The Academy, South Worthington, MA
July 14 - August 18, 2019
by Michael J. Moran
The Academy at night |
This family-based music festival, founded by Robert and
Rolande Schrade and named after the first letter of their names and those of
their five children, opened its 51st anniversary season on “Bastille Day” with
an exhilarating program of French music performed (mostly) by members of the
extended Schrade-James family.
It opened with two pieces from Debussy’s first book of
“Images” played by Lynelle James, daughter of pianists David James and the late
Robelyn Schrade-James and a granddaughter of the founders. Her “Reflets dans
L’Eau” (Reflections in the Water) was lithe and sensuous, while “Mouvement”
(Movement) had quicksilver energy. Lynelle’s father, David, next played
Debussy’s “Clair de Lune,” from his “Suite Berganasque,” with gentle
simplicity. He then brought vigor and clarity to Ravel’s compact three-movement
“Sonatine.”
Lynelle’s aunt Rorianne Schrade, youngest daughter of the
founders, followed with an alternately dreamy and dramatic account of Chopin’s
Impromptu in F-sharp Major. The first half of the program ended with Lynelle
and her brother Christopher James offering a fluid, engaging performance of an
arrangement for cello and piano of the closing “Allegretto poco mosso” movement
from Cesar Franck’s violin sonata in A Major.
The program’s second half was devoted to a delightful
rendition of the “Carnival of the Animals” by Camille Saint-Saens in a version
for two pianos, played by Lynelle and Rorianne. Each of the piece’s fourteen
short movements depicts a different animal, except the eleventh, which depicts
pianists. These players performed this and the other movements with humor and
the mood best suited to each selection: majesty for the opening “Royal March of
the Lion”; torpor for the ultra-slow “Tortoises”; and tender grace for the
familiar “Swan.”
A special pleasure of this presentation was the hilarious
narration by Ogden Nash, elegantly delivered by New York-based radio
personality Magee Hickey, fresh from covering the city’s blackout for WPIX the
night before. She even managed to keep a straight face when reading Nash’s
clever rhyming of “boomerang” with “tasty kangaroo meringue.”
The joyous atmosphere of this musical family gathering was
an auspicious launch to this beloved festival’s second half-century.