Keeping Amarillo Artsy
WTAMU Faculty Showcase
Mary Moody Northern Recital Hall
August 27, 2024
Rossitza Goza violin; Choong-ha Nam, piano
Summertime-George Gershwin; arr. Jascha Heifetz
The evening of August 27, the music faculty of WTAMU, at this inauguration of the arts season in Artsy Amarillo, put an exclammatioin point on why this institution has one of the premier music departments in the entire state!
Eleven different soloists and ensembles showcased their talents, with a sampling reviewed here.
Kevin McKee is an America composer specializing in brass chamber music. His current oeuvre includes some forty recordings. Full Tilt, a thrilling brass melange, is quintessensial McKee. It opens with a trilling brass, then a dynamic buildup, with intricate tonguing ensues. There is arguably no clear melody line, but a sequence of fanfares that make an appearance then dissolve, or are subsumed in the intricacies of the accompanying instruments. Then the cyle repeats, making this piece a sequence of interconnected melodies, featuring one or more of the instruments as dominant.
Complexity and intensity are the words that best describes this short work, which requires the virtuosity of “full tilt” musical professionals. Congratulations to the fabulous five who proved emphatically that you can’t ignore brass players, especially those as talented as those on the WTAMU music faculty!
One piano begins this delightful work, in such contrast to his symphonies, with a series of compressed runs, while the other, after a few beats, initiates a melodic ditty. They literally “skip” back and forth, until, at 1:06, they combine to introduce another theme, which is more melodic and emphatic. Around 1:30 the two instruments engage in a happy sort of syncopation which reverts to the original exchange, which runs to completion.
The work premiered in 1954, as the composer was caught in the web of political turmoil that characterized Stalinist and post-Stalinist Russia. Therefore, its flippancy and light-heartedness is almost cathartic, his way of saying, “Ding dong, the witch is dead,” as a way of celebrating the death of Stalin.
This opera loosely follows the story of Cinderella, sans the mouse-drawn pumpkin carriage. The leading lady, Angelina, is treated as a lowliest of servants by her adopted household, especially her snarky step-sisters. Don Ramiro, in servant’s guise, has been told that the most beautiful woman in the land, whom he seeks for a bride, is part of this household. In walks Angelina, in the real-time garb of a toilet-scrubbing servant, enters and is shocked by the presence of a strange male.
Matt’s singing comprises some of the most memorable tenor lyrics in the operatic repertoire, while Sarah’s talents as a comedienne show full force. Her talents extend to directing, as the currently-running first opera of Bizet, Dr. Miracle attests. Stay tuned for an upcoming blog.
Evgeny Zvonnikov on violin and Sarah Rushing on piano teamed up for Tambourin Chinois, Op 3 by the Austrian-American composer and violinist Fritz Kreisler. The naming was due to the percussive imitation in the first section, hence Tambourin. The next section was called Chinois because of its roots in a five-tone Chinese tale. The supposed to sound Chinese, it sounds extremely European to this listener.
Kreisler’s long life spanned the cultural heyday of pre-WWI Vienna and the ensuing preeminence of NYC. Serving briefly in the Austrian army at the outbreak of WWI, he lived in NYC before going back to Europe, barely escaping the clutches of Nazism. His saga underscores the axiom: Truth is stranger than Fiction! Sarah and Evgeny were a credit to his memory in this performance.
After a lapse of too many months, due to a hosting problem brought about by a unsolicited alteration of address, Keep Amarillo Artsy is now Keeping Amarillo Artsy, made available through Bluehost. And, just in time, as the arts season in Artsy Amarillo has opened with a cascade of productions in all of the arts. So, for the present, as well as the future, this blog commits to:
Keeping Amarillo Artsy!
Keeping Austin Weird!
Keeping Lubbock in the Rear View Mirror!
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