San Francisco Classical Voice

Forced by its performance calendar, which began hard on the heels of the "delivery" of the renovated Sunset, the Bach Festival's managing director, Willem Wijnbergen, pushed to "tune" and use the LARES system immediately, even over the resistance of Bruno Weil. But in the run-up to opening night, Weil became so impressed by LARES that, according to Wijnbergen, he called it a "no-brainer." However, the most common complaint during the festival came from those patrons who said the fade time was too long, that it made the 700-seat Sunset sound like "the Grand Canyon" — as one wag remarked — resulting in a discrepancy between what the ear heard and what the eye saw. That reaction surfaced alongside the generally favorable impression made by the un-enhanced hall itself whose natural sound was bright and clear, but dry. The Bach musicians were generally pleased; not only could they hear each other with unprecedented ease, but they, as well as the audience, could every little detail, everywhere in the room. But, as soon became obvious, that included heavy breathing, coughs, rustled program pages and even whispered conversations. LARES only seemed to magnify this result. To some, it was "too much information."

Exacerbating the unease among classical presenters was the assurance that LARES could be tuned to accommodate the particular demands of each performer, from solo musician to full orchestra. Steve Barbar, the LARES principal, and the only one qualified to tune the system, delivered the setting selected by the Bach Festival in time for the inaugural concert. But on departing for his Massachusetts office, he was intercepted at San Jose International Airport and returned to Sunset for ten more days of adjustments. The city of Carmel picked up the tab of $10,000 for those ten days, according to Carmel mayor Sue McCloud.

Meanwhile, the idea of creating a separate entity to run the new state-of-the-art Sunset Center had been advocated in a report by an independent consultant commissioned to analyze and make recommendations on managing the facility. As a result, a 35-year veteran of administering cultural facilities, Tom Bacchetti, was installed as interim director of Sunset. According to Bacchetti, the city council formally took steps during its October meeting to negotiate an agreement between the city and the newly hatched, non-profit, Sunset Cultural Center, Inc.

The current Sunset season hosts appearances by the Juilliard String Quartet, Osiris Piano Trio, La Pieta baroque orchestra, pianist Andre-Michel Schub and clarinetist David Shifrin, violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg and the Assad Guitar Duo, Kronos Quartet, Prague Chamber Orchestra, pianist Dubrovka Tomsic, Amadeus Trio, radio star Garrison Keillor, the Skampa String Quartet and Los Angeles Piano Quartet. To date, none of the classical presenters has chosen to use the LARES setting selected by the Bach Festival last July. Instead, these users are making do with the bright but dry natural acoustics of Sunset Theater. Amy Anderson, president of Chamber Music Monterey Bay, put it this way: "A subtle and sensitive setting of the LARES would be very welcome by all the chamber music presenters, and possibly by the symphony as well. The only setting that has been established thus far, for the Bach Festival, is so false sounding — with way too much reverb — that none of us want to use it."

The Monterey Symphony, Mozart Society, Chamber Music Monterey Bay and Carmel Music Society — all of whom were forced to use other venues during the two-year renovation — are unanimous on this point. (The latter used LARES for half of the Prague Chamber Orchestra concert in October then switched it off.) All had high expectations, implied by various meetings called by Sunset Center during the past several years and, not least, by the touted and costly (c. $300,000) LARES system. Using Sunset for the first time this season, Ensemble Monterey and Youth Music Monterey likewise opted against using LARES.

The reasons for suspicion depend on whom you ask. They range from a puristic hostility toward any electronic manipulation, to an active dislike for the reverberant Bach setting, to a fear that the cost of any tuning will be borne by the user at $1,000 per day. As if to underscore the latter concern, by default, no one in Carmel government, including Bacchetti, is yet willing to deny or confirm that possibility. (Bacchetti does say the outcome of negotiations between the city and the new non-profit "should be clear in the next month.")

During a recent phone conversation, Steve Barbar referred to a 400-seat auditorium in the Boston area whose LARES system was tuned successfully to the satisfaction of most presenters of classical music, using large as well as small forces, implying something similar Sunset. But, he added, no one from Sunset has called him since last summer.

Acoustic consultant Dennis Paoletti, of Shen, Milsom and Wilke in San Francisco, came on board after it became clear that the roof-line of the building would not be permitted to go any higher than the original, meaning optimal interior volume was not possible. Paoletti argued, successfully, that acoustic enhancement was the only realistic way to achieve the desired sound of live music in the room. LARES was one of several systems he recommended. "We talked to every potential user," he said, adding, "Normally we would focus in on a few common settings. The Bach setting is kind of extreme." He also noted that the Monterey Symphony was the only presenter he knew of that had conducted physical acoustic experiments, including deploying the sound-absorbing curtains along the walls (intended for use by speakers and stage productions where a dry acoustic is usually preferred) and pushing aside the shell at the back of stage. Symphony executive director Joe Truskot explained that without damping the natural acoustics, the strings had a harsh, edgy sound. (He also complained that the above-stage mikes used by LARES picked up and amplified the sound of air-conditioner blowers.) Paoletti said he attended the November concert by the Symphony and that it "could benefit from using the LARES system."

Notwithstanding the uncertainty stemming from the yet-to-be-concluded transfer of Sunset management, tuning for the various users will require coordination between the user and a designated LARES technician. That means the performer will be expected to provide sufficient time rehearsing to allow an adequate range of tunings to be developed. The single most logical presenter for that kind of exercise is the Symphony, which typically conducts three rehearsals over two days in the hall. (The other presenters host a single concert performance that commonly includes a practice warm-up the day of the event.) Like the Symphony, Ensemble Monterey and Youth Music Monterey are producers, and could potentially coordinate their rehearsal schedules within a concentrated period for this purpose. It would seem most likely that tunings developed during Symphony rehearsals might give Truskot and company what they want, and probably would come closer to satisfying the others. At least a choice of something less that the "Grand Canyon" would give some needed encouragement to the currently frustrated classical presenters. In the meantime, it's hurry up and wait. As Paoletti puts it, "The city or Sunset Center has to take the lead."