Awash in musical serenity

It wasn’t easy to find rational thought in the world this week. That’s why I sought out chamber music.

It’s hard to imagine an institution as bound up with rationality as chamber music ( Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, that pillar of the Enlightment, described the string quartet as “four sensible persons conversing”).

Even more fortunately, I was able to hear two beautiful piano trios by Beethoven and Arensky the way they were designed to be heard — in the privacy of someone’s home.

The event was organized via Groupmuse, a 4-year-old company that describes itself as “an online social network that connects young classical musicians to local audiences through concert house par-

ties.”

That’s true, to an extent. Listeners search Groupmuse for a local event and pay the company a $3 reservation fee. The presence of technology in Groupmuse’s business model has inspired many “Uber for orchestras” headlines in the company’s press coverage.

Clearly, Uber’s brand has been tarnished: CEO Sam Bodkin was quick to downplay the comparison to me.

“We’re not on demand,” he said. “And we’re very conscientious about treating musicians as well as possible at all times.”

Bodkin has a point. Music lovers host the events for free. Listeners are all expected to show up with at least $10, but all of their money goes to the musicians. Then there are the many other reasons that place both the events and the company outside of the 21st century economy’s language of platforms and data distribution.

When I arrived at the one-bedroom San Francisco apartment of my lovely host, William Hsieh, he was racing to and fro to refill guests’ wineglasses.

Since he isn’t making money to host the events, Hsieh has to rely on other benefits. He’s a music lover who told me he welcomed the chance to meet a diverse group of people who were curious about classical music, and that he appreciated the opportunity to expose them to it in “a novel setting. There’s a popular misconception of classical music as stuffy, boring and pretentious, and I find it very satisfying to offer newcomers a different approach.”

Many of the 40-odd people who crowded into Hsieh’s apartment that night were young and had technologyoriented jobs, but few of them pulled out their phones over the course of the twohour program. Instead, everyone drank wine and talked about how music fits into their lives.

“I used to play the viola in middle school,” said Liv Sridhar, a 28-year-old who lives in San Francisco. “I’ve always read about chamber music, so I wanted to get a glimpse of what it must have been like when it was played back then.”

When the music began, and we all fell silent, I immediately recognized something else remarkable about the experience: the chance to watch the three professional musicians up close.

Clara Yunjoo Lee played piano, Laura Keller was the violinist, and Saul Richmond-Rakerd was the cellist for this trio. Their bodies and facial expressions shifted with the emotions of the music. Before launching into a piece they’d never played together before, they glanced back and forth at each other, like conspirators. They leaned into their instruments, coaxing out the sounds — all actions that became part of the immediate emotional experience.

As I listened, I thought about the rest of that Goethe quote: “(Y)ou profit from their discourse, and you get to know the individual character of the instruments.” It was all happening.

It happens for the musicians, too. At intermission I spoke to Sean Sutherland, a 40-year-old pianist who lives in Menlo Park. Sutherland has played at Groupmuse events before, and he told me it was a nice change to play in such intimate settings.

“Because it’s so intimate, I’m able to see people react to the music,” Sutherland said. “It’s enjoyable, and it motivates my playing. It gives the music a lot of life.”

A beautiful, rational thought! When the music was over, I floated down the street.

As I walked, I thought about how the Groupmuse experience is firmly rooted not in the 21st century economy but in the 18th: the century when chamber music was arguably at its height.

During that era of political instability and dramatic social change, the same things were necessary for chamber music to develop: the private space, the gracious host, the patronage for artists, the belief — against all odds — that sober, sensible thinking could shift the world.

The music is still there. May we gather together and listen to it.

“There’s misconceptiona popularof classical music as stuffy, boring and pretentious,and I find it very satisfying to offer newcomers a different approach.”