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By David Amos
 SAN DIEGO—There are feelings of great anticipation and expectation when one is to hear in a live concert one of the great musicians of our generation. This is what took place on August 5, when the La Jolla Music Society presented the iconic pianist Menachem Pressler as part of its SummerFest chamber music series.
Anyone who is a classical music enthusiast, and of chamber music in particular, knows of Pressler and his legendary recordings and performances with the Beaux Arts Trio. My first live exposure to the Trio was during my student days at Indiana University in the early 70’s, when the famed ensemble was comprised of violinist Isidore Cohen, cellist Bernard Greenhouse, and Pressler. Although at that time I had already owned several LPs of the Beaux Arts Trio, the impact of hearing it on a live concert was certainly very impressive and memorable.
The LJMS promoted the August 5 concert as “An Evening with Menachem Pressler," featuring the pianist as a soloist and ensemble player, and all of us present at Sherwood Auditorium were treated to a study of artistry and musicality.
What makes a pianist such a legend? Yes, we all have our pianistic heroes, Horowitz, Rubinstein, Rachmaninoff, Michelangeli, Richter, and many others. There is also the younger generation of pianists and many of them are wonderfully gifted. After all, we may ask ourselves, what more is there than playing the right notes at the right time, at the right volume and tempo? Quite a lot more. We should not be impressed by an interpreter who simply plays loud and fast.
This is where great artistry comes in. The more familiar we are with the great pianists and the literature, the more seriously refined playing becomes obvious to us. We, as listeners, become more musically discriminating in hearing the subtleties of interpretation, the drama, the minute pauses between the notes, the shadings, the dramatic impact, and the overall message which the artist conveys when playing an instrument, or in singing, or conducting.
All of the above was gloriously done by Pressler. To start the recital, he was joined by pianist Orion Weiss, in the Sonata in D Major for Two Pianos, K. 448 by W.A. Mozart. This sonata has the freshness of youth, it is not bombastic or ostentatious, but it displays Mozart at his best, with direct, uncomplicated melodies, transparency, and purity of balance and form.
Music for two pianos is not easy at all to perform. I have conducted recordings in four albums of music for two pianos
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and orchestra. The necessary “meeting of minds” and coordination that is required to make two pianists, facing each other from a distance of ten feet, and attempting to sound as a single instrument is no small matter. But, as expected, Messrs. Pressler and Weiss, seasoned performers that they are, gave us a most satisfying reading.
Pressler continued the recital with Beethoven’s Piano Sonata in A Flat Major, Op. 110. He preceded the performance with a brief, but personal explanation to the audience on how important this sonata was to him in his early years; after leaving Germany and living in Palestine, later Israel, he was in frail health at the time, and the impact at his first exposure to this sonata was emotionally overwhelming. His vivid account of the work, which symbolized Beethoven’s four stages in life, Idealism, Hedonism, Regret, and Triumph, formed what I call an “artistic arch” which he so vividly communicated in his playing.
Considering that this is a fairly late Beethoven opus, it is not as harmonically daring as one would expect. Never mind the few technical and rhythmic glitches that took place. They all took a back seat to the artistry and beauty, which were impressive. The message is what counts.
But, the best was reserved for the second half, where Pressler was joined by violinists Cho-Liang Lin, Margaret Batjer, violist Heiichiro Ohyama, and cellist Carter Brey, in a masterful interpretation of Antonin Dvorák’s Quintet in A Major for Piano and Strings, Op. 81.
This is where the Pressler legacy was at its very best. This quintet is a magnificent work of chamber music, and I have always considered Dvorák to be one of the greatest composers of all time, someone deserving of far greater appreciation and recognition.
If you are not a seasoned live chamber music aficionado, you may envision a string quartet with piano as a source of puny, delicate sounds. Not at all! This was energetic, dynamic, colorful music which filled the auditorium with rich, and at times when called for, LOUD, dramatic sounds.
Under the spiritual and technical guidance of Pressler, every member of the ensemble was distinctly heard, and the overall sound was cohesive as a single musical unit. You could hear and see the master at work. Here is something that I do not say very often: There were many moments of musical magic, and this was the first program I have attended this year where a standing ovation was truly justified.
The evening concluded with a delicate and touching rendition by Pressler of a Chopin Nocturne.
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