Dissing Bach at His Own Festival

This past weekend, San Jose held its second annual Grand Prix. The streets of downtown were closed to let eighteen professional champ car drivers zip through the heart of the city. On race day (Sunday), I could hear the roar of engines all the way from south San Jose.

Competing against zippy racecars was the annual Gilroy Garlic Festival. Although I didn't attend, I could smell the "festivities" from Highway 101. Thankfully, I couldn't hear the singing from Garlic Idol, a new contest they held this year.

Because I dislike the crowds, noise and odor they generate, I usually avoid both events and have actually discovered that it's better to experience them from a distance, usually a distance measured in miles. It's what I like to call remote enjoyment.

So, this past weekend, we stayed away from San Jose and Gilroy and visited Carmel instead. We chose Carmel because we heard celebrities were attending Rupert Murdoch's conference in neighboring Pebble Beach and we thought there might be a chance of catching a glimpse of Bono or Arnold Schwarzenegger or Nicole Kidman or the Clintons around town, if they happened to tire of mingling on the links and decided to escape to Carmel's art galleries instead.

Okay, not really. We were actually there to attend Carmel's Bach Festival. Although, I must admit that it tickled my brain to think I might cross paths with Tony Blair or Al Gore if they happened to like classical music.

Anyway, it was foggy and muggy all day Saturday. There was so much moisture in the air that if I had a bottle of shampoo on me, I could have washed and rinsed my hair in the time it took to walk from the car to the cafe. As it was, I had to wipe down my glasses twice just to see where I was going.

We luckily found seating under an awning at the cafe to shield us from the mist and keep our books from growing damp. After finishing a salad, sandwich and cafe au lait, we wandered around a little before settling down in another cafe (across the street from the first one) for more coffee. The previous sentence covers about three hours of real time, just in case I gave anybody the impression that I was chugging coffee non-stop.

For dinner, we tried a restaurant called Sushi Heaven, which is located on Dolores, between 7th and 8th Streets. The sashimi was mouth-watering, the service was swift (even with a full house) and the prices were cheap by Carmel standards (or moderate by "real world" standards).

Afterwards, we walked a block over to the Sunset Center to listen to some music. Before every main concert, the festival offers a free twenty-minute concert, known as Tower Music, which showcases a brass sextet performing in the outdoor courtyard. Because of the misty conditions, the festival organizers moved the concert inside for the evening.

With the festival being called the Bach Festival, one would think most of the music performed (if not all of it) would be from J.S. Bach's vast body of work, but that wasn't the case. In fact, only two of the seven weekly concerts featured his music and even then, he had to share top billing with Mozart and Handel. It's almost as though the planners were intentionally trying to diss Bach at his own festival. Even the music played during the free concert wasn't written or inspired by Bach. Instead, we heard pieces by Ottorino Respighi.

Afterwards, we purchased tickets for Tuesday night's concert called Encountering Mozart - The "Aha!" Concert (aha!, not a-ha), which highlighted Mozart's music to honor his 250th birthday.

Jumping ahead to Tuesday evening, we drove to Carmel after work and dined at La Dolce Vita, a small Italian restaurant less than a block away from the Sunset Center. The food was so-so, the service was slow (they seemed to forget about us after serving the main course) and the prices were moderate by Carmel standards.

We arrived at the theatre about fifteen minutes before the concert began. I bought a souvenir program for five dollars and then we took our seats in the balcony, which isn't very far from the stage because the hall is cozy (read "not very big, but in a good way").

The program was a combination of arias (from Idomeneo, The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni) and symphonies (No. 36, 40 and 41). In between pieces, a narrator read selected letters Mozart wrote to his father and friends. The orchestra was small (roughly thirty members), but filled the hall with spirited music. The singers were also amazing. The standouts didn't shy away from letting their personality and humor show through, which added a sense of joy to their performance.

Carmel's Bach Festival is a three-week event that began July 15 and ends August 5 (this Saturday). So, if you're interested in listening to wonderful classical music by composers other than Bach, you still have two days to do so. As for me, I can't wait for the festival to return next year.