Immersive, one-composer festivals are proving to be the ideal way to come to an understanding that is more than recordings, pre-concert lectures, critics and books. And when such festivals are held in communities and venues where the artists can mingle leisurely and informally with the audience after the concerts, the musicians themselves find fresh inspiration and often seem to recapture the excitement of first playing this music which they love so much and which forms such a central part of their repertoire and instrumental DNA. So when the New Hollywood String Quartet came on stage before the concert started to thank the audience on behalf of all the musicians for their support at each of the previous seven concerts in their all Brahms Summer Festival in South Pasadena, it was clear that the feeling was mutual.
The Violin Sonata in D minor, Op.108, was magical from the start. Cho-Liang Lin eased into the opening bars, Rohan De Silva was discreet, with a rich Brahmsian sound, not heavy but rolling likes waves of beauty, playing as if the music were a religious sacrament; together they spoke through their phrasing to fashion a compelling narrative. After Lin's intoxicating double stops at the end of the third movement they played the Finale as if it were an old friend.
The Piano Quartet no. 3 in C minor, in which De Silva was joined by Cho Liang Lin, Che-Yen Chen and Paul Watkins, was considerably more intense, emphasizing its storm-tossed emotional range. Paul Watkins' solo opening the Andante was particularly eloquent and overall the performance was larger than life.