Bach by the Sea

In 13 years the well-to-do resort town of Carmel, Calif, has become a kind of Bayreuth of Bach. Last week Carmel again paid its tribute to the master with a full week of his music. A good many Carmelites frankly preferred the Shriners' circus in nearby Salinas. But those who gave Bach a try got preludes and fugues on the organ, cantatas, all the Brandenburg concertos and a few works by other 18th Century composers. The big event was two performances of the great B Minor Mass. It rated a B minus for Bach --the strings were uneven and the chorus occasionally mushy--but it deserved an A for effort.

The festival was started by two women, Dene Denny and Hazel Watrous, who went to Carmel for a vacation 24 years ago, and have been there ever since. They have sometimes lost money on the Bach festival, but make it up on a San Jose theatrical booking agency and a Monterey theater that they run.

The only paid festival performer among the chorus of 69 and the orchestra of 43 was Conductor Gastone Usigli. The chorus, mostly townspeople, had rehearsed weekly since September, but not until just before the festival did Usigli gather, orchestra and chorus together for an exhausting rehearsal. Says he: "Community singing is fine, but it is best for Christmas carols. A local chorus can do Gilbert & Sullivan, but the B Minor Mass--ah! that is another matter. I have to extract something from these young people that they never knew they had. Sometimes I think that if they make love the way they sing, it must be horrible."

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