Caveat Emptor! This performance was so delightfully full of multiple eargasms that well, I lost count…
Chamber Music II hit the stage early this afternoon, and from the twinkle in Charles Wadsworth’s eye, the audience knew that something special was afoot. The Chamber Music series is celebrating the 100th anniversary of The MacDowell Colony, a wonderful retreat for artists whose former residents have names like, oh, Copland and Bernstein. But there was more than just the love of this fertile place for inspiration on our esteemed host’s mind… He had another kind of love on his mind. He proclaimed the movement markings of several works in a voice that showed the audience every last ounce of emotional impact expected from these works. As he sat at the piano for the first piece, he said, “I won’t translate…you will get it…”
And get it did we ever! Soprano Courtenay Budd and cellist Andrés Díaz joined Dr. Wadsworth for MacDowell Colony alumnus Amy Beach’s intensely romantic Chauson D’amour. Mrs. Budd’s voice, always light and precise when quiet and shiver-me-timbers beautiful at the crescendos, twined in a lovers embrace with Mr. Díaz’s playful answering lines while our able pianist provided the backdrop of their love. A most rousing (and arousing…) start.
During the next work’s introduction two cell phones rang. Please don’t let this be you.
Another work by a MacDowell Colony alumnus followed. Arches for solo violin, by Kevin Puts cast the spell that only comes from music written for a virtuoso. It was commissioned by our festival and violinist Chee-Yun a few years ago, and has seen prior Spoleto performances. Today, Chee-Yun graced us with her exquisite presence to play two movements from this work, Caprice on Unassuming and Unfettered. The caprice starts by slowly spelling out chords, adding an element or two and picking up speed. After staying at a good gallop for a bit, there begins a headlong rush of notes played at a such a blistering speed, several in attendance needed to search the floor for their jaws. Unfettered kept up the fast pace, starting with a race of double stops and a melody that makes one think, “What if Shostakovich had been born in Texas and wrote hoe-down music?” Through it all, Chee-Yun played with an “unassuming” grace that was “unfettered” perfection! She ended with a protracted bang and quite possibly the most beautiful smile in the Lowcountry.
Next up was The St. Lawrence String Quartet performing Debussy’s lone quartet. This complex work sounds best when played as an intense conversation, and from highly animated first violinist Geoff Nutall’s sharp in-breath of a start, the talk was on… SLSQ’s newest member, second violinist Scott St. John, sounds as if he has truly found a home, deftly in step with violist Lesley Robertson and cellist Christopher Costanza, while adroitly complementing Mr. Nutall’s impassioned style. Debussy’s trip to the very first World’s Fair in 1889, where he heard Indonesian gamelan music, provided inspiration for the second movement. Here, the SLSQ plucked their instruments with a sense of timing that never faltered. The last two movements brought us back to the throbbing heart of Debussy. The SLSQ’s burnished bronze tone (with the smallest hint of dryness…) captured that throbbing intensity with a wink that seemed to say, “Yes, this emotion is powerful now, but like all things, it will pass. Therefore, hold only a joyful heart.” After the applause had died down, there was a great buzz throughout the audience as everyone turned to their neighbor to reaffirm that this amazing performance had actually happened.
Dr. Wadsworth introduced the last work as an encore piece, “virtuosic and stupid;” because he “likes to set up artists in a sensitive way.” Flutist Tara Helen O’Connor and harpist Catrin Finch responded by sending us off with Fantasie Brilliante on Themes from Carmen, the only published work by a composer named Borne. This work casts Bizet’s familiar arias in a devil’s dance of delightful flurry with barely time to catch a breath. If our intrepid flustist dropped any notes, well, I sure couldn’t hear it… They went by so fast…
Spoleto’s Bank of America Chamber Music series holds a special place in many a heart. This performance may well find itself counted among the best of its storied history.
And a parting shot (well, two…):
The Dock Street Theatre’s Turtle About Town!
