Music@Menlo explores ‘Wind Variations’

Beethoven’s Serenade in D, Op. 25, is an extraordinarily lightweight work for flute, violin and viola, with no lower-sounding instruments at all. It’s more expansive than the Haydn but otherwise similar: brief movements that end abruptly, much repetition, sudden humor in tempo changes or unexpected loud noises. It made for pleasant listening if it wasn’t expected to go anywhere or do anything.

Mozart’s Serenade in E-flat, K. 375, builds on Haydn’s instrumentation with more success. Mozart adds two clarinets, unavailable when Haydn wrote, for a more flexible melodic line than the oboes. He teaches his horns and bassoons to play melodically also and has them hold fuller chords than Haydn when they’re not. Mozart is also a supreme melodist. This work is consistently beautiful and not just pleasant or charming.

Saint-Saëns’s Tarantelle in A Minor is a trio for flute, clarinet and piano. It’s a whirling piece that’s light and effervescent rather than dramatic. It was an appropriate work for the young Saint-Saëns to give to the opera composer Rossini to pass off as his own until Rossini’s sycophants praised it and Rossini could catch them out by revealing that he didn’t write it at all.

Bartók’s Contrasts is another trio. Classical violinist Joseph Szigeti and jazz clarinetist Benny Goodman asked Bartók for a work they could perform together. Bartók pairs them with a piano part that he sometimes played himself. The result mixes Hungarian folk music with jazz figurations and enough classical modernism to keep things interesting. It’s hardly beautiful but it has more substance than the rest of the concert combined.

Whatever the quality of the music, the quality of the performances on Sunday was just superb. Every piece emerged with perky dedication and a commitment to whatever the score was offering, whether charming pleasantries or modernist substance.

Top honors go to the Beethoven trio of flutist Sooyun Kim, violinist James Thompson and violist Paul Neubauer. They combined with wit and delight. All have played at Menlo before and Neubauer is a particularly prolific veteran here, as are pianists Gilbert Kalish in the Bartók and Hyeyeon Park in the Saint-Saëns.

The other performers are all also excellent and renowned. Hornist Mark Almond and bassoonist Steven Dibner are both members of the world-class San Francisco Symphony. The other hornist, Kevin Rivard, belongs to the San Francisco Opera Orchestra. Oboists James Austin Smith and Stephen Taylor are co-principals in the illustrious Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Equal honors go to bassoonist Peter Kolkay, clarinetists Romie de Guise-Langlois and late substitute Bixby Kennedy plus violinist Kristin Lee in the Bartók.

The only flaw in the concert was a high-pitched whine that probably came from some listener’s hearing aid. It caused several minutes’ delay at the start and, so far as I know, was never quite tracked down to its source.

Listeners who wanted more strings in their music could have been completely satisfied by the two Beethoven works in the Prelude concert in Menlo’s Martin Family Hall that preceded the mainstage event. Young professionals from the festival’s International Program gave sizzling and dynamic performances of Beethoven’s String Trio in G, Op. 9 No. 1 and a special treat, a Quartet for Piano and Strings in E-flat that’s the little-known alternative version of his Op. 16 piece for piano and winds. I had already heard the Quartet at the previous day’s Prelude concert and it sounded even better on the repetition.

The Music@Menlo festival continues through Saturday, Aug.6. At press time, tickets were still available for the mainstage concerts. Prelude concerts are free and tickets are released at 9 a.m. on the day of the event. Menlo requires vaccination certificates and masks to be worn indoors at all times. For listeners who cannot or do not wish to attend in person, limited-period video passes to the mainstage events are available. Details are at musicatmenlo.org.