A Real Twofer (9/27/14)

Thanks to the Smithsonian Institution’s Free Museum Day, I spent a very enjoyable few hours at the Museum of Arts and Design on Saturday morning/afternoon, in the Columbus Circle area. This was my first visit, and it was a real pleasure. I lucked into a docent tour, so I got a good overview of the space and the exhibitions, and then I spent some time revisiting certain areas on my own for more in-depth viewing.

Currently on display are NYC Makers – The MAD Biennial; Maryland to Murano – Neckpieces and Sculptures by Joyce J. Scott; and What Would Mrs. Webb Do? – A Founder’s Vision. The first, NYC Makers, specifically refers to artists as makers, since their creations include functional items as well as pieces designed for display. Makers from all five boroughs are represented. An added bonus gleaned from the docent tour is that some of the displays—the way the pieces are actually laid out—are designed for specific pieces, or are site specific for the Biennial.

The neckpieces display includes beaded items, glass and metals, feathers, etc. There are display cases as well as a multitude of pullout drawers, where additional items are on view.

Mrs. Webb, Aileen Osborn Webb, focused on craftsmanship—she founded the American Craft Council, the School of American Craftsmen, and the World Craft Council. The exhibition also focuses on collected oral histories of American craftsmen (and, of course, women are implied/included in all of these titles) and gold medal award-winning pieces from juried competitions across the years.

One of the things I liked about the museum is its use of light and space. There are also performance venues as well as (and I’m not making this up, you know!) red, green, and blue scratch ’n’ sniff decal-like decorations in the stairwells.

After a quick bite to eat, my next stop was at one of my mainstays, the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts. In the Bruno Walter auditorium I heard a program titled The Sylvan Winds Celebrate Georges Barrère. The base quintet—flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and French horn—was augmented with an additional flute, clarinet, bassoon, and oboe.

Georges Barrère was a French flutist who came to New York, played with the New York Symphony Orchestra (later merged with the New York Philharmonic), and was an influential teacher here in America. He was represented on the program as the arranger of the first piece presented, Suite Miniature, by Poldowski (1879–1932). Poldowski, it seems, was the pseudonym of Belgian-born composer Régine Wieniawski.

The rest of the program included many composers and works that were new to me, but then, wind ensembles are not my strong point. The pieces: Second Suite for wind octet – Theodore Dubois (1837–1924); Fantasia con Fuga, Op. 28 (1908) for flute, oboe, English horn, clarinet, 2 bassoons & horn – Edouard Flament (1880–1958); Miniatures – William Grant Still (1895–1978); Suite for wind quintet (1933) – Henry Cowell (1897–1965); a trio, announced from the stage; and Second Suite for winds, Op. 122 – Charles-Édouard Lefebvre (1843–1917).

The general level of playing was fine, with only one bit of out of tune sustained octaves between the flute and horn—a note here, as I’ve mentioned before, the horn in a wind quintet is a French horn; the English horn referred to above is actually a woodwind with a timbre slightly darker than an oboe, though it is very closely related.

The program went on a bit too long, especially as the last piece had a more formidable structure with larger, longer movements. All in all, though, a nice concert as the end of a real twofer.

ConcertMeister