In the otherwise excellent feature [”The Adventure Continues,” July 29, 2008] by Jason Victor Serinus on the Cabrillo Music Festival, in his discussion of the array of music directors in chronological order, you will notice that there is a gap between 1968 and 1970. Since I was a participant in the Festival of 1969, I would like to set the record straight.

That summer, the music director was Richard Williams and the orchestra in residence was the Amici della Musica Chamber Orchestra, then based at Santa Clara University. Since I was the piano soloist (Poulenc’s Aubade) with the orchestra, and a chamber music collaborator (Ravel’s Songs of Madagascar, featuring Mezzo Soprano Helene Joseph Weil) I want to point out the correction.

— Richard Sogg

Response

My thanks to Richard Sogg for his note. Since Richard Williams is not mentioned in the festival history posted at www.cabrillomusic.org, and Robert Hughes did not refer to him during our interview, I had no way of knowing that Williams was once connected with the Festival.

It seems that accounts from the two Richards differ from documents and information newly supplied by Ellen Primack, current executive director of the Cabrillo Festival. While Ellen was not connected with the Festival in 1969, she was able to speak to a former festival executive director and supply a history of the festival prepared for the 25th season anniversary program.
According to that 1987 account of Cabrillo’s history, the festival encountered financial difficulties in the late 1960s that caused cancellation of one week of the 1968 season. When Gerhard Samuel then left the festival, rather than go dark, the Cabrillo Festival administration asked Richard Williams and his four-year-old Amici della Musica Chamber Orchestra to replace the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra for the 1969 season. This “marriage of convenience” allowed the Cabrillo Festival to regroup and search for a new music director while providing Amici’s musicians with guaranteed work.

What the festival history omits is that Williams, who had to check his own archives to be certain, was actually appointed music director for the 1969 season. As he explained to me in an email, “My appointment was for one year since I had already accepted a position with an orchestra in the Midwest. From there I moved to London and conducted the BBC orchestras in Great Britain, came back to the States for five years to conduct the Virginia Symphony, and then returned to Europe where I was very fortunate to conduct and record with some of the world’s great orchestra including the London Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Leipzig, and the Royal Philharmonic.

I moved back to Northern California 10 years ago and still do some international guest conducting. I am currently the conductor of the Bohemian Club Symphony Orchestra.”

Bob Hughes, who was leading the search for the next festival music director, pointed to Carlos Chávez, whom he called “the top 20th-century musician of Mexico — the Charles Ives of Mexican Music.” Chavez accepted a joint commission from the Festival and the State of California to write a new work, the Symphony for Strings. The work was premiered at the 1969 festival, which Chávez attended at Williams’ invitation. The festival then invited Chávez to return in 1970 as the Cabrillo Festival’s new music director and conductor.

In addition to the Chávez premiere, the programming for the 1969 festival included the works Richard Sogg mentions above. Also programmed were pianist Leonard Pennario performing the Schumann Piano Concerto and Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, with Sogg as celestist, and Mozart’s overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio.

Once the current festival season concludes, and the staff can catch their breath, they will hopefully have an opportunity to revise the festival history posted on their Web site.

— Jason Victor Sernius

Note From the Editors

The appropriate changes have been made in the article to reflect the corrections noted above.

— The Editors

In the otherwise excellent article [”The Adventure Continues,” July 29, 2008] by Jason Victor Serinus on the Cabrillo Music Festival, in his discussion of the array of music directors in chronological order, you will notice that there is a gap between 1968 and 1970. Since I was a participant in the Festival of 1969, I would like to set the record straight.

That summer, the music director was Richard Williams and the orchestra in residence was the Amici della Musica Chamber Orchestra, then based at Santa Clara University. Since I was the piano soloist (Poulenc’s Aubade) with the orchestra, and a chamber music collaborator (Ravel’s Songs of Madagascar, featuring Mezzo Soprano Helene Joseph Weil) I want to point out the correction.

— Richard Sogg

Response

My thanks to Richard Sogg for his note. Since Richard Williams is not mentioned in the festival history posted at www.cabrillomusic.org, and Robert Hughes did not refer to him during our interview, I had no way of knowing that Williams was once connected with the Festival.

It seems that accounts from the two Richards differ from documents and information newly supplied by Ellen Primack, current executive director of the Cabrillo Festival. While Ellen was not connected with the Festival in 1969, she was able to speak to a former festival executive director and supply a history of the festival prepared for the 25th season anniversary program.
According to that 1987 account of Cabrillo’s history, the festival encountered financial difficulties in the late 1960s that caused cancellation of one week of the 1968 season. When Gerhard Samuel then left the festival, rather than go dark, the Cabrillo Festival administration asked Richard Williams and his four-year-old Amici della Musica Chamber Orchestra to replace the Cabrillo Festival Orchestra for the 1969 season. This “marriage of convenience” allowed the Cabrillo Festival to regroup and search for a new music director while providing Amici’s musicians with guaranteed work.

What the festival history omits is that Williams, who had to check his own archives to be certain, was actually appointed music director for the 1969 season. As he explained to me in an email, “My appointment was for one year since I had already accepted a position with an orchestra in the Midwest. From there I moved to London and conducted the BBC orchestras in Great Britain, came back to the States for five years to conduct the Virginia Symphony, and then returned to Europe where I was very fortunate to conduct and record with some of the world’s great orchestra including the London Symphony, Czech Philharmonic, Leipzig, and the Royal Philharmonic.

I moved back to Northern California 10 years ago and still do some international guest conducting. I am currently the conductor of the Bohemian Club Symphony Orchestra.”

Bob Hughes, who was leading the search for the next festival music director, pointed to Carlos Chávez, whom he called “the top 20th-century musician of Mexico — the Charles Ives of Mexican Music.” Chavez accepted a joint commission from the Festival and the State of California to write a new work, the Symphony for Strings. The work was premiered at the 1969 festival, which Chávez attended at Williams’ invitation. The festival then invited Chávez to return in 1970 as the Cabrillo Festival’s new music director and conductor.

In addition to the Chávez premiere, the programming for the 1969 festival included the works Richard Sogg mentions above. Also programmed were pianist Leonard Pennario performing the Schumann Piano Concerto and Schubert’s “Trout” Quintet, Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, with Sogg as celestist, and Mozart’s overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio.

Once the current festival season concludes, and the staff can catch their breath, they will hopefully have an opportunity to revise the festival history posted on their Web site.

— Jason Victor Sernius

Note From the Editors

The appropriate changes have been made in the article to reflect the corrections noted above.

— The Editors

Each week, I read every edition of San Francisco Classical Voice, or, if I am totally swamped with “stuff,” I glance through every title. Thanks to you, I feel connected to our Bay Area scene even when I can’t make it even to one performance a month, except for my own. The service you give to the community is outstanding. Thank you.

— Elena Sharkova,
 Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale
 Cantabile Youth Singers

You missed a fabulous concert from the Swedish Chamber Orchestra at Zellerbach Hall on Sunday, April 6. This group plays so well together they sound as united as a string quartet and equally full of musical surprise. And, pianist Piotr Anderszewski’s Beethoven Concerto No. 1 was the most musical, brilliant, and reimagined performance of that piece I’ve heard in decades. It’s really too bad that you didn’t have someone there for a review. The Schumann Symphony was so well-played by all the soloists, as well as the group, that a composer who can often sound jumbled flowed along with structural integrity and passion.

Thanks very much for your wonderful SFCV.

— Lynn Glaser

After attending the most enjoyable musical event that I’d been to in months, I was surprised to read Mark Wardlaw’s review “Earnest Eclecticism” [April 1, 2008] of the Switchboard Music Festival. His article began by comparing the music of the festival to music “that never would see the light of day beyond the halls (or black boxes) of academia.” It sounds like Mr. Wardlaw sadly missed the premise of the festival.

From the “excessive volume levels” (Mr. Wardlaw’s words) of the Inner Ear Brigade to the soft and subtle beauty of Christopher Adler, and from the traditional ethnic instrumentation of Robin Estrada to the cutting edge technology of Amy X Neuburg, this festival was focused on bringing voices that are normally excluded from the classical music world into the fold. For those of us who could recognize musical excellence in any genre, the results were spectacular.

As a final note, I feel compelled to point out that Mr. Wardlaw’s condescending tone (”endearing if not always satisfying”) belies his “respect for … colleagues who are committed to finding their own voices and new vehicles for musical expression.” His experience was an unfortunate and anomalous one at the event, yet may be indicative of wider opinions ensconced in the classical music world. Hopefully, the Switchboard Music Festival, and other events like it, will start to change opinions of what constitutes good contemporary music within the classical world. Still, if it does not, I am confident that this new music will find an audience eager to embrace it, no matter what genre they think it belongs to.

— Jacob Kramer

Remembering a Great

Regarding Music News [April 1, 2008]: Nice story. I just read it aloud to my husband, Dick, and we both enjoy the memories of our time working for the great K.H.A. Since I was in fund-raising, I had much less contact with him than Dick, who was a PR director for the San Francisco Opera. But, I remember when my in-house phone rang, I would tremble. No one called on that phone except K.H.A.

He once called to suggest that I have the donation envelopes stapled into the programs so they wouldn’t end up on the floor. But who would do that? Certainly not the ushers. So, I called the music department at UC Berkeley and the Conservatory and offered people who came in early to staple front row standing spots. It worked. Two who came and did that are still friends today: Mark Swed (music critic for The Los Angeles Times and radio host) who was ever faithful, and David Romano (a voice coach), not faithful, but ever interesting.

Thanks for jogging the memories.

— Peggy Houdek

Thanks

I really look forward to Heuwell Tircuit’s reviews. I guess it because I lived in the Bay Area and remember reading his reviews in The Chronicle. Thank you so much for that.

— Virginia Vernon

Regarding the March 25 review of the “Pauline Viardot and Friends” concert: An excellent account of a wonderful evening. I regretted that local soprano Marta Johansen, who was present in the audience, was not invited to share the applause. She had done lengthy research and presented a program about Pauline Viardot a few years ago, together with Donald Pippin, I think. Her translations were acknowledged on the printed program, but not her biography and photo. A sad oversight.

One spelling correction: Terry McEwan, formerly of London Records, and general director at San Francisco Opera.

— Stephanie Smith

We (All) Stand Corrected

The spelling has been corrected in the article, although it turns out the name is actually spelled McEwen.

— The Editors

Regarding your review and News item on the Cypress String Quartet’s concert: We really had a great time with this year’s “Call & Response” concert and the preceding outreach — it’s wonderful to see that the students and general audience alike responded so well to our program. I think that placing the music in historical context through our outreach visits provided a deeper understanding about the composers and their music and made it all the more compelling and interesting to our student audience members. We’ve already begun planning the 10th anniversary edition of “Call & Response” and we’ll be sure to keep you posted as we finalize details.

SFCV is doing a great job covering the extensive classical music offerings in the Bay Area. The service you provide is invaluable!

— Todd Donovan, Executive Director, Cypress String Quartet

Thank you for including in Listeners’ Box the response from the artistic director of Sacramento Opera to Janos Gereben’s review of Turn of the Screw. Upon browsing through the current issue I would not have seen his remarks had they appeared elsewhere in SFCV or if they had been attached to a previous issue’s article. The hot link, which allows the reader instantly to access the review under discussion, is a marvelous feature.

— Stephanie Smith

Instrumental Matter

Like Ms. Dudley, I also enjoyed Dawn Upshaw and eighth blackbird’s performance, and I enjoyed reading the review. I have one correction, however. An ondes martenot is not the same thing as a flexatone, although they can make similar sounds. The former is electronic and the latter is mechanical. The flexatone’s sound is made by the physical shaking and bending of a small metal sheet that is struck in quick succession by two attached, hard mallets. It’s a deceptively small and simple device. In the Hartke piece, the pianist was apparently striking the metal with a small mallet instead of shaking the instrument. While striking it, she changed the tension on the metal sheet, and therefore the pitch changed. Here are some sources for the ondes martenot and the flexatone.

Keep up the good work. I enjoy your publication immensely.

— Mary Eichbauer

Correction

The article now stands corrected. Thank you to our ever-vigilant readers.

— The Editors

Thank you for your kind words about our current production of Turn of the Screw at the Sacramento Opera. I’d like to address your concerns about possible hidden amplification. We planned from the outset to amplify Miles out of the sheer necessity to ensure that an unchanged voice would be heard in our second balcony, and our tech staff did its best to keep his level at that of Flora so as not to stick out of the texture.

The only other character who had a microphone was Quint, and only in two brief instances (once in each act) where we wanted his sound to emanate from a source that wasn’t the stage to enhance the ghostly effect of these two scenes. In each instance he was “amplified” (redirected is a more apt description) for no more than 30 seconds. We are blessed to work in a theater whose acoustic works best for opera. Balance within the pit, and between pit and stage, is generous to singers, who then are able to fully explore the dynamic range of their characters without fear of having to oversing.

— Tim Rolek, artistic director, Saramento Opera

Missing Out

I was surprised to find that SFCV didn’t cover the Oakland East Bay Symphony’s performance on Friday, Feb. 22, 2008. This was my first opportunity to enjoy a concert that focused on the Chinese and Chinese-American contribution to classical music. As far as I’m concerned, it was well-programmed, well-rehearsed, and presented with an air of respect and professionalism. Noteworthy performances were given by Ward Spangler, who gave the performance of a lifetime in Tan Dun’s Water Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra, and Jiebling Chen, the first erhu virtuoso I’ve heard, who was outstanding in John Jang’s Chinese American Symphony.

I know it’s impossible to be everywhere at once, but in this case, you missed one of the most significant and memorable performances of the season.

— William Harvey

I wish you would return to the Letters to the Editor column. The current “responses to a specific article” segment does not serve the same needs. I am an avid reader of other readers’ opinions where a great variety of subjects are discussed. I rarely scroll back to previous columns to see what responses they may have engendered. Also, without a letters section readers have no place to bring up subjects that have not already been aired by one of your writers.

Why did you choose not to cover the simulcasts from the Met? Several people I have spoken with were unaware that they were playing in their local movie house.

By the way, one of my favorite sections is Janos Gereben’s wide ranging column on general news of the performing arts. I also enjoy reading his comments on performances that have been covered by other reviewers in the main section.

Have you considered adding a tickets-for-sale section? A ride-sharing column? Other music connected want ads? OperaBob’s newsletter served a useful purpose and seems to be defunct now. These could be subscribers only benefits.

— Stephanie Smith

[The Editors Respond: Listeners’ Box never went away; we just get few letters now sent to the editor@sfcv.org address since adding the comments feature to the Web site. While we and many readers prefer to post article-specific comments on the relevant article page, other comments and letters can always be sent to editor@sfcv.org address for inclusion in Listeners’ Box.]

Thanks to U2, and You Too

Greetings from Chicago. I just had to say you put the biggest smile on my face, expressing your awe of U2 3D. I don’t know if I’ll fight the crowds to see it, but you never know. All said, I must admit to being a huge U2 fan.

In fact, when one admirer asked what I did to prepare backstage for an opera performance, I answered in all honesty: “I listen to U2.” Oh yeah — they’re even prominently displayed in my rock-n-roll altar. (Yes, I have one — not to opera, rock.) The last time I saw them live was 1992 at the Oakland Coliseum, smack dab in front of the Edge (guitar) in the front row. Call me crazy but the three players pay as much attention to each other as any chamber group.

I also enjoyed your props for Mariss Jansons. I scored tickets to one of his appearances with the Chicago Symphony. The draw had been Barenboim playing Brahms No. 2. What I wasn’t prepared for was Jansons’ Rosenkavalier Suite which closed the first half. Extraordinary! You almost didn’t miss the sopranos. At the end, I kid you not, it was a standing ovation — something I’d never seen before an intermission. I turned to a subscriber, asking him if this happens often at the CSO. He said he’d never seen it before. Oh, how I wish Jansons would take over for Barenboim.

— Judy Raddue

The Masters

Great article on the Conservatory’s master class schedule. Of course, I clicked on the Hampson account from 2002. That’s a terrific account of my boy — I printed it out. I had attended that one, I caught his class this fall, and I’ve seen him in New York, too. [I] also sprang for a Merola dinner in his honor in December. No wonder when he sees me he says, “You just can’t get enough, can you?” Nope, Tommy, I can’t. This fall’s class lacked one tidbit he almost always includes: a demonstration of his golf swing with its metaphor for hitting the ball/music to your audience. I missed that.

I also loved the way you described some of the reactions of his students to his coaching. That added a flavor to further let us be there, at least in our imagination. I remember how he dealt with Philippe Castagner in New York. He pushed and pushed Philippe on a point and finally the kid got it. The look on the young singer’s face went beyond “Oh, uh huh, I get it” to a long, faraway, introspective consideration of Hampson’s advice that told me Phillipe was considering this as a true epiphany. We’ll see come Sunday how he’s doing now, four years later.

How lovely of you to state how ” … the ’star’ disappears, the working-teacher taking his place. He wants no attention on himself.” I agree — he’s there for his students. I don’t have to tell you what so many people (Opera-L, I’m thinking here) believe the opposite. Remember the song assigned to him in the thread on autobiographical arias for singers: “Myself I shall adore”? Yes, he can seem into himself, but as a fan I can say that every time we’ve spoken, whether at opera events or encounters on the street, he has always treated me in a lovely, interested manner. And his students are often in awe of him.

Thank you — you made my day, Janos. On tomorrow’s “To Do” list: Call the Conservatory and get a ticket to Babs Bonney. I missed her master class offered through S.F. Performances a couple of years ago, and I really want to see her in action.

I don’t do ballet anymore, not much, anyway, unless it is affiliated with Mark Morris. But I uttered a noise when I read that one of opening night’s works had the Hampson recording of some Foster songs. Good — let those balletomanes have some operatic voices in their ears!

— Dorothy Shaw