REVIEW: La Jolla SummerFest’s Imaginative Programming Soars in ‘Conversation Across Centuries’

August 29, 2026

Conversation Across Centuries heralded Friday’s La Jolla SummerFest concert. In truth, I noticed three such conversations suggested by the program.

Irish tenor Robin Tritschler opened the concert with a set of five art songs based on William Shakespeare texts by composers who spanned several centuries: from the Classical era’s Joseph Haydn to Ralph Vaughan Williams to the late Finnish modernist Einojuhani Rautavaara. Vaughan Williams composed his orchestral Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis in 1910 based on a hymn that Tallis published in a 1561 English Psalter. And early 20th-century Norwegian composer Johann Halvorsen took a rather plain keyboard passacaglia from G. F. Handel’s Suite in G Minor, Op. 7, and expanded it into a bravura, dramatic etude for violin and viola.

Tritschler’s polished, probing art songs proved that every musical style can successfully rise to the challenge of great poetry. The 25 strings of the SummerFest Orchestra demonstrated how a simple modal Renaissance theme helped free Vaughn Williams from the harmonic clichés of post-Wagner Romanticism, launching his career as a leading modernist of the early 20th century. Halvorsen’s Passacaglia suggested to the audience at The Conrad that more of this composer’s work should be heard.

Tritschler’s chaste vocal declamation undersold Haydn’s “She Never Told her Love.” Fortunately, he found more vibrant colors and brighter declamation for the effulgent lines of Vaughan Williams’ “Orpheus with his Lute.” The tenor’s ebullient take on Roger Quilter’s “O Mistress Mine” proved winning and set up Rautavaara’s rousing “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?” Unlike a certain ethnic stereotype, this Finn evoked an exuberant, circus like atmosphere for this well-known sonnet. Benjamin Dale, a little-known, urbane British composer of the last century, fused empathy and gravitas in his setting of “Come Away, Death” (a well-known soliloquy from Twelfth Night) and added a suave viola descant played with grace by Hsin-Yun Huang. Each song benefitted from pianist Inon Barnatan’s eloquent and often impassioned realizations of the keyboard score.

Beethoven’s “Ghost” Piano Trio in D Major, Op. 70, No. 1, gets its nickname from the mysterious center movement, marked by the composer “Largo assai ed espressivo.” Pianist Jonathan Biss, violinist Benjamin Beilman, and cellist Nina Lee gave a sumptuous account of this beloved Beethoven work. I was particularly impressed with the deep, velvet sonority Biss coaxed from the Steinway and the unrelenting drive of his themes in the brilliant outer movements, a virtue shared by both Beilman and Lee.

Violinist Stephen Waarts and violist Timothy Ridout gave an aptly athletic yet meticulously detailed account of Norwegian composer Johann Halvorsen’s Passacaglia for Violin and Viola (after Handel).

Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, arguably his most cherished opus—at least on this side of the pond, is richly scored for two string orchestras plus a string quartet. The 25 strings of the SummerFest Chamber Orchestra covered all of these parts, but I thought this ensemble simply was not large enough to project the grandeur of Vaughan Williams’ work. In its more intimate moments, however, we were blessed to experience eloquent, soaring solos by Concertmaster James Ehnes answered by or paired with equally compelling themes by violist Jonathan Vinocour.

This concert was presented by the La Jolla Music Society on Friday, August 28, 2026, in The Conrad’s Baker-Baum Concert Hall.