Returning to Mozart

Jul 21, 12:38 AM

The vibrant violinist and educator Ian Swensen led the first master class of the season on Monday, lending his sharp-witted insights on the music of Brahms and Mozart to the young artists of the Chamber Music Institute. The payoff came at the evening’s Prelude Performance, as International Program clarinetist Romie de Guise-Langlois and the LK String Quartet took Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet from master class to Martin Family Hall; Mendelssohn’s Opus 1 Piano Quartet started the program, with pianist Fan-Ya Lin at the helm. The evening’s mainstage performance offered more Mozart and Mendelssohn: bassist Scott Pingel joined the St. Lawrence String Quartet in Mozart’s compelling Adagio and Fugue; and the International Program artists teamed with their mentors in another youthful Mendelssohn work, the sinewy C minor Sinfoniesatz.

Tuesday at the festival features the first of this summer’s provocative Café Conversations: “Audience Engagement in the Age of Digital Media,” a panel discussion moderated by American Public Media Senior Producer Brian Newhouse. In the evening, the Grammy Award-winning Pacifica Quartet makes its eagerly anticipated Music@Menlo debut, offering Mendelssohn’s first three string quartets (8:00 p.m., St. Mark’s Episcopal Church).