- [Narrator] Funding for this program has been provided by the FS Foundation, bringing together adults of all abilities and backgrounds, as they pursue passion, prosperity and purpose.

Linda and Alvaro Pascotto.

(soft classical music) The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

(soft classical music) Additional support provided by these funders.

(upbeat classical music) - It absolutely would not have been possible to take even 40 players and distance them for health and be able to have a full orchestra.

That was not gonna happen.

It was really advantageous to already take our chamber music idea, which has always been part of the festival, and make that the centerpiece.

- With all of the challenges of a pandemic and trying to get people safely to play together.

I mean it's the only thing this summer that is able to do that.

- Health was first and foremost.

Of course because of Joel's passing as a result of COVID, everyone had a heightened sensitivity to how we must keep each other safe.

- I know difficult this is right now and I know how careful we have to be.

And I know there's so much concern and I've appreciated all the thought that's gone into this to keep everybody safe.

- And so we had to make sure that the performers can be safe.

We had to make sure that our audience could be safe, and outdoors made the most sense.

- I think that I could recite to you every CDC recommendation for events and gatherings, everything that was needed to do this safely.

And it brought some anxiety.

I mean there was no guarantee along with everything in this year that this was the right thing to do, until we were doing it.

- When I got the call to come and you know I heard it's gonna be different.

It's going to be chamber music.

It's gonna be a smaller group of audiences to be here, and we're gonna be really careful and we're going to try our best to minimize all the risks and everything.

I mean, I just thought, wow, like these guys are thinking out of the box, and really pivoting at a time when we need it most, and really giving a service to the community here at Lake Tahoe.

I was so overjoyed that not only that classical Tahoe was doing this, but that I could be a part of it.

- In normal times a chamber ensemble typically performs the best the closer you can see the musicians for being able to hear each other.

I know for my own string quartet, just sometimes pushing in six inches on the part of each player can make a huge difference.

And right now we have to think about am I too close?

Am I properly distanced from that person?

I'm lucky in tonight's performance that it's my wife to my left.

So we're not distancing from each other, at least unless I do something really bad at home (laughs).

- It's a good example of how, if you really spend the time figuring out how to cross all your T's and dot all your I's, you can do something safely for everyone that is important for mental health.

We're all looking out for our physical health, but there's a lot to be said here for people who are needing some mental health, and some place to find some relief and hope.

- Classical Tahoe is one of the only places that I actually play in an orchestra.

And I feel pretty lucky because my colleagues are principals of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the LA Phil, San Francisco Symphony all over the place.

And I just, most of what I play is chamber music.

So this is actually kind of my jam (laughs) this summer.

And it's pretty fun to be able to play chamber music with these great players in ways that have collaborated with them before in bigger groups, but to be in a small group together is pretty amazing.

- One of the pieces we're performing tonight is a Bach Concerto for oboe and violin, listening to the two soloists trade back and forth, it's just amazing.

Nathaniel and Daniel are both excellent musicians, and you're really in for a treat.

(upbeat classical music) - What's interesting about this Bach piece is that it is an accompanying role that we're playing to the two soloists and so there's an oboe solo with Nathan and a violin solo with Daniel.

And there were two of us playing the sort of baseline in the Baroque period that would be called a continual.

So what it means is it's a continuous line, but the two of us are playing it.

And historically probably a harpsichord would also be playing it with us.

So it would be sort of a triangle but when it's only the two of us, we sort of have to negotiate who is gonna play a little bit more, and who can shadow the other one, so that we can more seamlessly play together.

There was a point at which we were talking about plucking versus bowing, and we ultimately decided to pluck most of the second movement, all these tiny little decisions that go into making the bigger piece of music come alive.

(soft classical music) (crowd cheering) - If I had to be on the desert Island with only one music with me, I would choose the piece I'm playing tonight actually.

the Debussy Danses.

So Claude Debussy in the beginning of the 20th century, was commissioned by a harp maker for a new piece for harping string orchestra.

And so he wrote these two danses so first is Sacree Danse the Danse Sacree in French.

Second one is Profane Danse, the Danse Profane.

And so they are very beautiful diptyque you can say that, like two pieces of music.

They are very contrasting, and it's amazing music.

Of course, he was very inspired at the time in France there was a whole fascination for Ancient Greece.

So there is a lot of things that are like the modes used in this music are Greek modes.

And I think being brought up by a specialist of French literature and my mother and my father taught Greek and Latin in high school, I add fascination for the Greek myth.

So I guess that's also why this music touched me so much.

(soft classical music) (crowd clapping) - I get to play music that I really love to try to play well which is Liszt Transcendental Etudes.

I'm playing one of them which is number 10.

And so this music is really virtuoso to the point of almost verging on histrionic, right?

It's like, there's even a great moment in this piece where Liszt marks disperato.

Absence of hope right in this, like just like operatic intensity, and you're almost trying to break the piano when you play this music.

It's very fun to play if you can play it.

(dramatic classical music) (crowd cheering) - The COVID pandemic is so front and center in all of our minds.

And I think that this week performing in Tahoe, at the moment stands out almost over anything in my career really after having not only not performed, but not even played or rehearsed in front of another human being for five months, really I honestly had some anxiety about being in front of people again.

And it's not really a self doubt of can I still do it, but you kind of lose contact with the immediacy of what it's like to do the work we've been so accustomed to doing in my case for almost a quarter century.

So being out in front of people again, it was almost cathartic.

It really does stand out like the, you know, cause after this week, I think none of us who are here right now, really know when the next time will be.

(dramatic classical music) The difference between an audience of 25 and an audience of 3000, is smaller than the difference between no audience and an audience of 25.

Is if you're in front of people and it's live and in real time, then music exists the way it's meant to be.

Where it's experienced in real time and space.

Whereas when it's all virtual, it doesn't mean that the art isn't there.

It doesn't mean that the communication isn't there, but it feels just completely different.

The more we can feel and understand that it's a two way sort of giving, the more we feel that it's vital.

(somber classical music) (upbeat classical music) (somber classical music) (dramatic classical music) (crowd cheering) (upbeat classical music) - [Narrator] Funding for this program has been provided by the FS Foundation, bringing together adults of all abilities and backgrounds, as they pursue passion, prosperity and purpose.

Linda and Alvaro Pascotto.

(soft classical music) The Carol Franc Buck Foundation.

(soft classical music) Additional support provided by these funders.