Major Musicians at Minor Prices

Budget concert prices don’t have to mean budget artists or programs. Two upcoming Orange County concerts, for instance, give local audiences access to music-making by some major artists. The prices couldn’t be better.

The Fullerton Friends of Music, now in its 38th year, will present members of the acclaimed Los Angeles-based Pacific Serenades Ensemble on Sunday afternoon. This concert is free of charge.

On Tuesday, the North Orange County Community Concerts Assn., in its 51st season, will present award-winning cellist Zvi Plesser. Admission is by membership only, but memberships, which can be bought at the door, include reciprocity privileges with more than two dozen other Community Concert associations throughout Southern and Central California. Yearly memberships range from $30 for adults ($12 for students) to $72 for families.

The Fullerton Friends concert will enlist pianist Ayke Agus, clarinetist Gary Gray, violinist Miwako Watanabe and cellist David Speltz in works by Beethoven, Khachaturian and Brahms.

All have independent careers, as well as playing in the Serenades Ensemble. Gray is principal clarinetist in the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra. Watanabe was a founding member of the Angeles String Quartet and now has her own Francisco Trio. Speltz plays in Hollywood film studios and in chamber music festivals and solo recitals around the world.

Agus was Jascha Heifetz’s accompanist for 15 years until the violinist’s death in 1987. She now has a solo career as a pianist and violinist. She assembled the group for the Fullerton concert in collaboration with Friends founder Beulah Strickler.

“Chamber music is really my first love, and the first love of the people whom I’ve asked to play in this program,” Agus said recently by phone from her home in Los Angeles.

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As for her dexterity as both a violinist and pianist, she said, “Most people ask me what’s my favorite instrument. I say it depends on what I’m playing at the moment. If I’m playing violin at the moment, of course that’s my favorite instrument because I can’t think of anything else. Right now, I have quite a balanced career as either one.

“It’s not emotionally draining because I’m not trying to compete with myself. That would be a stupid thing to do. If you play other instruments, you have a plus. I have that extra ability to blend with other instruments because I try to treat the piano as a string rather than a percussive instrument.”

Agus, 45, met Heifetz when she was a student in his master class at USC. She became his class pianist and his personal accompanist.

“Mr. Heifetz was an incredible pianist himself,” she said. “I learned so much from him. Being a musician, for him, was not only being able to play the music, but being human. He was always thinking of the music.

“What was difficult after his death is that I had to start my career all over. My life was totally devoted to working with him because I also helped finish many of the transcriptions he was working on. He has about 150 transcriptions of works for violin and piano, covering Bach to Gershwin, Prokofiev, anything.

“He made free arrangements, not just copying the melody but giving equal importance to the two instruments.”

* Members of the Pacific Serenades Ensemble will play music by Beethoven, Khachaturian and Brahms on Sunday at 3:30 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center at Sunny Hills High School, 1801 Warburton Way, Fullerton. The free concert is sponsored by the Fullerton Friends of Music. (714) 525-5836.

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Community Concert artists are the Johnny Appleseeds of classical music. Cellist Zvi Plesser and his piano accompanist, Daniel Gortler, estimate they will have traveled about 3,500 miles before their current tour is over.

“A friend of mine did many of these concerts,” Plesser said by phone from Auburn, Calif. “It sounded like an adventure that would be interesting. The programs consist of standard repertory we would play anywhere. We don’t discount the music.

“But I don’t just sit down and play my pieces. I present them, talking to audiences, giving them insights into what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, what we get out of the music, simple things.”

Plesser, 28, was born in Israel. “My father was a physicist and also a very enthusiastic amateur violinist,” he said. “One out of three scientists in the town I grew up in was some kind of amateur player. As soon as I could play, I would play chamber music with them.”

He came to the United States in 1989 to study for two years at the University of Maryland, with the resident Guarneri String Quartet. Then he went to Juilliard, which “was not one of my best musical experiences. It’s as bad as you’ve heard. I can say that.”

He graduated in 1994. Meanwhile he had won the National Symphony Orchestra Young Soloists’ Competition in 1990 and went on to win first prize at the 41st annual Washington International Competition at the Kennedy Center in 1994.

He and Gortler have “played together since high school, since 1982, 15 years,” Plesser said. “I don’t call him my accompanist, but my dual partner. A cello recital is mainly chamber music.”

Life on the road, he said, is “hectic and difficult, but on the other hand, you meet a lot of interesting people, see a lot of interesting places you wouldn’t see otherwise. There’s a big satisfaction in that.

“It’s an experience to be giving 24 concerts in 31 days, driving many miles in between, teaching a master class here and there, which is not counted in the concerts. You learn a lot about yourself, about what you can and what you can’t do. You don’t have the possibility to practice a lot, to prepare or get all wired up for the concert. You just have to go out and do it. That’s where the music comes in. It’s the only thing that keeps you going. Only great music makes you be able to do it every night.”

* Cellist Zvi Plesser will play works by Haydn, Beethoven, Faure and Shostakovich on Tuesday at 8 p.m. at the Fullerton United First Methodist Church, 114 N. Pomona Ave. The recital is part of the North Orange County Community Concerts Series. Admission is by membership only, but memberships, ranging from $12 to $72, can be bought at the door. (714) 871-1808.