Sedona Review This year's Sedona Chamber Music Festival a rare treat for audiences May 26, 2000 By Hans Lampl Special to Flare In their introductory remarks in the 16th annual Sedona Chamber Music Festival program, Jim Pease, president, and Bert Harclerode, executive director of Chamber Music Sedona, declare that "this year's Festival promises to be our finest." Seeing the members of the Pacifica String Quartet bounce down the aisle toward the stage and, before settling down to business, turn their beaming faces toward the audience, the sizable crowd knew that it was indeed in for a rare treat. Throughout their six concerts the young artists performed with remarkable consistency, keeping audiences virtually spellbound. Each has won awards as soloist and there never was a question of their meeting the often virtuosic demands of their repertoire, with plenty of facility to spare. They made gorgeous sounds, singly and together; even pizzicato throughout their respective ranges (notoriously ugly in the upper reaches of the violin) sounded rich and appropriate. Their grasp of the essentials of the style of each period and each composer was astonishing, and there was impeccable balance in chordal progressions and admirable clarity as well in the give-and-take of thematic interplay. On the whole, the musical fare of Festival 2000 was varied and well-balanced: works by three baroque composers (Bach, Handel, Telemann), two classical composers (Mozart, Boccherini), six from the 19th century (Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Weber, Dvorak, Foote) and four 20th century composers (Stravinsky, Gardner, Ligeti, Messiaen). There were no duplications whatever, which made for a rather heavy burden for the resident quartet, and two composers were represented by one string quartet and one string quintet each (Mozart and Dvorak). There was one piano quintet (Foote), one clarinet quintet (Weber), three string quintets (Boccherim, Mozart, and Dvorak), one piano solo suite (Bach), one trio sonata for oboe, flute and continuo (Telemann), four arias for mezzo-soprano (Bach, Handel), and one work for violin, cello, clarinet and piano (Messiaen). Sad to say, the remarks offered from time to time by various performers -- without benefit of amplification -- were lost on most of the audience (how would you like to sit through a variety show or even an "evening at the pops" without hearing a word spoken on stage?) Each of the guest artists proved impressive, adding substantially to the success of the festival. Oboist Allan Vogel and flutist Janice Tipton offered an exquisite Telemann trio sonata (from his "Tafelmusic," of banquet music), performed with extraordinary panache. Mezzo-soprana Jacalyn Kreitzer sang beautifully, displaying vocal warmth and richness along with a wide dynamic range and dramatic sweep. Antoinette Perry proved a resourceful pianist, contributing a beautifully shaped French Suite (the gigue made you want to get up and skip along), and playing the various continuo parts stylishly. Her accompaniment of Jacalyn Kreitzer's Handel arias was most convincing and made one almost forget the strings Handel had intended to complement the voice (so far, Chamber Music Sedona does not seem to have obtained a suitable harpsichord, therefore the use of the piano. It is to be hoped the problem will be solved soon.) Cellist Virginia Kron, originally from Flagstaff, and Evan Wilson, principal violist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, made one forget that they were not regular members of the ensemble and had merely joined the Pacifica for the occasion. Clarinetist Bill Jackson, after explaining that Weber treated the quintet like a concerto, seemed to underscore his view in his virtuosic performance by favoring dynamic extremes, to which the Pacifica Quartet provided a most elegant accompaniment. Jackson also joined pianist Rita Borden, violinist Simin Ganatra and cellist Brandon Vamos in a haunting, memorable performance of Messiaen's "Quartet for the End of Time," written in a German prisoner of war camp during World War II and first performed there on barely playable broken instruments. Borden, along with the others, captured the profound reverence and the mystical quality of the piece. In the fifth and eighth movements respectively, Vamos' cello and Ganatra's violin created a near-miraculous sense of flow and otherworldly beauty. The Festival began May 4 with a well-attended gala benefit at Sedona's El Rojo Grande Ranch, with tango music and an Argentine asado, a barbecue provided by food consultant and master chef Barron Unger. The following evening, the traditional free community concert presented the noted Peter Storn Jazz Project at the Red Rock High School auditorium. The large audience seemed both fascinated by the avant-garde cascades of sound emanating from the electronically boosted instruments and puzzled by the many simultaneous, seemingly unrelated, independent improvisations. All in all, it was a most satisfying Festival, made particularly enjoyable by the vibrancy, energy and loving devotion to their music and their craft of the members of the Pacifica String Quartet.