Being Menahem

Aug 2, 10:06 PM

Following a weekend rich with superlative music making—capped by Menahem Pressler’s inspired Carte Blanche performance of works by Mendelssohn, Beethoven, and Schubert on Sunday night—Music@Menlo’s 2009 season enters its final week. Upcoming highlights of Menahem’s residency at Music@Menlo include Thursday’s master class (August 6, 12:00 p.m., Stent Family Hall), and the season finale, “Promise Fulfilled,” featuring the two Mendelssohn Piano Trios (August 8, 8:00 p.m., Menlo Park Presbyterian Church).

Monday at the festival features the summer’s final Cafė Conversation, “The Legacy of Isaac Stern,” led by Encounter leader Ara Guzelimian, with artistic directors David Finckel and Wu Han (12:00 p.m., Martin Family Hall). Another full day of Chamber Music Institute rehearsals and coaching sessions leads to the evening’s Prelude Performance, offering Mozart’s Kegelstatt Trio and Schumann’s Opus 47 Piano Quartet (6:00 p.m., Martin Family Hall). Concert Program IV, “Mendelssohn Perspectives,” welcomes pianist Gilbert Kalish back to the festival; having given the first and third of Brahms’s Piano Quartets in previous seasons, Gilbert completes the cycle on Monday night with the magnificent Opus 26 Quartet in A Major (8:00 p.m., Stent Family Hall).