Sun Shines on Mozart Mini-Concert at Garden Party

Music may have charms not only to soothe the savage breast but also to tame the inhospitable weather, judging from the timing of the fog's arrival in the El Cerrito hills Sunday.

The "Midsummer Mozart Garden Party" began auspiciously under bright sunny skies in Denise Sangster's backyard near Arlington Park, and fog that was already assailing other parts of the Bay Area didn't establish itself in the neighborhood until after the final notes were played of String Quartet in G major, K. 387, the second of two quartets performed at the annual gathering to herald the upcoming Midsummer Mozart Festival. 

The four musicians for each composition sat under a blue-and-white striped canopy as more than 80 people in attendance listened, some still savoring the wine, cheeses, smoked salmon and other offerings from an outdoor buffet.

"We want you all to come to our concerts in July," Peter Susskind, the festival's executive director, told the guests at the $50-per-person event.

Also making introductory remarks was conductor George Cleve, the festival's music director and an acclaimed interpreter of Mozart.

The performers included violinist Robin Hansen, who lives in the neighborhood and is also the summer festival concertmaster as well as first violin with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. Her late father, Robert "The Colonel" Hansen, was well-known as the dedicated conductor for 53 years of the free Sunday concerts at the Music Concourse in Golden Gate Park.

She peformed in the first quartet – Oboe Quartet in F major, K. 370 – with Dawn Foster-Dodson on cello, Laura Griffiths on oboe and Marcel Gemperli on viola. For the second, all-strings quartet, violinist Adrienne Sengpiehl replaced Griffiths.

This is the sixth year the season's garden party has been hosted by Sangster, who was on the festival board when someone suggested holding such a gathering and she volunteered to do it. 

The Midsummer Mozart Festival runs July 19-29, with two programs each receiving four performances, in Berkeley, San Francisco, San Jose and Sonoma. More information is available at the festival's Web site.