Heavenly Lengths

Aug 1, 08:26 AM

The festival enters the weekend on the heels of two memorable events: Friday’s Cafė Conversation continued the tradition begun by the late Michael Steinberg—a Poetry Reading Workshop for the Institute students and festival community—offered as a celebration of his life and spirit. The evening featured another landmark happening, as the Pacifica Quartet offered their signal interpretation of Mendelssohn’s Opus 44 String Quartets. Music@Menlo’s presentation of the complete Mendelssohn quartet cycle concludes on Friday, August 7, with the powerful Opuses 80 and 81.

Meanwhile, two other signature series of the festival continue this weekend. The young artists of the Chamber Music Institute have continued to impress, and their second week of coachings and master classes culminates in the next installment of Koret Young Performers Concerts on Saturday (6:00 p.m.) and Sunday (4:00 p.m.) at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church. The Carte Blanche Concerts also continue: Saturday night sees violinist Joseph Swensen and Jeffrey Kahane interpret the pathos of Brahms’s three Sonatas for Violin and Piano (8:00 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church); and on Sunday evening, Music@Menlo presents the festival debut of Menahem Pressler (7:00 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church).