Photo / caption / credit: Sheila Fiekowsky, Daniel Getz, Alexandre Lecarme, and Catherine Hudgins.
Photo by Carol Kuller.jpeg
Photo by Carol Kuller.jpeg
Chamber Players’ Harvest Concert:
A Bounty of Music and Remembrance
By Liza Bennett
On a changeable weather Sunday afternoon in early October, the West Stockbridge Chamber Players took the stage upstairs in the Old Town Hall for a very special benefit concert. A fundraiser for the restoration of the building, it also paid tribute to the teachers who influenced the five extraordinary musicians who performed that afternoon: Chamber Players artistic director Catherine Hudgins, clarinet; Linda Toote, flute; Sheila Fiekowsky, violin; Daniel Getz, viola; and Alexandre Lecarme, cello.
The concert began with Zoltán Kodály’s Intermezzo for String Trio, a richly melodic piece filled with echoes of the Hungarian folk music that was Kodály’s passion. Before the next piece, W.A. Mozart’s Quartet for Flute and Strings in D Major, K. 285, Linda Toote talked about a memorable teaching moment she experienced at the National Flute Association’s annual meeting many years ago. After practicing alone for hours in her hotel room, she heard a knock on the door. “My room is next to yours,” an elegant white-haired gentleman told her after she opened the door. He then went on to detail all the ways she had been playing badly. “You’re not practicing,” he concluded, “you’re serenading yourself.” The man was Kenton Kerry, a revered musician with the Philadelphia Orchestra, whose challenging but wise words she’s never forgotten.
After intermission, Catherine Hudgins introduced Natalie Hunt’s hauntingly beautiful Quartet for clarinet, violin, viola and cello. “It’s a remarkable example,” Hudgins said, “of a composition being changed by what was happening while it was being written.” Originally conceived as a lighthearted piece, Hunt recast it in a much darker and more complex vein when, in the midst of composing, a 7.8 earthquake struck Hunt’s native New Zealand, causing immense damage.
Before the final selection in the program, Rezsö Kókai’s Quartettino for Clarinet, Violin, Viola and Cello, Hudgins described the famously demanding Robert Marcellus, longtime principal clarinetist of the Cleveland Orchestra, as a teacher. “He could be tough. He’d send you home if you wore jeans. He’d give pop quizzes on insanely esoteric subjects. He’d tell us, ‘Stand up and be counted.’”
Strong late afternoon sunlight flooded through the tall, newly refurbished windows of Vaber Hall as the program concluded. With thanks to the Chamber Players and their generous benefit concerts, a great deal has been accomplished on the exterior of the building over the last few years, despite the many difficulties of COVID. “We are coming inside now,” Historical Society’s president Robert Salerno noted. The next phase of the restoration, which will concentrate on the building’s interior, is in the planning stages.
For the first time since the start of the pandemic, the society hosted a reception downstairs in the Old Town Hall after the concert where the audience and musicians were given an opportunity to mingle and talk.
The concert began with Zoltán Kodály’s Intermezzo for String Trio, a richly melodic piece filled with echoes of the Hungarian folk music that was Kodály’s passion. Before the next piece, W.A. Mozart’s Quartet for Flute and Strings in D Major, K. 285, Linda Toote talked about a memorable teaching moment she experienced at the National Flute Association’s annual meeting many years ago. After practicing alone for hours in her hotel room, she heard a knock on the door. “My room is next to yours,” an elegant white-haired gentleman told her after she opened the door. He then went on to detail all the ways she had been playing badly. “You’re not practicing,” he concluded, “you’re serenading yourself.” The man was Kenton Kerry, a revered musician with the Philadelphia Orchestra, whose challenging but wise words she’s never forgotten.
After intermission, Catherine Hudgins introduced Natalie Hunt’s hauntingly beautiful Quartet for clarinet, violin, viola and cello. “It’s a remarkable example,” Hudgins said, “of a composition being changed by what was happening while it was being written.” Originally conceived as a lighthearted piece, Hunt recast it in a much darker and more complex vein when, in the midst of composing, a 7.8 earthquake struck Hunt’s native New Zealand, causing immense damage.
Before the final selection in the program, Rezsö Kókai’s Quartettino for Clarinet, Violin, Viola and Cello, Hudgins described the famously demanding Robert Marcellus, longtime principal clarinetist of the Cleveland Orchestra, as a teacher. “He could be tough. He’d send you home if you wore jeans. He’d give pop quizzes on insanely esoteric subjects. He’d tell us, ‘Stand up and be counted.’”
Strong late afternoon sunlight flooded through the tall, newly refurbished windows of Vaber Hall as the program concluded. With thanks to the Chamber Players and their generous benefit concerts, a great deal has been accomplished on the exterior of the building over the last few years, despite the many difficulties of COVID. “We are coming inside now,” Historical Society’s president Robert Salerno noted. The next phase of the restoration, which will concentrate on the building’s interior, is in the planning stages.
For the first time since the start of the pandemic, the society hosted a reception downstairs in the Old Town Hall after the concert where the audience and musicians were given an opportunity to mingle and talk.
