Music : A Long Way from Leipzig - Carmel Bach Festival

National Review, August 30, 1999 by Jay Nordlinger

These large concerts take place in the town's main auditorium, but many of the recitals are heard in the Carmel Mission, founded in the 1770s by the controversial saint-to-be Junipero Serra. This is a marvelous setting for music-making, and 11 o'clock in the morning happens to be a most satisfying time for an organ recital. The performer is Andrew Arthur, an Englishman, and although his fingerwork is faulty and his rhythmic sense imperfect, he acquits himself decently. He plays ample Bach, and also a fantasia of Buxtehude, the composer-organist who lit a spark in Bach. Every musical child learns (or used to learn) the tale of the young Bach hitchhiking-by wagon, presumably-some 200 miles to hear Buxtehude play.

Master classes-for singers, not instrumentalists-unfold in a program named for Virginia Best Adams. She is a cherished local resident, nearing 100, and the widow of Ansel. She was a contralto, he was a pianist (when he wasn't fiddling in his darkroom), and they were both patrons of the festival. In addition, an outside group is brought in now and then, and this year it is Chanticleer, an all-male outfit on the model of the King's Singers (though, at twelve, twice as large). They specialize in liturgical music, and their presentation has touches of genuine profundity.

Everyone, of course, loves a summer festival: The weather is nice, school is out, people are on vacation, and all seems well with the world. Yet one gratifying thing about music, of course, is that it has no need of external enhancements-it holds its greatness within itself. The Christmas Oratorio ought to be just as transformative on your Walkman as you hurry across Times Square as it is in the most sacred of spots-and it is.

Nevertheless, the Carmel Bach Festival is as gladdening as its name. It is executed at a high level. At its best moments, it is inspiring, restorative. We're a long way from Leipzig, but, oh, it's right, and Bach would have loved it.