Close Encounters concert pays tribute to some legendary American music By Richard Houdek;  Special to The Eagle.
 
Monday, December 01, 2003 - GREAT BARRINGTON -- Being perhaps the most American of all holidays, Thanksgiving also demands to be among the most fun, with its luxurious round of feasting after gathering together those dearest. 
 
In that spirit, Close Encounters with Music each year at this time offers an all-American concert for its followers, often reflecting some of the lighter moments of music along with a few serious comments from those in the land of the free and the home of the brave who are endowed with notable gifts of lyricism and harmony. 
 
This year's installment, "American Myths," was transferred from its customary site, that veritable bastion of Americana, the Norman Rockwell Museum, to Close Encounters' new home, the Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center. And this concert proved once again that despite a bit of chill for those insufficiently wrapped -- the new heating system re-mains on the promised list -- the Mahaiwe is an ideal place to enjoy chamber music. 
 
Friday evening's program included two world premieres, one based on a film score, juxtaposed among mostly recognizable music that could not fail to jog a few warm memories of happy experiences. 
 
Jorge Martin's "Hollywood Variations for Cello and Piano" borrowed its driving melody from Leonard Rosenman's well-remembered love theme from "East of Eden," Elia Kazan's superb 1955 adaptation of John Steinbeck's allegorical novel. 
 
The 10-minute work's seven or so variations ranged from rapid to slow tempos, providing cunning riffs tossed back and forth from cello to piano, a bluesy interlude, one inversion and a three-note phrase embellishment, all following a reasonably straightforward opening declaration of Rosenman's theme. 
  
The piece was performed with gusto by cellist Yehuda Hanani, artistic director of the series, and one of Hanani's guests, James Tocco, at the keyboard. 
  
Prior to the performance, the audience was shown a montage from the film in which the soundtrack embraced Rosenman's theme, the opening credits, that famous flirtatious roller coaster scene with James Dean and Julie Harris, and the poignant finale. 
  
The excerpts were woven together seamlessly in a beautiful editing job by Paul Kakley from an old pan-and-scan videocassette. The partially cut off images illustrated why a DVD release of this wide-screen cinema masterpiece is long overdue. 
  
Martin, a native of Cuba, took a deserved bow; Kakley was due one as well. 
 
In the evening's other premiere, Kenneth LaFave's piano trio, "American Avenues" -- also commissioned by Close Encounters -- Hanani and Tocco were joined by Yehonatan Berick, an exceptionally fine violinist. His unusually sweet tone often tugged at the heart, yet was able to give full voice, without harshness, to the spikier moments in LaFave's piece. 
The first of the composer's thoroughfares, "Street of Dreams," is 42nd Street, engendering its typically buoyant atmosphere, laced internally with inherent anxiety. 
  
"Path to the Japanese Garden" is constructed of the intervals familiar in Oriental music. The third part, "Intersection of Black and White," emerges in a not-so-subtle Gershwinesque jazz mode. The final movement offers a kind of instrument-to-instrument relay that ambles to the end. 
 
Berick also proved worthy of the five songs from "Porgy and Bess" that Jascha Heifetz transcribed from George Gershwin's opera. His playing was physically animated, not enough, perhaps, to pacify the purists. Nevertheless, Heifetz's adroit interpretation, with its feverish triple stops, affords an excellent opportunity for virtuosity. 
 
Tocco inaugurated the evening with a skillful tour of Samuel Barber's delightful "Four Excursions for Piano." Listed in most references as Opus 20, it is an early Barber composition, based on folk tunes that explore the city, a sassy turn of the blues, a set of variations on "The Streets of Laredo" and a barn dance. 
 
The evening concluded with a reprise from last year of Paul Schoenfield's infectious piano trio "Cafe Music," a winsome combination of klezmer, jazz and classical music that, even with some ragged edges, sent the moderate-size crowd home in a Thanksgiving mood despite a heavy downpour. 

< Close this Window >