Friendship formed in music

Friday, Nov. 2, 2007 | 7:41 a.m.

Who: De Ann Letourneau and Sandra Rivers

When: 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday

Where: Starbright Theatre, 2215 Thomas Ryan Blvd. at West Lake Mead Boulevard

Tickets: $25; (800) 595-4849,

www.sfsentertainment.org

De Ann Letourneau and Sandra Rivers are cutting up wildly in a second floor practice room at Southern Nevada Music Center. You can hear them laughing as soon as you step off the elevator. It's not what you expect from two pros rehearsing Beethoven violin sonatas.

But these are old friends. They have chemistry. One-liners and lengthy stories (with punch lines) flow easily between them.

The joking subsides and they run through the third movement of Beethoven's first sonata. Only an occasional smile and glance escape during the crisp performance. They're on to the sixth sonata, which is "so gorgeous" that Letourneau, concertmaster for the Las Vegas Philharmonic, promises "tears."

That's the joy of Beethoven's sonatas. No two are alike. The composer will have you skipping through a field one minute, then break your heart the next.

"They're all so different," says Rivers, a world-class concert pianist who plays with some of the best: Itzhak Perlman, Cho-Liang Lin , Joshua Bell and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. "Out of the 10 sonatas, it's hard to pick the one you like most."

The duo plan to perform all 10 in a three-part series, the first this weekend - Sonatas 1, 6 and 9 - in the Starbright Theatre in Summerlin.

The Saturday and Sunday performances are a delicacy. Las Vegas is not known for having a plethora of professional chamber music groups.

And Beethoven sonatas? You can't go wrong with the program. The pieces run the gamut of his career. You get the early, middle and late periods.

"Doing the 10, that's major," Rivers says. "You get the feeling of completion. No. 6 is rarely played. We're trying to figure out why. The slow movement is gorgeous. It's to die for. No. 10 is hard to pull off. It's a thinking man's work. It's ethereal, cerebral."

This weekend's recitals will be the first time in 10 years the two have performed together. In 1998, they played a Mendelssohn double. Rivers, who lives in Cincinnati, has collaborated with touring artists with the Charles Vanda Master Series at Artemus Ham Hall.

But don't call her an accompanist.

Letourneau learned this 20 years ago while attending a Salerno-Sonnenberg concert as a freshman in college. Rather than focusing on Salerno-Sonnenberg, Letourneau was transfixed by Rivers' "intensity and musicality" as she ripped through Brahms' D minor Sonata - causing the piano to roll slightly across the stage. That's when the concept of a solid partner clicked.

Letourneau finally met Rivers two years later when Rivers was working with Dorothy Delay at Juilliard, preparing students for lessons with the famous instructor. Letourneau, who won first place at the International Starling Violin Competition in Aspen, Colo., became one of those students and studied at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.

An unlikely friendship evolved between the two - Letourneau, a self-described prankster , and Rivers, a sophisticated professor. It continued when Letourneau became a musician with the Cincinnati Symphony, eventually becoming concertmaster.

In 1995 she moved to Las Vegas with her husband. Even though she and Rivers spend Thanksgivings together, finding time to perform has been a challenge. Rivers has been on tour and Letourneau has been busy with three young children. This year, everything worked out. In spring they will perform Sonatas 3, 4, 5 and 8. The final concert of the season will consist of Sonatas 2, 7 and 10.

Having chemistry on and off stage is invaluable.

"We're on the same page musically," Letourneau says. "It's like having a conversation with someone. Some people you can flow easily with it. With others, you're listening to the birds.

"That's the ultimate, playing with a friend who you can collaborate musically with."