http://entnews.com/ July 5th, 2006

Mainly Mozart Festival When pianist Jose Lopez was unable to perform (due to illness in his family) at theMainly Mozart Festival on June 18, Tao Lin, who has been a formidable keyboardpresence on South Florida’s music scene for nearly a decade, became the pianisticmember of The Dalberghi Trio. Lawrence Budmen

When pianist Jose Lopez was unable to perform (due to illness in his family) at the Mainly MozartFestival on June 18, Tao Lin, who has been a formidable keyboard presence on South Florida’s musicscene for nearly a decade, became the pianistic member of The Dalberghi Trio. In the intimate, civilizedambience of the ballroom at the Omni Colonnade Hotel in Coral Gables, these afternoon musicales are graced by the informative and urbane commentary of University of Miami Music Professor FrankCooper.

Tao Lin was most impressive in his solo offering – Haydn’s Piano Sonata No.50 in C Major. While Papa Haydn’s role in music history as father of the symphony and the string quartet has long beenacknowledged, his contribution to the keyboard sonata genre was highly significant. The large scalestructural patterns of the first two movements of the Sonata No.50 (the first of the composer’s finalthree essays in this musical form) were the genesis for Mozart’s creative surges and Beethoven’sreinvention of the piano sonata.

From the opening chords of the sonata’s initial Allegro, Tao Lin offered inspired music making. Asuperior classical stylist, he combined crisp articulation with impressive digital dexterity and command.In the Adagio, he illuminated Haydn’s wonderfully ingenuous interplay of modulations between majorand minor keys. In the Allegro molto finale he vividly captured the music’s capricious wit and sly humor. Tao Lin’s performance was replete with brio and élan. Here was consummate musicianship andsuperbly idiomatic musicality.

Mozart’s Piano Trio in C Major, K.548 was originally written for the standard combination of piano, violin, and cello. The work also exists in a version for clarinet (in place of the violin part). This rarelyheard transcription was gamely tackled by The Dalberghi Trio. Differences between violin and clarinetabound. Mozart’s melodies take on a greater melancholy aura in this version. The clarinet writing isclose to unplayable. Richard Hancock, principal clarinet of the Boca Raton Philharmonic Symphonia,was a hard working, musically subtle protagonist. Susan Moyer (like Hancock, a former member of the Florida Philharmonic and now a member of the string section of the Boca Symphonia and NaplesPhilharmonic) played the cello part with resonant tone and flair. Tao Lin made a lively pianisticcontribution. The concluding Allegro was played with appropriate lilt and grace. These hard workingartists deserve kudos for playing this edition – an interesting footnote in the Mozartean oeuvre.

The Dalberghi Trio’s traversal of Johannes Brahms’s great Clarinet Trio in A Minor, Op.114 wouldhave benefited from additional rehearsal. While the outlines of a strong performance were present, theartists were not always artistically cohesive. Tao Lin offered strongly dramatic pianism in the grandromantic manner. Hancock’s clarinet line was more restrained, less emphatic while Moyer’s cello was coolly precise. This late Brahms work is remarkably passionate, glowingly autumnal music. TheDalberghi threesome was at their best in the third movement Andantino grazioso. Here they brought tolife much of the lilting poignancy of Brahms’s inspired, unforgettable waltz-like motif. For that glowing moment, time stood still and the music’s inspired sentimentality glowed anew. That kind of experienceis what makes the Mainly Mozart Festival indispensable to South Florida’s musical life.

F or more information, visit www.mainlymozart.org.