Chamber series thrives, against all the odds

In an era of timid finances and curtailed ambition, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society is an anomaly of staggering artistic and organizational surety.

Ticket prices remain low, mostly topping out at $23. Sales are up more than 10 percent over last year. And PCMS enters its 25th season with a roster that is more robust than ever: 66 appearances in eight venues by Austrian pianists, English mezzos, and string quartets of all stripes.

PCMS scale and quality are remarkable, says Margaret M. Lioi, CEO of Chamber Music America.

"As I am thinking of the other major chamber music societies in the country, they have eight concerts a year or maybe 12," she said. "To grow from seven concerts to 66 is an amazing achievement, and not one that other organizations have done."

This season's calendar would be the envy of any city from Tokyo to Vienna. The Juilliard Quartet explores core repertoire in November. Legendary pianist Mitsuko Uchida has her way with Beethoven and Chopin in January. Anonymous 4, the worshipped a cappella ensemble, doesn't tour much anymore but keeps its Philadelphia base satisfied with a December visit - one of nine vocal concerts in an age when a vocal series is rare as a blue rose.

Miles Cohen, PCMS' forever-boyish logistics man, has pegged pianist Jonathan Biss' January appearance as the society's 1,000th concert.

A laurel wreath may be placed on the snowy pate of Anthony P. Checchia, 80, the Tacony-raised, onetime bassoonist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra who started the series in 1986 by assembling seven concerts, growing it to 10, and, in succeeding years, 12, 17, 21, 23 - and on and on.

PCMS' impressive growth is linked inextricably with the Marlboro School of Music and Festival, which Checchia also has headed, along with New York agent Frank Salomon, for more than a half century. PCMS and Marlboro have a symbiotic artistic relationship, and, just as significantly, a financial one.

PCMS benefits enormously from an endowment - about $34 million as of the last tax filings - that is among the city's largest arts endowments. The money actually resides with the Marlboro festival - its core was raised decades ago by the late Frank Elijah Taplin Jr., scion of the family that owns North American Coal Corp. - but in an unusual business model, PCMS and Marlboro share some artistic and administrative staff, as well as other expenses.

This efficiency has allowed PCMS, whose season opened Friday night with the Takács Quartet, to flourish to a degree otherwise not likely.

"The stars aligned," said Checchia, whose other identity is being the husband of highly respected soprano Benita Valente for 50 years. "Marlboro provided an umbrella to get us started. We developed a philosophy. We were out to bring in artists and events not being heard here, and our basis for increasing concerts was that there was a demand for it, and that the money was in place. That means not paying huge fees to bring in [an audience of] 200 or so."

In 25 years, the organization has never run a deficit.

Checchia, an unfailingly natty dresser with gentlemanly airs and a Sterling Holloway voice, has a reputation in the music business as smart and thrifty, someone who makes decisions based on what's good for the art form. He long ago brought on an heir apparent, Philip Maneval, as executive director of PCMS and manager of Marlboro.

When the Kimmel Center was negotiating with potential resident companies before it opened, Checchia resisted being seduced by a sparkling new space. He wondered whether PCMS could afford the rent. Checchia hedged his bets, striking a deal that allows him to book the Perelman Theater and be a resident company - while keeping his list of cheaper venues.

"There really was nothing going on," said Checchia about classical offerings outside of the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1986. "The Coffee Concerts [a once active and prestigious local presenter] had stopped, the Musical Fund Society had stopped doing concerts. Curtis had only recently opened its student concerts to the public. That was the incentive for doing it, because there was so little going on. I couldn't believe a region of 3 million people couldn't support this."

The first year sold out, turning away 250 listeners.

Its name, utilitarian as it is, makes good on its promise - even the society part. The audience vibe is insidery without being pretentious. You can hear doctors in the audience discuss the comparative merits of the Daedalus and Brentano string quartets, amateur pianists compare Richard Goode's Debussy with an Alexis Weissenberg performance heard decades ago.

Personal relationships permeate the organization. Checchia said he got breaks on fees from artists and agents in the early days because many were friends. Callers often get longtime box office manager Bradford Kochel on the phone - himself an amateur pianist ("Mozart, Haydn and early Beethoven," he says) - and receive a personal consultation on which concerts to attend.

"It surprises me that people have faith in my advice, but they do. After a while I get a sense of what people will like," Kochel says.

Even in concert, the experience is artistic and social.

"The relationship developed amongst audience members is on a very personal level," said Jerry G. Rubenstein, board chairman for 20 years, who, unlike many cultural board chairs who only occasionally make personal contact with the art, attends nearly every concert. "We've lived in a number of cities, and I have never encountered such a personal, neighborhood feeling at concerts."

Sometimes the clubbiness raises eyebrows. PCMS commissions have gone to executive director Maneval, which means at least a potential back-scratching scenario in which Maneval, who has a hand in hiring groups, seeks performances of his works from the same groups. It's a practice Rubenstein has defended against Inquirer critics, including this one, who feel it represents a conflict of interest.

While maintaining that there have been no ethical lapses, Rubenstein says that a proposed performance of a Maneval work in the future will be "reviewed at the board level and committee level to determine that it meets our musical standards and does not represent a decision made as a result of his position on the staff."

PCMS has in fact paid attention to many Philadelphia composers, but has been primarily an importer, and without PCMS, Philadelphia's insistent provincialism would have once again prevailed.

PCMS has imported 57 string quartets, including the Arditti, Guarneri, Hagen, and Juilliard.

Highlights from the list of 63 singers inspire awe: Elly Ameling, Arleen Auger, Ian Bostridge, Håkan Hagegård, Felicity Lott, Aprile Millo, Ewa Podles, Hermann Prey, Florence Quivar, Peter Schreier, Elisabeth Söderström, José van Dam, Frederica von Stade.

The pianists - 107 in all - comprisemake up a catalog of 20th- to 21st-century greats: Philippe Entremont, Christoph Eschenbach, Rudolf Firkušný, Leon Fleisher, Richard Goode, Gary Graffman, cq bothMieczyslaw Horszowski, Stephen cqKovacevich, Radu Lupu, Murray Perahia, András Schiff, Mitsuko Uchida.

No real philosophical thread runs through the roster, except perhaps forthe elusive characteristic of musicality - the proposition that booking an artist with something different to say is more important than hosting one with enormous chops.

Steaming baths of blood, infanticide, and free-floating insanity might never have been felt as trenchantly as on the night in 2003 when PCMS hosted Wagnerian soprano Hildegard Behrens - at age 66. Pianist Claude Frank appeared in a 300-seat hall at the American Philosophical Society a year agoOct. 09, and was, at 83, clearly past his prime at 83. Note for note, though, there was so much majesty and poetry atin that recital that the real-life experience etched into his playing towered over questions of technique.

Checchia, always sensitive to artists' feelings - or perhaps overwhelmed by the prospect of considering 1,000 nights with Schubert, Beethoven, Haydn, and Kurtág - is hard pressed to name favorites.

"Horszowski's last concert, I remember that. He was 99. Goode and Uchida [co-artistic directors of Marlboro] had a couple of very special concerts. The Guarneri Quartet - I remember they once played the Ravel quartet and it was just out of sight. Elisabeth Söderström was a wonderful recital. Arleen Auger was very special."

Twenty-five years later, PCMS finds itself with a lot of high-quality indigenous company. Orchestra 2001 fills a niche in contemporary music. Astral Artists is seizing on emerging names the moment before they take flight nationally. And the Kimmel Center has arrived as impresario.

"I remember [composer] Ralph Shapey saying that when he was raised in Philadelphia, it was like a musical graveyard," said Checchia.

Now, he said, "I think it's wonderful. As far as I am concerned it makes Philadelphia a rather ideal place to live. There's so much going for the city - the historical, the museums, and now the musical aspect has picked up."

And then, after a pause that's positively musical:

"We even have a good baseball team now."

Contact music critic Peter Dobrin at pdobrin@phillynews.com or 215-854-5611. Read his blog at www.philly.com/ philly/blogs/artswatch.

Address:

1616 Walnut St.,

Suite 1600

Philadelphia, 19103

Telephone:

215-569-8587

215-569-8080 (tickets)

Website: www.pcmsconcerts.org

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