150th BIRTHDAY

I should be so lucky.

After our medium-and-low brow careening around the NW, it was time for a little more refined fare.  Fortunately, the annual Paderewski Festival in Paso Robles was on again, and this year it is the old boy’s 150th birthday.  We went to this last year and had a great time, and our revisit was even better.

Once again we attended with some of our oldest friends, Paul, Chuck, and Alice.  Paul and Chuck are from fraternity days eons ago.  We introduced Chuck and Alice 40 years ago, and will celebrate that anniversary with them in Hawaii next Spring.  Paul’s house in San Luis Obispo was our base of operations (thankee, Paul!).  We raided and almost wiped out his front-yard orange tree for fresh-squoze juice each morning, but I’ll spare you any photos of the pecan waffles or the three-cheese omelets we whipped up.  Mainly because I forgot to take any.

Thursday night’s opening performance took place at the Mission San Miguel, the 16th mission built in California.  The original was founded in1797, but burned, and this one was completed in 1821.  The interior painting is all original.  Not sure what the rayburst is all about, but it is different.

The music at this event was eclectic, and was performed by the Paso Robles High School Band and various iterations of its Concert Choir, the best of which was its more experienced members forming the Las Voces Celestiales.  Also on the bill were the highly professional, Los Angeles-based “Midnight Winds” (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn).  As you might suspect, the performances ranged from sublime to “well, that’s not bad for a bunch of high school kids.”  They played everything from Cirque du Soleil music to spirituals to Scottish folk songs to, hey, Paderewski!  We enjoyed everything.  Must have.  I dropped a twenty in the donation bowl on the way out.  I have reformed my skinflint ways.

Before the performance we had dinner at Chico’s, which is truly a gem of a small restaurant tucked away on the main square in Paso.  We ate there last year, and the quality hasn’t fallen off.  The chef is the owner, and that’s always a good sign.  Seafood is his specialty, and he knows how to do it right.  And, the wine list is local and very reasonably priced.  Do give him your business if you’re in Paso.  Actually, we liked it so much, and wanted to try other dishes, that we went back on Saturday night as well.

Friday night’s music fare was not just eclectic, but downright bizarre.  It was billed as a Polish jazz concert and was held in the “Barrel Room” at the Cass Winery outside of Paso.  Boy, use your GPS for this one.  Those country lanes are confusing in the dark, and signage is invisible.  The featured performers were Krzesimir Debski, pianist and jazz violinist, and vocalist Anna Jurksztowicz. 

(Photo courtesy of Peninsula Reviews)  Hey, I can’t stand in the aisle to take a shot like this guy did!

I didn’t have a spasm at the keyboard, those are the right spellings.  There also was a guitar session- musician from Los Angeles, who quite obviously had not had time to rehearse with them.  Now, before I get to the fun, all three are very talented, and the headliners have performed all over the world.  But some of their shenanigans had me shaking my head in disbelief. 

First, the music choices frequently had nothing at all to do with jazz, or at least not my experience with it over the decades.  I mean, they had a couple of classical piano pieces by Paderewski, film-score music with words from the Egyptian Book of the Dead (I’m not making this up), theme music from some Polish T.V. shows, and, finally, some actual sorta-jazz stuff, sung in Polish.  It wasn’t that I couldn’t understand the words, as that is no barrier to enjoying music, but during one song the vocalist took her forefinger and started blubba-blubba-burbling her lips.  Say, WHAT?  It wasn’t scat singing, like Ella, rather something completely incomprehensible and unmusical.  But she was having a good time while the audience sat with stunned looks, not knowing whether to laugh or cheer.  Nervous applause won out.  Then, in another number, while wildly sawing on the electric violin, Debski threw back his head . . . and . . . started . . . YODELING!  Yee gods and little fishes!  What the hell passes for jazz in Poland?  I’m sorry folks, but this concert was fodder for legions of new Polish jokes.  It’s a shame, too, as both performers were technically very polished.  Debski is internationally known and has won many awards.  It was just the material selected that made no sense.  And, of course, the blubbering and the yodeling.

Well, all this was enough to drive one to drink, and what better place than wine country?  Well, maybe beer country, but that’s another story.  We spent an afternoon touring several wineries, where Paul was known on sight, and shamelessly used his “club member’s” discount when we found something we liked.  Um, we found a few.

 

The “Gala Concert” was the public finale of the festival, on Saturday night in the ballroom of the Paso Robles Inn.  No smirking on this one.  It was incredible.

The artist was Jonathon Plowright, a British pianist, Gold Medalist at the Royal Academy of Music, Fulbright Scholar, and first prize winner at the European Piano Competition.  The guy’s got chops. 

The reviewer of this concert described his technique as a “lovely controlled elegance.”  That pretty much describes it.  I’m far from qualified to judge these things, but Chuck is, and he was mightily impressed by the performance.  Loni and I just drank it in.  He did Paderewski, of course, but the second half was all Chopin.  On top of his incredible talent, he was a very engaging guy, and spoke for a while introducing the music.  I think I’ll look for some of his recordings (on the Hyperion label).

The actual finale of the week’s events was the concert given by the two Polish youngsters who had been brought over on a musical exchange program for this festival.  Ten-year-old (!) Marian Michalski, and fourteen-year-old Barbara Doroszuk.  He’s a ham of the first order, and loved sporting the black Stetson that he had been given.  I think it was sitting on his ears.  She’s much shier, and undoubtedly will break any number of hearts along her way in life.

Both of them were excellent at the keyboard.  I am constantly amazed, not only at the mature technique of these kids, but how anyone can memorize all that complicated music.  This event was a private one, by reserved admission only, and pretty much limited to those who had purchased costly VIP tickets.  We had not, but our friends (who had) overheard a VIP couple the night before say they were not going to make this event, and sweet talked them into “donating” their tickets to us.  Well, all right!  We definitely enjoyed posing as Richard and Karen ---ski, including scarfing their yummy brunch served outside on the patio. Thanks!

This was held at the Pear Valley Winery outside Paso.  We didn’t sample any wines, but the setting was beautiful.  The vines have all been harvested now, and are beginning to turn fall colors.  A gorgeous end to a great five days.