only, toward the East Coast

and Europe.

The Sunday matinee ap-

peared on paper a promising

mixed bag. There were,

along with Barnatan, such

high-profile performers as

cellist Alisa Weilerstein, con-

ductor Osmo Vänskä and

three prominent young play-

ers: violinist Stefan Jackiw,

clarinetist Anthony McGill

and pianist Conrad Tao.

Debussy’s “Prelude to

the Afternoon of a Faun” was

performed in Bruno Sachs’

chamber version, for which

Schoenberg gave a hand

with orchestration. Much

was made in Barnatan’s in-

troduction and the program

notes about this as the open-

ing shot of the 20th musical

revolution. Vänskä, who

conducted, turned back the

clock asking for romantic ex-

aggeration.

Carefully sung by Su-

sanna Phillips, Ravel’s

“Trois Poèmes de Stéphane

Mallarmé” — which was un-

conducted and for which

Vänskä played one of the two

clarinet parts — proved,

however, exquisite. Balan-

ces were perfect, the hall

suddenly becoming an ex-

cellent place for concen-

trated listening.

The high points, though,

were meant to be Rachmani-

noff ’s Cello Sonata, with

Weilerstein rhapsodic and

Barnatan respectfully

understated, and George

Crumb’s “Vox Balaenae”

(Voice of the Whale), The lat-

ter, written in 1970 and in-

spired by a recording of

humpback whale song, is

music to save the oceans by.

Flutist (Rose Lom-

bardo), cellist (Weilerstein)

and pianist (Tao) are

masked and amplified. They

perform as if in a ritual. The

flutist sings along as she

plays. In Debussy’s “Faun,”

the flute portrays myth.

Crumb’s flute evokes the sea

before myth. The other in-

struments bring us up to

date dramatizing geological

eras. After around 20 min-

utes, the piece fades into

meaningful timeless noth-

ingness.

Here, though, the whale

voice was trivialized, as

though soundtrack to con-

ventional underwater video

imagery. The darkened

stage undercut the ritual-

istic nature of the masked

performers, who looked

smaller than minnows

against the screen. The am-

plification was grating

rather than illuminating.

Angelenos will take their

turn with “Vox Balaenae” at

Monk Space on Oct. 1.

Adding to the artificiality

of this performance, which

swam principally on the fins

of Weilerstein’s stunning

cello harmonics, was the

sense of disconnect from the

actual environment, lack of

context and occasion. This

was after all, three days after

Melville’s 200th birthday.

How amazing a community

concert, on a nearby cove or

ocean rock, this might have

been; it is amplified music

after all. If SummerFest is

going to bury its musical

head in the sand, it might as

well do it at the beach.

Change is in the air

SummerFest’s new artistic director and hall have promise, but there are kinks

FLUTISTRose Lomardo, from left, pianist Conrad Tao and cellist Alisa Weilerstein perform at the Conrad.

Photographs byGina FerazziLos Angeles Times

ATTENDEESon the Conrad’s outdoor balcony on Summerfest’s first weekend.

MARK SWED
MUSIC CRITIC

latimes.com/culturemonster

CULTURE MONSTER

THEATER

“Toy Story Tempest”

Family production

Actors’ Gang, Culver City

11 a.m. Sat.-Sun.

Free

MUSIC

“Play With Ray”

L.A. Phil with Ray Chen

Hollywood Bowl

8 p.m. Thursday

$9-$134

ART

“Sin Censura:

A Mural Remembers L.A.”

Natural History Museum

of L.A. County

Closes Sunday

$6-$14

THEATER

“True West’

VS. Theatre, L.A.

8 p.m. Fri.-Sat.

$20

THEATER

“Fefu and Her Friends”

Odyssey Theatre, L.A.

Opens 8 p.m. Saturday

Ends Sept. 29

$17-$37

5 DAYS

OUT

Highlights of the week

ahead in arts, music

and performance

If there were any justice
in this world, those hearing
the name Albers would ask
“which one?” rather than as-
sume a reference to Josef,
the painter, color theorist
and influential teacher.
The other Albers — Anni
(1899-1994) — hasn’t occu-
pied as much of the art his-
torical limelight, for the
maddeningly usual reasons:
She was a woman, and she
worked in a medium histori-
cally associated with craft
and utility more than art.
When Albers enrolled at
the Bauhaus in 1922, where
she met future husband Jo-
sef, she was steered from
paintingtoward weaving.
She proceeded to rein-
vent and vitalize the field
through her work, writing
and teaching, all of which
embodied vigorous experi-
mentation and respect for

ancient tradition. In 1949 she

was the first weaver to have a

solo show at the Museum of

Modern Art.

“Material Meaning: A

Living Legacy of Anni Al-

bers” at the Craft in America

Center in L.A. pays homage

to her spirit and methods.

The show features textile

work by 10 contemporary

artists (not incidentally, all

women), each piece anno-

tated with a few words about

its relationship to some-

thing Albers practiced or

taught. Personal state-

ments by each artist further

reflect on Albers as inspira-

tion and implicit mentor.

The show, guest curated

by Cameron Taylor-Brown,

is steeped in reverence and

spiked with formal ingenu-

ity.

What can be said of Al-

bers’ work carries over to

many of the pieces here,

most of them what she

called “pictorial weavings,”

meant for no other use than

visual delectation. Sculptur-

al qualities of texture and

touch fuse with the attrib-

utes of design — pattern,

rhythm, order and the delib-

erate, dynamic deviation

from it.

In her “Weaving No. 12,

the Leyland Collection”

(2016), Rachel Snack whis-

pers a small poem in char-

coal grays, an elegant decla-

mation in rhyming shapes

and subtle anomalies.

Brittany Wittman Mc-

Laughlin’s “Birch Bark”

(2016) square is an acute tac-

tile snapshot, an impression

of one remarkable surface

invoked via another.

In the exuberant “Para-

gon” (2017), Christy Matson

stages a dance of diamonds

across the woven plane, each

shape slightly twisted and

aflutter. The soft linen, cot-

ton and wool strands keep

company with a thicker,

reed-like brown fiber, identi-

fied as paper, whose asser-

tively different texture and

tempo enliven the surface

even more.

The Tate Modern re-

cently held a rare Albers

retrospective. “Material

Meaning” is no less earnest

and plenty enriching.

‘Material

Meaning:

A Living

Legacy of

Anni Albers’

Where:Craft in America

Center, 8415 W. 3rd St.,

L.A.

When:Tuesdays-

Saturdays, through

Sept. 21

Admission:Free

Info:(323) 951-0610,

craftinamerica.org

ART REVIEW

Tributes to Anni Albers have been woven in

By Leah Ollman

CHRISTY MATSON’Shand-woven “Paragon”

(2017) is an exuberant dance of patterns and textures.

Madison MetroCraft in America