Notes From a Curious Listener

"Our SummerFest Chamber Orchestra will make our little, intimate Sherwood Hall boom!", said Christopher Beach, President and Artistic Director, when I asked him why we have a chamber orchestra at SummerFest. As soon as he said it, I knew what he meant. Usually people have a preference between chamber music and orchestra. They either like the intimate sounds of one or the explosive sound of the other. But Christopher (he uses his first name with all La Jolla Music Society devotees) and I love both.

I love chamber music because it is so personal. I feel a strong connection with the 3 - 5 musicians who are playing so close to me. I can see how they concentrate, how difficult a piece is, who is the leader, and how they communicate. The best concerts are when the musicians are having so much fun that I feel like I'm peeking into their personal jam session.

Orchestras, on the other hand, are big, bold, even explosive. The music can blow me away with a big punch or pull me in with curiosity to see which instrument and sound will come forth next.

The first Sunday concert of SummerFest includes a World Premiere written by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. La Jolla Music Society is one of the commissioners of the piece. That peaked my interest; so, I started my research and quickly found that Ms. Zwilich wrote this piece specifically for the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson (KLR) trio, Michael Tree, and Harold Robinson, who will be playing it for the first time, for us!

K-L-R and Zwilich have a long history together. This is the fourth composition that she has written for them, and they have three CDs from 1996, 2002 and 2007. She said to Greg Stepanovich , writer for the Palm Beach ArtsPaper, that the relationship she has with the K-L-R musicians is, "a very family-like relationship, and I love them. I really love these people."

The composition that we will be hearing during SummerFest will also be played around the country including at the Kennedy Center in New York on February 14, 2012. That concert, like ours, will include the piece by Schubert that inspired Zwilich, the much-loved, Piano Quintet in A Major, D. 667, also known as "Trout". The Kennedy Center website describes the piece that we will hear as, "a typical Zwilich combination of emotional intensity and jazzy, frolicking fun. At its center is a bluesy Fantasy that toys with the famous Schubert theme, whimsically titled The Moody Trout ."

 Does the conductor matter? What more is required except good baton technique to keep the musicians together? While researching Nicholas McGegan, one of SummerFest's conductors, I have discovered great performances require a great conductor. A conductor must have his own interpretation of the music which thrills us, even though we have heard it many times. And, to motivate all 80 or so musicians to embrace his interpretation requires skillful leadership. The minute the conductor loses the respect of the orchestra, the concert and conductor are doomed to mediocrity.

So how do they gain the musicians' respect? McGegan uses a deep, deep, (did I say deep?) knowledge of early music, coupled with humility, humor and a mutual respect for the musicians. Being a flautist and harpsichordist gives him the musician's perspective. This quote from Eddie Geoghegan's website taken from the Irish Times, gives some understanding of McGegan's approach:

"Musicians are trying to get something right that's just difficult to do. Being a little martinet maestro does not help. Because everybody really is doing their best. And, some pieces are just very difficult. Having been on the other side of it all, I'm a little bit more sympathetic than some. Well, a lot more, I hope. One of the things I do work at very hard is trying to organize rehearsals so that you don't waste any time. And remembering that such and such a piece does have a triangle player in it, so that you don't keep him sitting around for three hours and then say, 'Oh we didn't quite get to your bit', because you can guess what his assessment's going to be."

My friend, Robert F. Ellsworth, died on May 9th. I was lucky enough to see him the week before - what a gentleman. At that meeting, he introduced me to someone by recounting my history and successes at length. That in and of itself makes him stand out as a gentleman, but it means far more after I read his obituary in the New York Times. His successes were on the world's stage. He was so very accomplished, but he spoke only of others' accomplishments, keeping his own to himself.

Bob, the informal name he always used with me, was a two-term Congressman from Kansas, worked for President Nixon, and was an Ambassador to NATO. I knew this and I was impressed, but not as much as I should have been. I didn't know that he was one of five people in Nixon's inner circle with the title, Assistant to the President. The big foreign policy misstep, continuing the Vietnam War, would have been avoided had President Nixon taken Bob's advice. It goes without saying that Bob's reputation remained unstained throughout the Watergate trials. In the last years of his life, Bob continued to shape our history, maintaining close contact with the most powerful people in the world.

I knew Bob as the gentleman husband of my dear friend Eleanor, who serves on the Board of the La Jolla Music Society with me. He was smart and had well-founded opinions on politics and foreign affairs. He did not avoid talking about politics in polite company. Instead, he discussed potentially divisive issues in a non-divisive, polite way - with respect and facts. An October 2008 article in "The National Interest" is a perfect example. Bob was the President of the magazine and Dimitri Simes was the publisher; but the two supported different candidates in the November Presidential election. Bob supported Obama despite being a Republican.

When my friend, Jim Banham, told me that he joined a classical music group that allows musicians to play to and with live audiences,I had to learn more.

I did an admittedly-perfunctory search on the internet and found these other amateur music clubs:

• Amateur Pianists San Diego
• America's Finest City Dixieland Jazz Society
• Mission Hills Folk Song Circle

I also read that there are many choral groups and some amateur orchestras in San Diego; but Scripps Ranch Music Club is unique in that it provides opportunities for its tenacious members to play as soloists and choose their own music. (I know they are tenacious because they continued to play even after their Mothers stopped nagging them. I quit playing bassoon and piano after high school and still regret it!)