Camerata Bern’s ‘Untrendy Heresies’

By current concert standards, the Camerata Bern commits a number of untrendy heresies.

No, it’s not that the 15-member Swiss ensemble plays without a conductor. Several groups work that way now. And that’s an old-fashioned concept anyway. The Camerata’s first fiddler serves as the conductor, just as the concertmaster did in the days of Gluck, Handel and Telemann.

Nope, the Camerata’s heresies are different.

Bucking recent trends, these musicians make no apologies about playing old works on modern instruments. They do not try to be sticklers about “authentic” Baroque performance practices. And, horror of horrors, they prefer Bach keyboard concertos on the piano, not the harpsichord.

Quick, grab the smelling salts for the purists. . . .

To make matters worse, the group ventures into surprisingly unorthodox mix of repertory. On Thursday, it will play works by John Dowland, both J.S. and C.P.E. Bach, Schoenberg, Zoltan Kodaly and Heinz Holliger at the Orange County Performing Arts Center in Costa Mesa. The program is sponsored by the Orange County Philharmonic Society.

And for such transgressions, the group has taken some flak from critics.

“Yes, but we just don’t care,” concertmaster Thomas Furi said in a recent phone interview from Bern, Switzerland. “We like Bach concertos very much in the piano version, although we also have used the harpsichord. . . .

“We don’t like the sound of Baroque historical instruments. Modern instruments sound to my ear better than so-called Baroque instruments--most of which were built in the last 10 to 15 years anyway.”

Furi calls the “authenticity” movement “very snobbish.”

“I am absolutely convinced that it all is a question of fashion,” he said. “Right now, many people in the Baroque movement have found a very tricky way to sell their records. In 10 years, we’ll look back and say, this was a fashion, it was quite good, it was helpful, it made things go on. But it’s a matter of people who see how business goes . . . .”

He said: “If you play music that way, you should change many other things, too.”

Those who insist on authentic-performance practices, for instance, “should never play in a big hall with 2,000 to 3,000 people because the music was never meant to be heard like that. We don’t believe in this kind of philosophy where you drive everything back to the state of that time. In that case, we should also change our clothes and everything.”

In contrast, the ensemble tries to “create a personal style, which is certainly influenced by certain tendencies today.

“We listen regularly to new recordings and we try to let ourselves be inspired by certain things--the transparency of the playing or the liveliness of the dance movements.”

And especially by singers. “I’m quite inspired by that,” Furi said.

“We try to find a common-sense answer, to do what we think is the most natural. But it is hard to say what is natural. All these questions we have no definite answer for. We have certain convictions, and two years ago, we may have had slightly different convictions. Times change, but we grow. . . .

“Of course, I’m leading the whole thing, but in preparing the music, everybody can give his opinion. We’re democratic, as far as it’s possible.”

Furi called the variety of the program in Costa Mesa “typical for us.”

“We like very much to play a variety of styles within the same evening--because it’s fun for us. And, I think, for us, individual styles improve. They get more profile. When you play a modern piece after a Baroque piece, the two styles have more shape somehow. It’s a personal conviction.”

Furi joined the Camerata in 1967, when he was 20. “I was the youngest member then,” he said. “Now I’m 42 and by far the oldest.” He took over as concertmaster in 1979, returning after a departure to pursue solo work, other opportunities as a concertmaster and teaching.

He said that the ensemble, which operates on a yearly budget of about $370,000, gives between 40 and 50 concerts a year in Switzerland, makes several recordings and usually tours in Scandinavia and Germany. The group also tours the United States and beyond about every three years. (It was last in California in 1986.)

But that is not enough to live on, he says.

“Even if we were doubling the number of concerts, you could not make a living,” he said. “That’s why the group is directed to young musicians, before they get other jobs. The average age is 30 to 32 . . .

“To earn enough money to live, they have to teach or play in other ensembles. Often it is a problem for us to combine all that, to find the time to rehearse. People are not always in the same town, mainly around Bern. It is difficult. But it creates a certain spirit of idealism.

“The musicians stick together. They feel that somehow it’s worth it to do work like that together, maybe just because we’re not so well paid. In music, it is dangerous if people are too well paid. People get lazy.”

The Camerata Bern, led by concertmaster Thomas Furi, will play music by J.S. and C.P.E. Bach, John Dowland, Schoenberg and other composers at 8 p.m. on Thursday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center, 600 Town Center Drive, in Costa Mesa. Soloist will be pianist Emile Naoumoff. The concert is sponsored by the Orange County Philharmonic Society. Tickets: $8 to $25. Information: (714) 646-6277.

MORE ON THE PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY SCENE: Gail Eichenthal is first up today to start a five-part Orange County Philharmonic Society-sponsored lecture series on classical music. Her topic: “Describing the Indescribable: Talking about Classical Music.”

“This is a very personal talk,” Eichenthal said in a recent phone interview. “In a sense, this is a credo of a classical music broadcaster--(talking about) the things that are impossible about the job and the things that make it incredibly rewarding.”

Eichenthal will focus on several works she calls “pivotal”: Mahler’s 10th Symphony, Debussy’s “Prelude a l’apres-midi d’un faune” and Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde.”

“They’re examples of very important and pivotal works that I think one can appreciate even more when one knows some of the history behind them.

Born in New York, Eichenthal, 36, grew up in Los Angeles. She studied piano at UCLA and in her final year became the winner of the Abram Chasins Classical Music Radio Internship at KUSC-FM in Los Angeles. She serves in a number of capacities, including executive producer, when she left the station in June “to pursue other areas.”

She now produces and hosts the the Los Angeles Philharmonic national radio broadcasts, serves as a movie critic for CBS Radio and works at KNX-AM as a part-time writer and reporter.

She continues to give preconcert lectures and talks on her favorite subject. Also she concedes “the absolute impossibility of really putting your finger on what makes certain works great.”

“Even though it’s impossible to pin down all these things, you can gain an awful lot by learning some of the history behind them,” she said. “Even the music can sound different. That’s my contention.”

Gail Eichenthal will speak on classical music at 6:30 p.m. at the Four Seasons Hotel, 690 Newport Center Drive, in Newport Beach. Her talk, “Describing the Indescribable: Talking about Classical Music,” is the first in a five-part lecture series sponsored by the Orange County Philharmonic Society. Series tickets range from $35 to $50. Individual tickets, on a space-available basis, are $10. Information: (714) 642-8232.