GREENSBORO – The Vermont Philharmonic came to the Highland Center for the Arts in Greensboro last Saturday evening and gave an engaging concert of varied orchestral and vocal works, under the skilled baton of music director and conductor Lou Kosma. The composers chosen for the program ranged from Gottschalk to Joplin, Coleridge-Taylor, Mascagni and Giordano.
Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) was born in New Orleans of a German-Jewish father and a French Creole mother. Even as a teenager, he became a touring piano virtuoso in Europe as well as in North and South America, later becoming very popular for his own compositions, which were among the first classical pieces to draw on African, Caribbean and Latin American sources. During the Civil War he gave more than 1,000 concerts in support of the Union cause.
His “Bamboula, Op. 2,” derives from a wild dance given rhythmic vitality by the tambourine, a drum with jingling metal discs of African origin. Stephen Brown of Montpelier gave a spirited performance of this solo piano work, which had a catchy tune right from the beginning, developed playfully with amusing, unexpected turns, altogether good fun.
Scott Joplin (1868-1917) was born in Texas and likewise became an acclaimed pianist at an early age. Though best known for his wonderful piano rags, he was the first Afro-America to write an opera, “A Guest of Honor, a Ragtime Opera” in 1903, and “Treemonisha” in 1910. The latter was given a limited production in Harlem in 1915, but only received a full scale presentation in Atlanta in 1972.
His Overture to “Treemonisha” sets the mood for the theme of the work, which is about a young woman teacher struggling to promote education in her rural community. A very accessible piece, the orchestration is well constructed in moving the melodies around from the strings to the basses and the woodwinds with compelling rhythms, ending in a more jazzy mode.
Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) also had an interesting background, with a father from Sierra Leone and an English mother. His music found inspiration in Native American and Afro-American traditions integrated into classical European musical forms. His “The Bamboula (Rhapsodic Dance #1), op. 75,” written in 1910, has a smooth flow, richly harmonized, and with the flute, oboe and clarinet featured, as well as dramatic percussion effects.
Following the intermission, the Vermont Philharmonic played the Prelude from “Cavalleria Rusticana” by Pietro Mascagni (1863-1945). Like “Pagliacci” by Ruggiero Leoncavallo (1858-1919), with which it is frequently paired (each having only a single act), both men are now considered one-opera composers, their other operas having fallen into oblivion. Written in 1888, the Prelude starts in a moderate tempo but commands the full force of the orchestra, the basic theme emerging in stages. After building dramatic tensions, then there is a lovely, quiet interlude with the harp before coming to the finale.
Selections from “Andrea Chenier” by Umberto Giordano (1867-1948) brought on three professional opera singers with impressive credentials to join the orchestra.
Composed in 1896 in the verismo style, which takes the lives of ordinary people for its subject matter, this four act opera occurs at the time of the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution, during which an estimated 30,000 aristocrats and others were murdered. The herois the poet Chenier and the heroine is Maddelena, who loves him, both doomed to die by the guillotine. The tenor, Adam Laurence Herskowitz, sang the first aria from Act 1, a poem of empathy for the poor, with feeling for the text and a strong projection. Elizabeth Perryman had fine warmth and color in her soprano voice, with just the right amount of vibrato to be expressive, in a melody from Act 3, about her mother’s death by the revolutionaries. In the dramatic ending to the opera in Act 4, Herskowitz returns and reads his last poem before his execution, while baritone Michel Kabay, from off stage, commented in the role of the villain, Gerard, who had accused Chenier of treason. Perryman then joined Herskowitz in a beautiful duet celebrating their love in the face of death.
Under Lou Kosma’s excellent conducting and sensitive interpretation of these works, the orchestra of some 60 players performed with consummate discipline and coordination, well deserving the standing ovation they received from the appreciative audience.
The next concert of the Vermont Philharmonic will showcase Handel’s “Messiah” at St. Augustine’s Church in Montpelier on December 6, at 7:30 p.m., and at the Barre Opera House on December 8, at 2 p.m. For more information, go online at vermontphilharmonic.com.
David K. Rodgers
David K. Rodgers is a writer, mason and card carrying dilettante, who dabbles and babbles in art. He has lived in East Craftsbury for the past 40 years.
