Thursday Main Concert
by
Lyn Bronson
Approaching Sunset Center at 7:45 PM for the Carmel Bach
Festival’s Thursday evening main concert, the first thing I noticed was that
there were lots of available parking places in the lower parking lot and on the
street. And, sure enough, when the performance finally began a few minutes after
8 PM, there seemed to be between 200 and 250 empty seats. In a theater that
seats 716, this means the audience was only at about two thirds of capacity.
How do we explain the smaller audience? Well, for starters,
the Thursday evening concert is one of three main concerts that Bruno Weil
doesn’t conduct (Andrew Megill was on the podium), we are not hearing the full
Festival orchestra (only selected members), and we are hearing only the Festival
Chorale (not the full chorus and youth chorus).
So, when you add up all these factors: no Bruno Weil, no Libby Wallfisch,
no Andrew Arthur, no concertos, reduced orchestra, reduced choral resources, you
begin to get the impression they have called in second-string resources, with
the result being that fewer single tickets are sold, and even some ticketed
patrons choose this evening to take a night off from the Festival.
During the first 50 or so years of the Carmel Bach
Festival’s existence there was always a featured pianist who performed a Mozart
or Beethoven piano concerto and also a solo piano recital. These were popular
sell out events, and had there been a featured pianist performing a concerto on
this particular Thursday evening concert, I doubt very much whether there would
have been over 200 empty seats. However, the piano has been banished from the
Carmel Bach Festival, largely, we understand, through Libby Wallfisch’s
influence, and with every passing year it becomes more likely that it will never
return, unless halfheartedly in the period instrument guise of a weak fortepiano
that will look pretty on stage.
It is significant how little harpsichord music audiences
hear at the Carmel Bach Festival. Bach’s skill at the keyboard was legendary,
and he left us an enduring legacy consisting of the Well Tempered Clavier,
several concertos, six partitas, six French Suites, six English Suites, seven
Toccatas and a lot of miscellaneous, but no less significant keyboard works like
the Goldberg Variations, the Concerto in the Italian Style, the Capriccio on the
Departure of his Most Beloved Brother, the Chromatic Fantasy & Fugue, etc. If we
take into consideration that in any classical concert, probably half the
audience members have had some keyboard experience through traditional piano
instruction in their youth, we can guess that more performances of keyboard
works would be welcomed. However, the current emphasis during the Festival leans
in the direction of Bach’s larger works for chorus and orchestra, and smaller
ensemble works, often featuring period instruments. At the same time there is a
corresponding decrease in the amount of keyboard music being heard (although
organ is somewhat better represented).
By the time of the Thursday evening concert, audiences
attending Festival concerts since the opening concert last Saturday have already
heard, either in their entirety or as excerpts, seven Bach Cantatas, and the
present concert added two more, thus they may be feeling somewhat desensitized
to additional cantatas. So, the bottom
line was that the Thursday evening concert attracted a modest-sized audience and
gave us a feeling of déjà vu.
Although it churned along unremarkably
in its two cantatas and the Scarlatti
Stabat Mater, the concert finally came to life in the final selection,
Handel’s Dixit Dominus, and this was
a knockout! Conductor Andrew Megill marshaled his resources with distinction and
achieved admirable results with the instruments, soloists and chorale.
