“Wow! THAT’S what he meant!” - Beethoven & Bruno

by Barbara Rose Shuler

Over the last two decades it has made sense to bring in an astute colleague to help me with the coverage of the festival. Writer/editors Marilyn Power Scott of Santa Barbara and Gaila MacKenzie of Carmel and Europe have assisted me at different times. This year my mother, Loel B. Shuler, is attending the evening concerts with me and serving as collaborator. She is a writer and educator, whose writings have appeared recently in the journal of general semantics, “Etc.” She also published a book about an extraordinary travel adventure she made called: “Alaska: In the Wake of the Northstar.” She has a background in music, and has played the trombone. More about that later.

Bruno’s Bach Festival magic seems more luminous than ever this season and the ensemble likewise tuned to a higher frequency of excellence. Last night’s Heroic Beethoven concert was powerful, utterly fresh and revelatory.

Here are some comments she wrote for this blog on last night’s Beethoven experience:
“To be one of the fortunate ones to have the privilege of attending the stunning performances of the first two nights of Carmel’s Bach Festival makes one experience regret and sorrow that they are not filmed and recorded so that music lovers the world over might share the transporting emotional experience of these favored audiences. Saturday night’s Beethoven treasures, the Piano Concerto # 4 and the Eroica Symphony elicited a kind of “Wow! THAT’S what he meant!”

Not only does the audience experience a sense of reveling in new understanding but one sees the individual performing musicians reveling in the same awe-filled experience. As I overheard in the dazzled crowd leaving the Sunset Auditorium last night, “watching the body language of the musicians is like watching a ballet.” The sheer evident joy in their sharing of this musical high with each other becomes magic.

This music speaks to all the senses and is the most sublime of human language. Somehow Bruno Weil seems able to conjure that actual person who was Ludwig Van Beethoven and bring him into living presence. Amazing!

There was not a vacant seat in Sunset last night nor will there be next Saturday. As I say, how sad that we cannot share these moments with more than the fortunate few.

Perhaps the transcendent joy of creating with others who are the best of your profession is something of an everyday experience for the likes of Bruno Weil, Elizabeth Wallfisch and David Brietman. But for most of the musicians privileged to participate in the Fest it must represent an incredible gift. Being on the organic inside of such music is food for the soul.

Even just watching Wallfisch, who was nearest to him, as well as other orchestra members focusing on the virtuosity of David Brietman communicated a sense of what it is to be an active part of such moments.”
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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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