Beautiful music in magnificent buildings

Last week we were at the Buzzards Bay Musicfest, a compact summer event with five concerts held over four evenings and an afternoon, all presented in the spacious comfortable auditorium at Tabor Academy. This week we attended an event very nearby but at the opposite end stylistically: the Newport Music Festival. This was the festival’s 48th season, and it presented 61 concerts over 17 days. The venues included the renowned mansions of Bellevue Avenue, churches and museums. The venues are both a strength and a limitation. Who could not enjoy listening to gorgeous music in the main hall of The Breakers? At the same time, use of these facilities meant you were sitting in folding chairs most of the time, making backaches a hazard. It also meant that the repertoire was almost exclusively chamber music, as none of the venues had the space for a full orchestra as well as an audience. The music presented was almost exclusively from the giants of 18th 19th and early 20th century composition: Brahms, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Mozart dominated. There was very little from contemporary composers or early music. One interesting novelty was an evening featuring a Chinese master of the pipa both as soloist and filling in the violin part of a quartet. Another inventive presentation was Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #3 with a second piano playing the orchestral part. The music was uniformly high quality, and the event well-worth putting on your calendar for next year.

Beautiful Music by the Sea

For classical music enthusiasts, summer is festival time. All around the country, from Marlboro to Wolf Trap, musicians and listeners gather. One of the finest festivals is held right here, in the seaside town of Marion. The 20th annual Buzzards Bay Musicfest just concluded another successful week. The festival is held at Tabor Academy’s Hoyt Hall, with comfortable seating, AC and excellent acoustics. The concerts are free to all, supported by donations from the community. The musicians, many of whom have been coming for all 20 years, are national-caliber, hailing from major orchestras around the country. They live with host families in town and present a variety of performances. This year we had two orchestral concerts, the opener featuring a Hummel bassoon concerto, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto #1 and his 8th Symphony and the closing performance Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante and Haydn’s Drum Roll Symphony. The second and third concerts featured chamber music, modern and classic. A particularly interesting piece of programming was to feature two works for harp, winds and strings: Ravel’s Introduction and Allegro on one day and a recently commissioned work by Canadian composer Mozetich, Angels in Flight, on another. The harp was a new addition to the festival, but hopefully will return, as harpist Rita Costanzi was very well-received. The Saturday evening concert featured jazz: The Orrin Evans Quartet. This was the third year for the introduction of a jazz evening and this has proven to be the best-attended of any of the concerts. It is hard to single out any musician, as all were superb, but David Wehr on piano did brilliantly in the Beethoven and shone in the piano quintets. Violinist Charles Stegeman acted as music director and concert master, and took front stage in the Mozart Sinfonia. Mark your calendars for next July!

The Folk Festival resounds in New Bedford

The 21st New Bedford Folk Festival took place under ideal weather – not too hot – and once again showed why it is a jewel of the city. For 20 years Alan and Helene Korolenko had run the entire festival, and moans were heard around New England when they announced that last year’s was their last; the effort involved had gotten to be too much. Fortunately for folk music fans, the Zeiterion Theatre staff took up the burden of organizing the festival while Alan and Helene resumed artistic direction. The organization was superb. Past festivals had been held over the July 4 weekend, which led to conflicts with other activities. This year’s dates were the weekend after, allowing festival goers to attend more of the event. The festival was spread out over downtown New Bedford, with seven venues operating simultaneously most of the weekend. New was use of the Z – this beautiful 1200 seat theatre was a marvelous addition. It was used for the more well-known artists during the day, and served as the only site for the late evening performances Saturday and Sunday, when it was filled to capacity. Also new and welcome was a “food court” set up near the Z on Purchase street, with a wide variety of vendors offering quick meals that could be consumed between performances. The performers were the usual mix of well-known folk singers such as Cheryl Wheeler, Garnet Rogers, Ellis Paul, Kate and Livingston Taylor and John Gorka; lesser known but excellent groups from around the Northeast and Canada and local artists. One group we had never heard before but plan to follow was Miss Rosie - an energetic quintet of young musicians putting a new spin on old songs. Kudos to all involved, and may the festival continue!