Kneisel concert worth forgoing the outdoors

This weekend, one of my friends said that she couldn’t go to a movie because the weather was too beautiful. She just couldn’t justify being indoors. I felt the same way as I headed off to Blue Hill to hear a concert at Kneisel Hall. Afterall, these are the last days of summer paradise here in Maine. The last thing I wanted was to be indoors when the most spectacular of events was really happening outdoors.

But being indoors at the Kneisel Hall is at least as spectacular as being outdoors on a summer day in Maine. In fact, the setting of Kneisel Hall didn’t at all compromise the day. The concert took place in a central lodge, with many windows, dark wooden walls, and a stone fireplace. It was like being at camp and breathing in a bit of Mozart with the fine country air.

In fact, the small concert hall, which can seat just more than 200 people, swelled with Mozart’s Violin Sonata in B flat major this weekend. Violinist Ronald Copes stood fewer than three feet from listeners in the front rows, and with pianist Seymour Lipkin, brought the music right smack into the faces of everyone there.

It wasn’t just a matter of hearing the music, like at a larger concert hall. You could see every note in Copes’ lively face, and his performance was both spontaneous and commanding. In fine collaborative form, he and Lipkin surged with Mozart, and the music washed over everyone in the audience.

The authority and electricity of Aaron Copland’s crafty Sextet for String Quartet with clarinet and piano, left the audience rapt and breathless. Each wily beat, each keen turn of musical phrase charged the room with excitement. Pianist Tonu Kalam (who is also executive director at Kneisel Hall) explained that the piece was originally written for a full orchestra, but the bizarre rhythms were too ambitious for such an arrangement, so Copland transcribed it for a smaller ensemble.

But the score didn’t seem to daunt the Kneisel group, which, after 12 hours of rehearsing the prodigious sextet, played with fiery precision and unfailing spunk. Afterward, the audience stomped its feet and clapped the musicians through three ovations.

The final piece on the program was Brahms’ Piano Quintet in F minor, which was delivered with vigor, warmth and delicacy. The work was beautifully shaped, with just the right balance between pianist Victor Rosenbaum and the quartet, including the distinguished gathering of Copes, Roman Totenberg, Bernard Zaslav and Barbara Stein Mallow. It is a rare concert occasion when acoustic instruments are so loud that it feels as if you are inside the very notes themselves, but this was the case with this lusty quintet. Whether the strains were sweet or serious, you could nearly reach out and grab them.

But, of course, that is what makes Kneisel Hall so special. Throughout the summer, the work at this internationally known music camp takes on a life of its own. From distant studios on the campus, there is always a little musical something in the air. Even when you call to make ticket reservations, there is live music in the background.

As with the luxurious summer days in Maine, there aren’t many concerts left in the season lineup at Kneisel Hall. So make the trip to Blue Hill. Stay indoors and soak up the music.

The Kneisel Hall Chamber concerts will be performed 8:15 p.m. Aug. 10, 18 and 20, and 4 p.m. Aug. 15 and 22 at Kneisel Hall in Blue Hill. For tickets, call 374-2811.