Newport Music Festival

Newport, Rhode Island

www.newportmusic.org

July 10-26, 2015

by Michael J. Moran

If you tell someone you’re going to the Newport Music Festival, they’re likelier to assume you mean the folk or jazz festival in August than their less famous classical music sibling in July. But as it celebrates its 47th season, this venerable event also offers far more programming than its two counterparts, with 66 concerts of music from the Romantic Era and beyond presented by more than 100 performers from 17 countries in 12 venues over almost three weeks.

Opening weekend featured a stunning Newport debut in the Breakers by Finnish-born Metropolitan Opera soprano Soile Isokoski. Her silken tone, clear enunciation (in five languages), and nuanced acting skill conveyed a vast range of emotion in music by Grieg, Wagner, Strauss, Sibelius, and Bernstein. From the sweet yearning of Grieg’s “Solveig’s Song” to the haunting depths of Wagner’s “In the Greenhouse” to the childish playfulness of Bernstein’s “My Name Is Barbara,” Isokoski communicated with total empathy and flawless technique. Finnish pianist Ilkka Paananen accompanied with warmth and flexibility.   

Another highlight of opening weekend was a blazing Newport debut in an all-Chopin recital by seventeen-year-old American pianist Eric Lu. Walking on stage at the Breakers, he looked like a modest teenager, but once his fingers hit the keyboard, his complete focus on the music was riveting. A selection of nocturnes and mazurkas, a waltz, and the Ballade #4 made an enticing first half, but the full cycle of Preludes, Op. 28, which followed intermission, showed off both the intimacy and the high drama of Lu’s playing. More surprising than his technical proficiency was the interpretive maturity of his performances. This is a pianist to watch. 

This weekend also presented the first installments in several series of concerts which will continue throughout the festival honoring Mozart, Sibelius, and Nielsen, both of whom were born 150 years ago. Festival veterans Eric Ruske and Thomas Hrynkiw impressed in an arrangement by Ruske for French horn and piano of Mozart’s fourth horn concerto, while Hrynkiw brought Nielsen’s rarely heard “Suite for Piano” to virtuosic life.

The beauty of the performance venues, including the Chinese Tea House and several mansions, and a stimulating mix of new and returning artists make the Newport Music Festival a uniquely rewarding attraction.

2014 Newport Music Festival

Newport Music Festival, Newport, RI

www.newportmusic.org

July 11-27, 2014

by Michael J. Moran

Celebrating its 46th season in 2014, the Newport Music Festival is newer but longer, if still perhaps less famous, than its Jazz and Folk counterparts. This year 62 performers presented 68 concerts of music from the Romantic Era and beyond in twelve sites from 18 countries, with 27 making their Newport and/or American debuts. Seven concerts showcased over 100 works by Richard Strauss in observance of his 150th birthday anniversary.

This year’s repertoire continued last year’s expanded focus on jazz and Latin music. The closing weekend, for example, featured “Ragtime Jazztime,” a program that included rags by Scott Joplin and William Bolcom, and a “PercussionFest” marking the Newport debuts of Spanish percussionists Rafael Galvez and Juanjo Guillem. Mike Mower’s “Deviations on The Carnival of Venice,” puckishly played by flutist Goran Marcusson and pianist Tim Carey, and two movements from Claude Bolling’s first Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano, lovingly rendered by Marcusson and pianist Kevin Fitz-Gerald, were audience favorites in the first concert.     

A festival highlight was a “Viennese Evening” program at the Breakers, in which chestnuts by Johann Strauss II, Fritz Kresisler, and Franz von Suppe shared the stage with lesser-known fare like a delightful set of Viennese Waltzes by Robert Fuchs. Violinist extraordinaire Eugen Tzikindelean led two ensembles in rousing and idiomatic performances, but charismatic tenor Jason Karn stole the show with a dramatic account of Lehar’s “You Are My Heart’s Delight.” 

The bane of any festival director’s life must be the occasional last-minute need to replace an ailing performer. But when popular pianist John Bayless was indisposed, impresario Mark Malkovich IV had only to call on his roster of musical stars to whip up an instant new concert that featured knockout renditions of Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 by rising young American pianist Chad Bowles and of Ravel’s Violin Sonata in G by Tzikindelean and Fitz-Gerald.

The glamour of the performance venues, including the Newport Art Museum as well as several mansions, and the evident joy of music making by a longtime family of returning artists make the Newport Music Festival a uniquely intimate and enjoyable attraction.

Newport Music Festival

Various Venues, Newport, RI

www.newportmusic.org

July 10-28, 2013

by Michael J. Moran

The 45^th season of the Newport Music Festival presented music from the Romantic era in 62 chamber music concerts – up to six per day – over two and a half weeks, performed by 90 musicians (almost 60 making their Newport debuts) from 18 countries in eleven Newport venues. Seven concerts celebrated the shared bicentennial of opera giants Verdi and Wagner.

This year’s expanded repertoire encompassed tango, jazz, and klezmer music. The closing weekend, for example, included “Tangofest,” a program that featured classical musicians performing arrangements by Astor Piazzolla and other composers written in the rhythm and spirit of the Argentine dance form. Piazzolla’s “Le Grand Tango,” played by cellist Jiri Barta and pianist Grigorios Zamparas, and Ernesto Nazareth’s “Odeon” played by pianist Daniel del Pino were particular audience favorites.

A highlight of the festival was a “Tribute to Dave Brubeck” presented in the Breakers mansion by the Jazz Arts Trio and alto saxophone player Billy Novick. The classically trained musicians gave scrupulous but spirited accounts of many Brubeck standards, from “Take Five” to “Blue Rondo a la Turk.” Three rare nocturnes for solo piano, beautifully played by the trio’s pianist Frederick Moyer, featured vocal commentary that was consistently informative and engaging.

Traditional programs included a blazing performance by Barta and del Pino of Debussy’s haunting “Cello Sonata” and a full-blooded rendition of Faure’s youthful “First Piano Quartet,” in which they were joined by violinist Eugene Tzikindelean and violist David Quiggle. A concert of music by the Mendelssohn siblings featured six songs by Fanny Mendelssohn gorgeously sung by soprano Theresa Cincione with sensitive accompaniment by pianist Michael Endres. Violinist Grazia Raimondi, cellist Luigi Piovano, and pianist Kevin Fitz-Gerald rousingly played Felix Mendelssohn’s “Second Piano Trio.”

A good number of the above artists are Festival veterans of as many as sixteen seasons, and their performances often radiate the joy of making music with longtime friends and family. Their passion, combined with spectacular performance venues, including several mansions, the Newport Art Museum, and the historic Touro Synagogue, creates a unique formula for a winning music festival.