52 Sumner, Springfield, MA
December 8, 2024
by Michael J. Moran
Host Mark Auerbach introduced this Sunday matinee as a “family friendly” concert, and the enthusiastic audience had many younger members. The program featured three short works and one longer piece, each with immediate appeal to music lovers of all ages.
The concert opened with British composer Alan Ridout’s “Ferdinand the Bull,” a 1971 setting for solo violin and narrator of American author Munro Leaf’s classic 1936 children’s book, “The Story of Ferdinand.” The plot is set in Spain, where Ferdinand grows up preferring to “smell the flowers” under a cork tree by himself to practicing with his playmates for a bullfighting career, until an accident under his tree suddenly propels him into a bigtime ring in Madrid.
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| Photo by Brady LePage |
with witty virtuosity, and Marty Kluger, SSO principal timpanist, narrated with droll humor, alternating deadpan and animated passages, and punctuated his reading with a cowbell, for Ferdinand’s mother (a cow) and wood blocks, for the excitement of the bullfight. Whimsical drawings by the book’s illustrator, Robert Lawson, were projected on both sides of the stage.
Next came a ravishing section by SSO cellist Boris Kogan and pianist Clifton J. Noble, Jr., of “The Swan,” a popular excerpt from French master Camille Saint-Saens’ 1886 “Carnival of the Animals.” This was followed by “The Boston Wonder,” a 1959 setting for flute, piano, and narrator by Peter Schickele (aka P.D.Q. Bach) of his own comical tale about a cantankerous flute. SSO flutist Ellen Redman and Noble were nimble soloists, and Auerbach, an amusing narrator.
The major work of the afternoon was Noble’s “Johnny Appleseed,” commissioned and premiered in 2008 by the Longmeadow Chamber Music Society. The versatile composer again played piano and conducted an ensemble of Harbison, Kogan, Redman, Michael Nix on banjo, mezzo-soprano Justina Golden, and narrator Kara Noble, Jerry’s wife. The piece was inspired by Jane Yolen’s 2008 book about John Chapman, the real “Johnny,” who grew up in Longmeadow and famously planted apple trees across the U.S. two centuries ago.
The performance was a crowd-pleasing delight, with special plaudits to Golden, whose mellifluous voice replaced the children’s chorus in Noble’s original version with a wide emotional palette, and to Nix, whose fluent banjo added folksy charm.
The group's next concert take place on February 9, 2025.
