The Press Democrat  Symphony's bold journey March 3, 2002 By DIANE PETERSON The Santa Rosa Symphony has taken on some difficult works lately -- John Adams' "Harmonlielehre" comes to mind -- but no performance could be as daunting as the task of educating an audience.  With music education waning in schools, even venerable institutions like the Philadelphia Orchestra have gone into teaching mode, for self-preservation, if nothing else.  These days, the classical music audience is no longer one monolithic mass, but a diverse group of people from all walks of life, ages and educational backgrounds. That makes the task of education even more daunting -- and more crucial -- for the future.  Wednesday night, the symphony under Music Director Jeffrey Kahane kicked off its new, three-year "Exploring the Classics" series with a special concert dedicated entirely to one masterwork -- in this case, Beethoven's exuberant Symphony No. 7.  During the first half of the concert, Kahane gave a one-hour lecture that placed the symphony -- written in 1812 as a postscript to Beethoven's Heroic middle period -- in its historical context, with a slide show of paintings by Ingres, David and other artists of the era.  During the second half of the concert, the symphony performed the entire work with springy excitement and clear articulation, especially in the whirlwind finale. The nearly full house responded with a standing ovation.  Dressed casually in a blue shirt, tie and suit, Kahane appeared relaxed and confident as narrator of the musical journey, neither rushing nor lingering too long as he packed in as much information as possible during the lecture.  "This piece is so enormous, one can only talk about it superficially in this amount of time," Kahane lamented.  Ambitiously broad in its scope, the lecture was both disappointing and enlightening, long on harmonic explanation and short on why Beethoven's music sounds like Beethoven and why his Symphony No. 7 -- a rhythmic masterwork built around simple arpeggios and scales -- is so unique.  Also, by trying to explain all of Western music theory, Kahane went over most of the audience's heads while spoon-feeding those who already know their tonic from their dominant chords.  In a way, the lecture was just a grander version of what Kahane has been doing all along in his talks at Copperfield's Books and now at the pre-concert tune-ups.  The difference here was that instead of fiddling with rented pianos and CDs and bad sound equipment, Kahane had the glorious luxury of a grand piano and a live orchestra at his fingertips.  By having the orchestra play excerpts from other classical works and Beethoven symphonies, Kahane was able to place Symphony No. 7 clearly within the framework of the Classical period and Beethoven's symphonic oeuvre.  But why not also take advantage of a live orchestra to demonstrate different tempi and interpretive approaches? Why not reveal how a conductor helps shape an orchestra's sound?  Those quibblings aside, Kahane's multi-disciplinary approach to the lecture worked well, with the paintings clearly illustrating the contrast between the Classical period's focus on balance and beauty and the Romantic era's tumult and protest.  Particularly compelling was Kahane's comparison of Beethoven to the Spanish artist Goya, who also straddled both the Classical and Romantic eras.  At the end of the lecture, Kahane read from Keats' famous poem, "Ode on a Grecian Urn" -- an apt introduction to the heady Beethoven symphony: "What wild ecstasy? Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter ..."  All in all, it was an exciting night for music educators and students and anyone who wants to see classical music survive amid the changing seas of American culture.