Such a wonderful yearly event, it is unfortunate it only comes once each spring!
Today (Sunday, April 22) was the day for the Louisville Orchestra to visit Corydon, Indiana to perform their annual concert as a fundraiser for the Leora Brown School. While (only slightly) less than perfect, the afternoon was a total delight!
2007 is the fifth year that Maxine Brown, niece of African-American school teacher Leora Brown, has spearheaded her ad hoc event committee to produce a thoroughly enjoyable cultural happening amidst the rolling Hoosier Hills and Indiana's first state capital "city." After so many years experience, clearly Maxine and company are doing things right!
This year the weather was perfect, and only music like that from the Louisville Orchestra could make us want to stay inside. The afternoon started off with a luncheon dinner at the Leora Brown School itself, presented by community cooks and helped along in major ways by Cesaers Indiana (scalloped potatoes and steamed mixed veggies), Tyson Foods (barbequed chicken --- what else?) and O'Charley's (sweet dinner rolls). Again this year Maxine's brother drove down from South Bend to stew up a mess of his quickly-becoming-famous cooked greens. Local cooks donated desserts that gave ample evidence that country cooking and baking is still alive and well.
And after a quick ride up to the main auditorium at the Corydon Central High School, the concert was about to begin. Maxine gave gracious welcoming remarks to the crowd, and warm thanks to the ever-growing Concert Committee, whose ranks this year counted over fifty. Special honorable mention went to Leah Porter, who ably chaired and co-ordinated this year's committee. Added welcomes were offered by Dr. Neyland Clark, superintendent of South Harrison Community School Corporation, and by Kevin Hammersmith of Duke Energy, a major business sponsor this year.
At last, the concertmaster appeared and the orchestra did their final tune-up. Then Conductor Stuart Chafetz emerged onstage, and after a few opening remarks the first music piece began, Cowboys Overture by movie composer John Williams. This music was performed well, enjoyable, vaguely familiar but hardly memorable. If Conductor Chafetz mentioned what movie it was used in I failed to catch it.
For the next piece, Chafetz warned us that he might expect the audience to sing along, or even dance along. It turned out he was kidding about the dancing, but was serious about the singing. As he charmingly introduced Selections from My Fair Lady by Frederick Lowe (Bennett, arranger), we began to pick up on it that Chafetz has quite a stage presence of his own. Sure enough, as the orchestra played familiar pieces such as I Could Have Danced All Night and The Rain in Spain, Chafetz would turn around and mouth to the audience that they were indeed expected to sing along. The audience obviously had fun doing so. Such behavior thoroughout the concert indicated that there was no need for an orchestra event in Corydon to be pretentiously high-brow.
At this point, I became surprised at the shortness of the selected pieces, which seemed consistently to end before I was ready. I began timing the music with my wristwatch.
I was also surprised that this year's student soloist performed so early in the program. Chafetz now brought out solo celloist Anne Richardson, winner of the 2006 Young Artist Competition in Louisville. Dressed in her lovely pink flowered dress, Anne told us, after some prodding by Chafetz, that she is ten years old and has been playing the cello for four and one-half years. She played beautifully Allegro Appassionato for Cello, Opus 43 by Camille Saint-Saens ... but again I was surprised at the brevity of the work, which my wristwatch told me lasted only four minutes.
Now Chafetz pointed out that the remaining music selections were all by African-American composers.
Next we heard Amazing Grace Fanfare for Orchestra by Adolphus Hailstork. Indeed, as Chafetz had explained, the strings played the melody from Amazing Grace while the horns provided the fanfare. But the music seriously disappointed me for the first time in the concert. The horns sounded like they might still be in Louisville, and it was unfortunate that different sections of the orchestra were so poorly balanced. But it did not ruin the piece. Nor did I have to tolerate for long, as this piece again was only four minutes.
Next came The Entertainer by Scott Joplin (Schuller/Belisle, arrangers), and Chafetz gave a short explanation about where the term "ragtime" came from: people had not heard sycopated rhythms before, and described them as "raggy" --- although we have heard them so much today that they hardly seem raggy to us. The piece was played beautifully, but again ended after four minutes.
It was followed by a medley of familiar tunes by Duke Ellington (Custer, arranger). I'm not up on all my Duke Ellington songs, but the first was definitely his very famous Take the "A" Train ... and I was a tiny bit frustrated that its real composer, Billy Strayhorn, did not get even a mention. (Strayhorn, also African-American, composed many of Ellington's pieces, but did not widely receive credit until recent years because of his sexual orientation.) We got to enjoy the Ellington music for a nearly-luxurious seven minutes.
The audience again had fun with a quick medley called Back to the Fifies! arranged by Robert Wendel. It featured Mr. Sandman, The Great Pretender, Que Sera Sera and the familiar fifties rumba Tequila! Again in response to Chafetz's comical, silently mouthed cues, at the right moments the crowd enjoyed yelling "Tequila!"
The last piece in this too-short afternoon was Polovtsian Dances No. 17 by Alexander Borodin, orchestrated by Glazunov. Chafetz let us in beforehand that one of its themes is the melody Stranger in Paradise ... and indeed, the sweet opening paragraphs, sublimely smooth and hauntingly sentimental, could have transported one into paradise. But then the piece moved into a middle section with dramatic, slightly cacophonous descents, which suggested to me the feeling of falling off-balance. The piece was indeed beautiful, ending again with the Stranger in Paradise theme, this time with a variation where the flutes and the violins merged so that we could imagine birds chirping and singing. At fourteen minutes, it was a superb selection for ending the concert.
The afternoon's performance was a magical 75 minutes that was over too soon, and I wish that a recording were available. The selections were wonderfully simple, and often familiar. The only problem I see is that such familiar pieces leave the audience with their musical horizons largely unchallenged.
On the other hand, we all had great fun, and we want everyone to come back next year. I know I will.
