Rite of Summer Music Festival (7/16/22)

Curtis Stewart, violin

I wanted to like this better than I did. Mr. Stewart plays a fine violin. It was paired, however, with recorded text, recorded violin (and other instruments?) all of which were electronically modified (reverb, etc.).

The first two pieces were taken from his Grammy-nominated pandemic recording, Of Power. First was Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely. It was a nice layout of the tune with some jazz embellishments. Interesting, but a little went a long way. The second piece was Lift Every Voice and Sing, aka the Black National Anthem. The tune was broken up more than in the previous piece, and the harmonies added a feeling of angst, which made a strong piece even stronger. The addition of spoken text was fairly effective.

The next pieces were from an upcoming project—Of Love. OK, I rarely do this. The project is definitely a labor of love, as Mr. Stewart was the caregiver for his mother, who died recently. As a result, all of the pieces that followed were pretty much colored by that, and were, by and large, very similar in style and effectiveness.

The mix of live violin with recorded text, recorded violin, and live/recorded text with live/recorded violin/vocals made it somewhat difficult to follow. The pieces were very personal and very powerful. The writing was fine. The playing was fine. For me, the result was a little lacking.

I’m glad I heard what I did, and I’m glad that such an accomplished musician is using this platform to get his message across.

The Rite of Summer Music Festival takes place on Governors Island. There are two more concerts scheduled (I missed the first; this was the second). The next two are August 20 (The Westerlies) and Sept. 10 (Sybarite5). There are two of each, one at 1pm and one at 3pm. It’s a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon, and there are usually art exhibits to take in around the island, as well. Free in NYC works for me!

Minor quibble, there was no printed program. (One could, of course, scan the QR code. That would not include me.) I also was unable to find the program listed on RoS’ website. As I said, minor quibble. 

ConcertMeister