Meet the Music

     On Thursday, November 7th, I attended an event at the Beach Museum of Art titled "Meet the Music." The program was a selection of songs performed by string students from the studio of Cora Cooper. For each performance piece, artwork currently displayed within the museum was chosen as a visual representation of their pieces.  It was a great program, with a variety of composers from different time periods and in one case, an original student composition.  Except for the first performance, the following were accompanied by a collaborative pianist. For this journal entry, I am going to analyze each performance as each had it's own strengths and weaknesses. So, here goes!

     The first performance was a quartet piece.  The piece they performed was the Concerto in D major for Four Violins.  Each movement was played well, with very few intonation problems. Unfortunately, there were also a couple moments where the group got slightly out of sync, but was barely noticeable to most.  Overall, the performance was spot on.

     The second performance was a viola solo piece.  The piece was Fantasie by Johann Nepomuk Hummel.  The violist was spectacular.  Her technique and intonation were spot on.  I definitely noticed that she was 'lost in the moment' as her body movements matched the emotional ups and downs of the piece.

     The third performance was a violin solo piece.  The piece was the Concerto for Violin, Op. 48: Allegro molto e con brio by Dmitri Kabelevsky. I love hearing russian classical music. The emotions evoked by the piece were almost overwhelming. Intonation was good.

    The fourth performance was a viola trio. They performed Intermezzo by Hubert Parry. Each part was done fairly well, one of the violists was the one who performed the solo piece. She was one of the best performers I heard that night. Overall a short, but nice piece.

    The fifth performance was a viola solo. The piece was Six Studies in English Folksong: Lovely on the Water, Spurn Point, The Pride of Kildare by Ralph Vaughn Williams. The technique and tempo was good, but there was a lot of intonation errors. For me, it was a little difficult to listen to.

     The sixth performance was a violin solo. The first piece was a traditional country song called Roxanna's Waltz and the second piece was Manhattan Breakdown, composed by the performer himself. Both pieces were excellent and no sheet music was used. I was really impressed with this performance.

     The final performance was a violin solo. The piece played was Concerto No. 2 in D minor: Allegro moderato by Henri Wieniawski. This performance took the cake. This violinist was outstanding. Her confidence along with her amazing technique and intonation brought tears to my eyes. Even as I am writing this I am still blown away by her performance.

     Honestly, I had no idea how amazing this was going to be. I am so glad I went!