BLUE HILL, MAINE — Blue Hill Bay in Down East Maine is renowned as a sailor’s paradise and also as the earliest center of chamber music in this country.
In the early 1900s, Blue Hill also became the summer home of this country’s first string quartet, the Kneisel Quartet, founded in 1885 by Franz Kneisel. This distinguished ensemble played the world premieres of a quartet and quintet by Antonin Dvorak and introduced American audiences to such works as Arnold Schoenberg’s “Verklarte Nacht.”
Kneisel came upon this picturesque spot as a summer retreat, eventually bringing his group here and sponsoring a small summer festival. In 1922, he built his rustic Kneisel Hall, which still stands, an intimate setting made of natural wood, its walls lined with evocative pictures of the past - old stage bills and photographs of distinguished musicians who have performed here. The artists play on a raised platform, backed by a large-as-life photograph of Kneisel displayed against a massive stone fireplace.
Some of the greatest names in chamber music have been a part of the hall, from Joseph and Lillian Fuchs to Artur Balsam. For the past 21 years, Kneisel Hall has flourished under the leadership of Seymour Lipkin, who came with a distinguished career as piano soloist, conductor, music director of the Joffrey Ballet, chamber musician and educator.
He was the first director to arrive with no previous experience of Kneisel Hall, but when he called in the winter to arrange to come see the place, he was advised to wait till spring. “Don’t bother; you’ll never get up the hill, there’s so much snow,” he was told.
“I had the good luck to be given carte blanche,” Mr. Lipkin says, “so I engaged several people who had not been here before: violinist Ronald Copes (now with the Juilliard String Quartet) and Jerry Grossman, principal cellist with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.”
From the beginning, Kneisel Hall has focused on training young musicians in chamber music and introducing them to some of the most sublime music ever written.
“Many of the major schools are so oriented toward solo performing that chamber music is not central. Here it is,” Mr. Lipkin says.
Earlier this month, the twice-a-week faculty performances (which are open to the public) finished with a flourish: Johannes Brahm’s stirring String Sextet No. 1. It was met with enthusiasm by Sunday’s audience. Yet an Aug. 8 performance - with Kneisel’s 50 students in attendance - was greeted with cheers, foot-stamping and shouts more typical of a Black Eyed Peas concert.
Some of the old-timers at that performance looked askance at the young musicians’ noisy response, but the directors were delighted that the students greeted this 19th-century music with such exuberance.
Although the performances are open to the public, Executive Director Ellen Werner says their primary purpose is for Kneisel’s students. “They’re required to go Friday night,” Miss Werner says. “So they can see the music come fully alive.”
Faculty member Jerry Grossman says he thinks chamber music is a more valuable training for future orchestra members than playing in school orchestras.
“Often the conductors are mediocre, and you sit there and have a good time fooling around at the back of the section. But when you come here, we teach these kids how to listen to each other, to play together with each other, how to look at a score and make decisions about how it should go.”
Two students from the Washington area who are attending this year are both at the New England Conservatory of Music during the winter. Joseph Kromholz, a violinist and Reston resident, is a graduate student who’s about to pursue a doctoral degree in music. Daniel Getz, a violist from Bethesda, will be a sophomore next year.
“The level here is just fantastic; it’s a great opportunity to learn a lot of new music and approach music in such an intense way,” Mr. Kromholz says.
“I haven’t had nearly as much chamber music experience as Joseph,” Mr. Getz says. “This summer I’m learning quartets by Berg, Mendelssohn and Schubert and the Brahms first piano quartet.”
Yang Li, who came to America from China a year ago, studies in the winter at Bard College. “When I was young, I wanted to be a soloist,” she says, “but now I think it’s too much pressure. If I can play in a first-class orchestra, that’s my biggest dream now.”
Some benefits of the experience here are more elusive.
“The students get to see us in a more complete way,” the still boyish Mr. Grossman says. “We’re people just like them who’ve achieved a certain level and are out there in the world doing it, and we’re here to share our skills with them.”
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