Aston Magna Music Festival
Saint James Place, Great Barrington, MA
Saturday, June 17, 2017
by Rebecca Phelps
Last Saturday an audience of enthusiastic fans greeted the
first musical delight of Aston Magna’s 45th season. Music for Forbidden Dances
was a departure from purely Baroque and early music genres, featuring some
obscure instruments; i.e. the bandoneon and a chalumeau (precursor to the
clarinet), along with traditional instruments.
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| Daniel Stepner |
The first half of the concert followed the development of
two dance forms primarily known as movements in baroque dance suites: the
sarabande and the chaconne. The opening medley, “Ensalada,” entertained us to
the syncopated, raucous rhythms of the early roots of these dances, brought
from the New World back to Spain and Europe, and considered to be too
provocative for proper society.
The most famous chaconne ever written was performed by
Daniel Stepner, Aston Magna artistic director and violinist extraordinaire: the
“Chaconne in d minor” from the Second Partita for violin, by J.S. Bach. This
tour-de-force of stamina, skill and mental concentration, lasting over 15
minutes, was performed with great vigor by Stepner.
The second half of the concert brought us into the 20th
century, and the world of the tango, featuring the bandoneon, a concertina-like
instrument invented in Germany which caught on like wildfire in Argentina. Hector
del Curto is a virtuosic player from a long line of Argentinian bandoneon
players; both his grandfather and great-grandfather were bandoneonists. Musical
talent runs in the family as was evident when he introduced his wife, a
wonderful cellist, and his young son, a clarinetist. Together they played the
evocative “Oblivion”, by Astor Piazzolla, bringing us into the other
deliciously forbidden dance form featured in the program: the Tango.
The final piece, “Tango” by Robert Xavier Rodriquez, was a
theatrical work narrated and sung by the talented Frank Kelly. It told a
history of the tango in the 20th century through news clippings and actual
sermon quotes from Cardinal Pompeii.
Clearly some very imaginative programming and fine
musicianship went into this program, the first of Aston Magna’s summer series.
