Northeast Wisconsin Music Review

Birch Creek Music Performance Center

Birch Creek Faculty

Peninsula Art School , Fish Creek

June 25, 2007

Night Music

The annual chamber music concert offered by the Birch Creek Associates is a social occasion, a benefit for the institution and an opportunity to heard the excellent faculty in closer perspective. Increasing care has been evident in the selection of music, choices now affording works of substance which also highlight the skills of those performing them.

This night began with Percy Grainger’s quirky, but wonderful “Duke of Marlborough Fanfare” performed by a large brass ensemble. This 1939 work for brass band was based upon the English folksong, “The Duke of Marlborough” and represents two faces of war – that of battles past and that of the present moment. Grainger’s harmonies are so rich, so thick, they might be described as clotted. The BC musicians, led by conductor Brian Groner, faced up to the complexities and blew mightily and effectively.

The program’s second work was the Red Quintet of Gustavo Leone, the Chicago-based composer who instructs BC students in serious composition. Leone writes quality music and his Red Quintet (so-called because it is decidedly passionate) is a superbly-developed piece full of intriguing effects and captivating sounds. The ensemble members, violinists Betty Lewis, Sheila Hanford, violist Matt Mantell, cellist Emily Mantell and harpist Faye Seeman, played with great expression and stayed fully attuned to the intricate phrasings and dynamics start to finish. A lovely, emotionally involving experience.

Next double bass principal Alan Steiner, accompanied by pianist Jodie DeSalvo, played Rachmaninoff’s “Vocalise,” a flowing, measured piece that creases the brow of singers and players whose instruments are considerably higher in range. Steiner showed remarkably accurate intonation and phrased with elegance while DeSalvo traced a glowing background.

From bass to treble, we next heard violinist Marcia Henry Liebenow (also accompanied by DeSalvo) in a positively sensational performance of Vittorio Monti’s well-known “Czardas,” a virtuoso piece which certainly was put on up-front display here. Large, luscious tone, slashing attacks, fearsome accuracy and a long measure of gypsy fervor marked this as a very special performance. With DeSalvo’s dashing accompaniment, the violinist won a cheering ovation.

Also spectacular was harpist Faye Seeman’s shinning realization of Carlos Salzedo’s “Scintillation.” This evocation of the stars was star-dusted for certain, its difficult, demanding shifts and shadings managed with effortless brilliance by the artist. The cosmos shone bright indeed.

Finally, two movements from Gounod’s sweetly direct Petite Symphonie for Winds in B-flat major (1885) featured winds and brass, especially very attractive solo moments from flutist Shannon Finney and oboist (and Symphony series Program Director) Riccardo Casteñeda. With support from student players, this ensemble, too, testified to the standards which have made Birch Creek Music Performance Center the leading institution it is.

The music this night was as starry as the open skies shining above. (Erik Eriksson)