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Formidable flutist mocks mockingbird magnanimously!
Burney Garelick
Siuslaw News
July 2009
“Listen to the Mocking Bird,” written in 1855, became an enormously popular American song—all without radio, TV, or the Internet. By 1905 the song had sold over twenty million sheet music copies. One of Abraham Lincoln’s favorites, the song is still popular in the 21st century whether played at old time fiddle contests or performed at classical music events. Composed by Septimus Winner, the song is indeed a winner; had Septimus known, he may not have used the pseudonym Alice Hawthorne!
“Listen to the Mocking Bird” was a highlight of the first concert of the 29th annual Yachats Music Festival July 10-12 at the Yachats Presbyterian Church. The song was sung by baritone Thomas Buckner accompanied by pianist Joseph Kubera and extraordinary flutist Marco Granados of Venezuela who took the melody and circled the globe gathering a bevy of songbirds sighing with rapt adoration, imitation being the sincerest form of flattery. Granados, himself a globetrotting performer, composer, arranger, and teacher, played the Yachats event several years ago; concert goers were so glad he returned to the Oregon coast.
Earlier that evening Granados and pianist Jeongeum Yom of Korea played an astonishing duet, Prokofiev’s Sonata in D Major for Flute and Piano Op. 34. The riveting instrumental dialogue turned those Russian clouds of gray to bright blue skies for puttin’ on the Ritz. Granados appeared in the second of the four festival concerts in a duet with harpist Ruth Mar of Seattle, Debussy’s En bateau from Petite Suite. ‘Twas a little night music with fair winds for smooth sailing. Herself a unique player, Mar soloed that evening, playing Henriette Renee’s “Piece symphonique,” a most usual harp piece, dissonant, avant-garde, and most intriguing. Granados’s final selection that evening was a delectable solo, “Venezuelan Potpourri” by Heraclio Hernandez and Trinidad Rosales. The colors and rhythms from South of the Border turned the church into Carnival. A whole evening of Granados is devoutly to be wished!
But the Yachats festival concerts, each lasting two hours, must be shared among twenty-some artists playing or singing relatively short selections. The Yachats event is presented each year by Four Seasons Arts, Inc. of Berkeley, California.
In addition to Granados and Mar, outstanding performers at the first two concerts included bright, delightful soprano Louise Toppin singing Milhaud’s “A Cupidon” (To Cupid) and Lucy’s aria from Menotti’s “The Telephone”—the riotous monologue of a society dame who’d been to a marvelous party!
Always outstanding at this event is pianist Leon Bates of Philadelphia, master of the keyboard. Bates performed Etude No. 1 in G Major by H. Leslie Adams, Samuel Barber’s Nocturne Op. 33, Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in G Sharp Minor Op. 32 No. 12, and Sergei Taneyev’s Piano Quintet Op. 30, a rollicking conclusion to the second evening, equally parsed by violinists Mariana Green-Hill and David Burnett, violist Sam Marchan, and cellist Troy Stuart.
Music was in the air, and concert goers were wrapped in a velvet fog of melody and harmony. It happens every July in Yachats, smelt or no smelt. It is often too marvelous for words . . . and thus ends the tale.
The Yachats Music Festival is dedicated to the memory of its founder, Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams, who began the Festival in Yachats in the summer of 1981.
Individual tickets at $19.00 each can be purchased at the Adobe Resort Motel (541-547-3141) and at the Fireside Motel (541-547-3636), both located in Yachats. For further information, call 510-601-7919, go to www.fourseasonsconcerts.com
Publicity Department Contact:
Norm or Joanne Kittel
541-961-8374
Jnkittel@peak.org
Related Links:
Concert Sponsored by Four Seasons Concerts, INC.
Hosted on Yachats.Info