"My heart, in this stream," the voice thundered.  Between a tentative
note on the piano and the shock of realization, "do you recognize your
likeness?" (not a question, really), there was a moment's pause.  It was
silence that encompassed the essence of music.

Time stood still tonight in the tiny Methodist Church in Napa, the quaint
heart of the Northern California wine country.  "Chamber Music in Napa
Valley" triumphed again, bringing a world-class event to the lucky 300
who could squeeze into the church.

Traversing the 75 minutes of Schubert's "Winterreise," through the enormous
variety of its music and text, while maintaining its cascading, spiraling
continuity (with its unique climax/denouement), is one of the greatest
challenges in all music.

Especially when the singer is 64, and sang "nonstop" since 1944.  But
this is Peter Schreier, a great tenor and even greater artist.  He sang
an joyous, exemplary "Winterreise," text and music crystal clear, flowing,
SIMPLE.  There was nothing here except the songs:  no effort, artifice,
show, "just" singing Schubert, not even "interpreting." Against his earlier
recordings, against every other performance I have heard, this was the
purest "Winterreise" characterized by something that can be described,
vaguely, as inevitability.  Truly a definitive performance.

The opening "Good Night" was striking with its simple "speaking" of
understated, resigned music -- mirrored in "The Organ Grinder" at the
cycle's end.  In both, Schreier's interpretation was completely free of
pathos...  creating an impact all the more as he allowed the work speak
for itself.

He sang "saft" in "softly shut the door" so that beyond the text and the
music, there was the sound of the door closing, sadly, with finality.  In
"The Weathercock," shouting "was fragen sie" in "What do they care for my
sorrows?" the voice turned raw, one of the three instances all evening long
that Schreier wasn't flawless -- and yet even that seemed appropriate to
the work.

The temperature in the hall dropped when Schreier sang "Eis" in
"Frozen Tears." The word "kalt" in ``Rest'' stood out and brought back
the memory of the earlier ice.  The narrowing of the voice on "Meer" and
"auch" in "Every stream will reach the sea/Every sorrow too its grave"
("Will-o'-the-Wisp") anchored the grief/resignation of the song in a way
that cannot be duplicated or even understood -- it was just perfect.

"How quiet you have become/You give no greeting as we part" in "On the
River" had a quality of melting lyricism without a trace of sentimentality.
The spellbound audience spent nearly an hour before anybody fidgeted a
little or even coughed.

The self-effacing, devoted accompanist was fully part of the evening's
glory.  Without his baton, quite outside his usual role of directing,
Donald Runnicles went beyond serving the singer (which he did, wonderfully,
and then tried to decline a bow)...  it was serving Schubert.  Intonation,
balance, dynamics:  it was accompaniment that's every singer's dream.  No
wonder Schreier dragged Runnicles with him to take bow after bow.

When the text read "The wind plays with the weathercock," Runnicles
provided the sound "whistling the poor fugitive away." His introduction to
"A Dream of Springtime" was delicate and elegant, but not precious; it lead
directly to the music's sudden outburst at "when the cocks crowed," singer
and pianist at one.  Runnicles' posthorn in "The Post," his barking dogs
"In the Village," and the "friendly dancing light" of "Deception" were just
the frosting on the delicious cake of 75 minutes of rock-solid support for
a great singer, still at his best...  and perhaps even better.

But surely, only in a small hall? Nope.  Schreier's next stop is the San
Francisco Symphony's monster Davies Hall, 3,000 seats and one million cubic
feet of space, to conduct and SING the St.  Matthew Passion, Oct.  28-31.

Napa is only an hour's (fast) drive from San Francisco, but I have not
heard of this music series.  (Thanks, Oliver!) So I thought, logically
enough, that tonight was just the lightning that didn't before, that will
not strike again.  Wrong.

John Kongsgaard and the Clos Du Val Winery will also offer just in the
current season:  the Grieg Trio (11/4), the Muir Quartet (11/18), Continuum
(1/6), Quartetto Beethoven di Roma (1/25), the Petersen Quarteet (2/16),
Emanuel Ax (2/23), Trio Apollon (3/1), and Garrick Ohlsson (4/3).  It makes
one consume more wine, just to support this effort.

Scores of important chamber-music groups have visited here since the series
came into being in 1980, along with Hildegard Behrens, Frederica von Stade,
Radu Lupu, Isaac Stern, Robert McDonald, James Morris, and others.  To a
little church in the country, seating 200.  Pass the wine.

Janos Gereben/SF
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