Concert in a Private Residence's Music Hall

If you're like me, you've often wondered, "What do the rich do with all their money?" I have one answer: They build a music hall in their home, complete with a two-story pipe organ, a glass-cabineted library, and balcony seating. Yesterday my neighbor Janet and I beheld such an extravagance when I attended a fortepiano concert in Brentwood.

The fortepiano is the precursor of the modern piano. According to a musician I queried at length at the event, the fortepiano's strings are parallel, whereas the piano's are crossed, making for a clearer sound on the former and a more romantic sound on the latter. I heard Andrew Willis play pieces that included sonatas by Bach, Muzio Clementi, Mozart, Scarlotti, and Hayden.

The space is called the Contrapuntal Performances Recital Hall at 655 N. Bundy in Brentwood. It is an addition that producer-screenwriter Bonnie MacBird and computer scientist Alan Kay built onto their ranch-style house. Skylights in the balcony and nearly floor-to-ceiling windows in the main hall provide ample lighting. The hall also features a harpsichord and a piano.

I was once a member of the Southern California Early Music Society and have attended many of its medieval and baroque events over the years. I looked on its web site for venues and found this one. Turns out there are at least two series that allow aficionados to hear early music in private residences. After all, that was how the music was originally performed--in small, intimate settings in the homes of wealthy patrons and royalty.