Pianist Adonis Gonzalez

TENTH SEASON VOM FESTIVAL OPENER AT THE HANNA CENTER

Valley of the Moon’s ebullient Music Festival launched its tenth season July 11 at Sonoma’s Hanna Center, a last minute opening concert relocation from the Valley’s Bartholomew Park location due to the 100 degree weather.

Air conditioning was indeed needed for a select group of kindly doners and supporters of the Festival that often features quirky repertoire performed on conventional instruments in unconventional guises – gut strings, fortepianos, copious transcriptions. Things got going with a lavish pre-concert buffet (tasty empanadas) and Festival announcements by Board President Cindi King and artistic directors Tanya Tomkins and Eric Zivian.

Cuban American pianist Adonis Gonzalez was the featured performer in the 30 minute program, and through eight short pieces his interpretative mood was continually aggressive and frequently overloud. Hanna’s Hall has a flat tile floor and wide spread of seats, leading to minimal reverberation and often roaring sonority from the house piano’s bright top end. Well, the program’s music of Villa-Lobos, Teresa Carreño, Ravel and Lecuona seemed to demand the determined pounding Mr. Gonzalez gave it.

Highlights in the playing were Carreño’s Un Bal en rêve and four contrasting Lecuona works that closed the program: Ante el Escorial, Mazurka in Glissando, La Comparsa and Gitanerías. Here the pianist seemed to relax and gave the piquant pieces shape and a modicum of tone color, throttling back the volume and pace..

Two surprise and welcome program additions came at the end, both for violin – a lovely Carreño Romance and José White’s Zamacueca. Juliet Greer paired with Eric Zivian in the charming Romance, and Mr. Gonzales returned with violinist Jennifer Frautschi in the four-minute Latin flavored dance, the repetitive phrases in the piano line alternating with the svelte and swaying fascination of White’s innocuous piece.