Saturday afternoon found me at the Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts for a concert Celebrating Samuel Barber’s 105th Anniversary. Interestingly, earlier in the day I celebrated “Alice: 150 Years of Wonderland” at the Morgan Library & Museum. The Barber concert featured Maxim Anikushin, piano, carillon, and organ; Eric Silberger, violin; and Thelma Ithier-Sterling, soprano.
All of the music was composed by Samuel Barber (1910–1981), but most of the featured works were from his early years, including one that was written when he was seven years old. The first piece on the program was Souvenirs, Op. 28 (1952), a suite of six dances for solo piano. Waltz had a bright opening, and was modern but easy to listen to. Schottische was lively, and still had modern harmonies and rhythms. Pas de deux, gentler in tone and tempo, had a slightly ethereal ending. Two-step showed a bit of Latin flair and rhythm, while Hesitation-Tango gave us the full Latin treatment of a tango, but without being in-your-face aggressive. Galop was a return to bright, energetic rhythms that put me in the mind of fractured, modernist carousel music.
Much of the early piano solo music—Three Themes (1923), “Petite Berceuse”
(1923), and Essay II (1926)—gave insight into the budding mind of a young composer, but seemed a bit too repetitive in style and theme. Essay II was my favorite of this bunch, with its hints of imitating Stravinsky and Debussy. Still, it was more of a compositional character study as opposed to music for music’s sake. A pair of very simplistic childhood compositions followed. They could easily have been omitted, in my opinion.
Videos of Mr. Anikushin playing on two different carillons followed, and they were quite interesting. Who knew that you play a carillon by hitting batons. The three carillon pieces were written by Barber between 1930 and 1933. Four more videos followed after intermission, including Mr. Anikushin playing piano, organ, harpsichord and, again, carillon. The works were from 1926, 1927, and 1930 to 1933.
Live music returned with the Violin Sonata in F minor (1928), Allegro Agitato (movement III) performed by Mr. Silberger and Mr. Anikushin. It was pretty modern, for music of an 18-year-old composer—very dramatic, interesting, though not my favorite style, and included a more lyrical middle section that I liked better. That said, it was played extremely well by both performers. Messrs. Silberger and Anikushin followed this with Gypsy Dance from the opera The Rose Tree (1922), which was quite the showpiece, written at the age of 12! Parts of it were a bit cliché, so I just sat back and enjoyed it.
Of the six Early Songs performed by Ms. Ithier-Sterling, “The Daisies,” from Three Songs, Op. 2 (1927) and “The Slumber Song of the Madonna” (1925) were my favorites. Some earlier songs from 1917 and 1919 were included, possibly to show Barber’s growth in compositional techniques of Art Songs. Ms. Ithier-Sterling sang nicely, but didn’t really showcase these songs very well. The song Why Not? closed out the concert. It was a bit of a novelty song, and was quite amusing and—why not? It was from the pen and mind of a seven-year-old composer.
Sunday afternoon turned into a sort of history tour of the blues, courtesy of
The Overlook Concerts’ presenting the French Cookin’ Blues Band—Dave “Doc” French, guitar and vocals; Glen Bob Allen, drums; Margey Peters, bass; and Josh Goldberg, harmonica, guitar and vocals. Luckily it was a perfect afternoon for an outdoor concert. Ms. Peters was subbing for the quartet’s regular bass player, and she did a fine job. First things first, the amplification was just too loud. I was not the only person to pick up my plastic chair and move farther away from the speakers. The music itself was well performed, and “Doc” walked us through the history lesson part with charm and not a bit of school teacher–type stuff.
How Happy Am I (“Doc” French) was slow blues, with the harmonica featured quite prominently, in the style of delta blues. With its quicker tempo, Daytime Blues (D. French) had more of a country music feel, and included a nicely composed closing section. Without naming every name, we moved through to Chicago blues, with more of a driving rhythm and raw vocals. After adding a touch of R&B, Goldberg (“Brother G”) took over vocals from “Doc” in a nice rendition of Willie Dixon’s You Can’t Judge a Book by Its Cover. Marie, by Dave Alvin, and Bo Diddley, by Ellis McDaniels, roared us firmly into blues/rock before returning to a slower blues feel (with a classic walking bass line) with Old Sun Blues (D. French). The concert closed out with an instrumental version of French’s Waggin’—and there were some dogs in attendance, and their tails were a-waggin’.
There are two more Overlook Concerts (2pm on Oct. 4 and 11 at the Overlook in Riverside Park, near 116th Street) in case you’re interested. Oct. 4 is The Manhattan School of Music Brass Quintet, while the Oct. 11 is the Columbia University Bluegrass Band. Weather permitting, I’ll probably give both a try.
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