San Francisco Classical Voice

SEBASTOPOL, CA - No, not the town on the Black Sea, made famous by the Crimean War. The Petersen String Quartet's performance of Shostakovich's 1973 Quartet No. 14 took place Saturday night in this Sebastopol, just a few miles from Santa Rosa. The chamber of commerce says this is a "small semi-urban community," which may well mean just another place in the country, but this Russian River town of 8,000 knows what great chamber music is, how to get it and what to do about it.

Where once Miwok and Pomo Indians lived, where apple was king for much of the past century, the Redwood Arts Council obtained the services of violinists Conrad Muck and Daniel Bell, violist Friedemann Weigle and cellist Jonas Krejci, the night before they were due in Berkeley's Hertz Hall to play the same program of Haydn, Beethoven and Shostakovich. Rural, suburban or whatever, town folk filled the 240-seat charmingly simple United Methodist Church, with excellent acoustics for a glorious performance unfolding under the Cross covered by an enormous piece of burlap for Lent.

A rewarding evening was made even more challenging by applying the Hampson Principle to the concert. At Thomas Hampson's last recital with San Francisco Performances, the baritone asked the audience to listen to the music with the lights turned all the way down, so they wouldn't be distracted by reading the program. The Redwood Arts Council went Hampson one better by not having any program notes at all — no information, no explanation, no distraction.

It certainly made for an unusual concert experience, albeit one I'd prefer not to repeat. I am similarly of two minds about the knowledgeable ruffian who, recognizing the last bar in the rarely-performed Shostakovich, exploded with an fff "BRAVO!" even before the music ceased, a crashing case of inconsideration for the musicians (who looked startled and not pleased), the audience and the music. Otherwise, the audience was quiet and attentive, and celebrated the performances of each of the three works lustily.

The 20-year-old series has presented some 200 events, including recitals by Bonnie Hampton, Robert Mann, Nathan Schwartz, as well as the Alexander, Mendelssoh, Stanford and Kronos quartets. Upcoming Redwood Arts Council chamber-music concerts include the Amsterdam Loeki Stardust Quartet on March 23 (United Methodist Church), the Gamelan Sekar Jaya on April 27 (Jackson Theater, Santa Rosa), and the Artaria String Quartet on June 9 (Occidental Community Church, the usual venue for the series.) For information, see www.redwoodarts.org.

(Janos Gereben, a regular contributor to www.sfcv.org, is arts editor of the Post Newspaper Group. His e-mail address is janos451@earthlink.net.)

©2001 Janos Gereben, all rights reserved