King Arthur’s Feast and The Mission Concert

King Arthur’s Feast for the Virgin Mary - The Mission Concert
by Barbara Rose Shuler

Yesterday evening my mother and I made our way to the Old World setting of the Carmel Mission for the traditional Wednesday night choral concert with its magnificent pageantry and cathedral-like acoustics. The festival hosts a delightful Mission Dinner each summer, this year boasting an Arthurian feast. Rima Mazzeo Crow, a friend from days of youth, catered the event with such distinctions as Pomme Dorys, Buds of Sallet, Fragisie of Fowle with Citron and Slit Sop. Very tasty indeed finished off with a Sweete Fruit Pye.

Events coordinator Ginna B.B. Gordon looked radiant and reasonably relaxed. This was good to see as we encountered each other earlier in the day, both frazzled to distraction. I was trying to deliver a time-sensitive phone number to an editor in order to get a photographer to the Mission for the story on trombonist Suzanne Mudge and Ginna was no doubt wrestling King Arthur into shape.

Bach Festival dinners have been without exception in my experience fun, delicious and educational. We sat at a table full of writers including San Jose Mercury News music critic Richard Scheinin and a lovely woman from Sacramento who turns out to be a sponsor, along with her husband, of Mudge’s Tower Music work at the festival.
It was a lively conversation as it usually is, touching on Bach, Alaska, the demise of the newspaper biz, economics, writing, festival stories, travel and more.

The Bach Festival’s Associate Conductor Andrew Megill spoke briefly and eloquently about the musical fare for the evening, a program of sacred settings to the Virgin Mary called Ave Maria culminating in a glorious version of Bach’s Magnificat.

After dinner we went to the courtyard of the Mission and listened to the trombones serenading. My mother had autographed a copy of her book “Alaska: In the Wake of the North Star” to Sue from a “recovering trombonist,” referring to a funny moment in their conversation for the Herald article, which will come out tomorrow in two sections, each with a different Shuler by-line.

Andrew Megill is a brilliant choral conductor. A few days ago a woman came up to me and said a patron wanted to know the name of a great American choral conductor and I said without missing a beat, “Andrew Megill” and meant it. When she looked a bit taken aback, I added, “Robert Shaw.”

Megill has lifted the choral sound of the festival to an impressive new level as last night’s concert showed. Unfortunately, due to the popularity of the mission concert and the shorter festival length this year, this concert is sold out.
Here’s an interesting related news flash from the festival PR department: “Public Radio International producer Malcolm Bruno from Wales and NYC is flying to Carmel to record Andrew Megill’s Mission concert centered on the Marian theme (Mark LeMaire, recording engineer from SF, will be joining him).

“This will be broadcast during the 2009 holiday season on 150 stations nationwide. Program host is Bill McGlaughlin. Carmel Bach Festival violinist and early music expert Cynthia Roberts will be adding solo violin to this broadcast. She will begin teaching in Juilliard’s new Historical Performance program in the fall of 2009.”

I hope we will have an opportunity to hear this recording. It’ll be a beauty!

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Insider's Tip: For those of you who have tickets to the Mission concert Wednesday or other recitals at the Mission, remember the seats are fashioned in a style that former Bach Festival associate conductor Bruce Lamott used to call “Vatican ergonomics.” In other words, bring pads to sit on if you want a more comfortable experience. The Wednesday concert especially may merit padding for some of you.
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Barbara Rose Shuler writes Intermezzo, which chronicles classical music, in the Monterey Herald's Go! Magazine each week. She can be contacted at wordways@comcast.net.
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