San Diego Spotlight : Muir String Quartet’s Name Reflects Outdoor Interests

The Muir String Quartet seems to have its geography all wrong. Why would a group named after the famous American naturalist John Muir, who explored California and Alaska in the mid-19th Century and founded the Sierra Club, be based at Boston University?

Cellist Michael Reynolds, one of the quartet’s founding members, explained that the choice of the group’s name reflected the outdoor interests of the original players, not the ensemble’s location. In a word, the musicians were nature freaks.

“Growing up in Montana, I had a fly rod in hand since the age of 8. And Steve Ansell, our violist, at one point vacillated between becoming a professional musician or a mountain guide.�

The realities of chamber music performance precluded a residency in, say, a national park, but the quartet did enjoy a visiting residency at the ecology-conscious UC Santa Cruz in 1983. Since 1985, the Muir Quartet has been Boston University’s quartet in residence, performing, teaching, and overseeing the school’s chamber music series. At 8 p.m. Saturday in UC San Diego’s Mandeville Auditorium, the ensemble will give an all-Beethoven concert as the final offering of this season’s UCSD Chamber Music Series.

After years of urban living, Reynolds and his colleagues have found a way to harness their love of nature, a recording project to benefit the environment. They formed a nonprofit corporation called EcoClassics to produce their own compact disc recordings. All of the profits from the sale of these recordings will go to a designated environmental agency. The first CD, Brahms’ and Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet with clarinetist Mitchell Lurie, was recorded in January at the Wellesley College Chapel and will be released in September.

“A few years ago, I was driving between Utah and Montana between festivals,� Reynolds explained, “when the idea came to me. We had played benefit concerts for groups such as the Nature Conservancy, but making our own records was even more appealing.�

Reynolds lined up two donors, who requested anonymity, to provide the $10,000 needed to produce the recording, and the musicians donated their services. The donors were allowed to select the environmental charity of their choice.

“If we sell 5,000 copies of the recording, that means the Nature Conservancy, an organization that buys up environmentally threatened land and either manages it or turns it over to appropriate federal or state agencies, will receive $75,000.�

For EcoClassics’ next project, Reynolds has no small plans. He would like to record all 16 Beethoven quartets and market them as a set. It’s not surprising that Reynolds has Beethoven on his mind, inasmuch as the Muir Quartet is performing the complete Beethoven quartet cycle this season at Boston University. They will repeat the cycle in Munich during the 1993-94 season.

Though they have been playing together since 1979, all of the musicians are only in their mid-30s. Besides Reynolds, the group includes violinists Peter Zazofsky and Bayla Keyes as well as violist Ansell.

On Saturday’s all-Beethoven program, they will play the C Minor Quartet, Op. 18, No. 4; the E Minor “Rasoumovsky� Quartet, Op. 59, No. 2, and the F Major Quartet, Op. 135.

Reynolds noted that because Beethoven is such a large part of their lives, it has affected the players’ personalities.

“After a while, the music envelops you, and you end up thinking like Beethoven. You get irritable, irascible, and you’re unwilling to put up with any crap, which is understandable, since you’re working in the playground of the greatest music ever written.�

Early music mountain high. Recorder aficionados, viol players and other early music enthusiasts may wish to join members of the San Diego Early Music Society for the group’s annual weekend workshop May 15-17 at the Palomar Mountain school camp. Among the faculty workshop’s members are LaNoue Davenport, director of the ensemble “Music for a While� and former member of the celebrated New York Pro Musica; viola da gamba expert Peter Farrell, UC San Diego professor emeritus; Lewis Peterman of the San Diego State University music department and Marianne Pfau from the University of San Diego. Pfau and Peterman are members of the recently formed early music ensemble Nota Bene.

Classes and workshops in consort music, notation, 16th-Century French dances, J. S. Bach, and liturgical music will be offered. Fees range from $90 to $135, food and lodging are included, and a $10 discount is offered for those who register by Friday. For more information, call 755-1408 or 291-8246.

Grace notes. In Sunday’s special Earth Day concert at Balboa Park’s Organ Pavilion, the 100-voice San Diego Children’s Choir under the direction of Polly Campbell will join Civic Organist Robert Plimpton for the free 2 p.m. free concert . . . . The San Diego State University Symphony will offer Nielsen’s Third Symphony “Espansiva,� as well as winners of the orchestra’s 1992 Concerto Competition, pianist Douglas Bruck in Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 and flutist Kara Alcorn in Saint-Saens’ “Odelette,� at 7 p.m. today in SDSU’s Smith Recital Hall. . . . Single tickets for maestro David Atherton’s 1992 Mainly Mozart Festival (May 30-June 7 at the Spreckels Theatre) went on sale Wednesday (558-1000 and 278-8497).

CRITIC’S CHOICE

ORGANIST JARED JACOBSEN AT LA JOLLA PRESBYTERIAN

There are marathons, and then there are marathons. Jared Jacobsen, resident organist of the La Jolla Presbyterian Church and former San Diego civic organist, is a glutton for keyboard punishment. He will play two recitals Sunday at La Jolla Presbyterian. At 4 p.m. he will give an organ recital, featuring works by J. S. Bach, Joseph Bonnet, and Maurice Durufle. He will also play Widor’s complete Fifth Organ Symphony. Then, at 7:30 p.m., the intrepid musician will return to play a piano recital that includes works by Liszt, Grieg and Ginestera.