By Lyn Bronson
Chamber Music Monterey Bay (CMMB) President, Amy Anderson greeted the audience at Sunset Center last night as a welcome to its new season. On stage was the Emerson String Quartet, a great favorite of CMMB and local audiences, which was returning to Sunset Center after several highly successful previous engagements.
We observed something new on stage last night — a portable one-foot high platform to elevate a seated cellist to the eye level of the remaining three standing players in a string quartet. This was the creation of Peter Thorp, a man who can design and build just about anything. He told us during intermission that the platform on which the cellist is seated has an optional resonating membrane (not used in last night’s performance) and a set of hidden wheels at the back of the platform so that when it is set upright on its rear edge, it can be easily rolled on and off stage by one person. The effect during a performance of this ingenious bit of stagecraft is that the cellist, seated like royalty on an elevated throne appears to be surrounded by adoring courtiers fiddling away in homage to him. I have absolutely no problem with this visual aspect of the performance, since the cello is my favorite string instrument and, in my opinion, its enthroned nobility is richly deserved and long overdue.
