This is the title of a magnificent chamber concert given several weeks ago as part of the Con Brio Chamber Series to benefit Juneau Alaska Music Matters. The very high quality of the concert lingers in my mind.
The event was organized by Lorrie Heagy, whose efforts to educate young people of Juneau musically led to her being named Alaska Teacher of the Year for 2011. Earlier, she had been pictured on the front page of the Boston Globe as a student of El Sistema, of which Gustavo Dudamel, music director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, is its most famous graduate.
Heagy brought the principles of El Sistema to Juneau and has established an exceptionally high level of musicianship in her students at Glacier Valley Elementary School. She brought that same high standard into the magnificent concert recently at Northern Light United Church.
Tenor Mark Calvert opened the program with his rendition of “An die ferne Geliebte” (“To the distant beloved”) by Beethoven, the first song cycle ever composed. I’m sure that Mr. Calvert’s smooth performance, including many pianissimo high pitches, was just that which the composer would have wanted.
Next came perfection of flute playing in Sally Schlichting’s performance of Sonata for Flute and Piano by Francis Poulenc. I hardly could believe the clarity, intonation, and warmth of tone from one end of the range to the other, as well as Schlichting’s effortless playing of the more difficult passages of this challenging composition.
She then joined Mark Calvert and cellist Meghan Johnson in a smooth rendition of Leila Lustig’s setting of Lord Byron’s “It was not all a dream.” She continued her impressive playing in “Four Songs after Poems by Toni Morrison.” In this, she was joined by Johnson and talented pianist Luke Weld.
Franz Schubert composed a song titled “Die Forelle” (“The Trout”), a fine example of program music, in which one can hear the swishing of the tail of the trout. This same music is heard in “Piano Quintet in A major,” the allegro giusto of which was played excellently by a quintet consisting of violinist Sophia Butler, violist Kate Kroko, cellist Meghan Johnson, double bassist Andrew Israelsen, and pianist Doug Smith.
Every note of the concert was of the highest quality, and the audience responded in kind, generously contributing more than $2,000 to Juneau Alaska Music Matters.
