For the fourth consecutive year, The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center journeyed for Memorial Day weekend to the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, in Harrodsburg, Kentucky. The Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass – three days of concerts played exclusively by the Society – is the brainchild of David Finckel and George Foreman, formerly director of the Norton Center for the Arts at Centre College in Danville.
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in David’s words…
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The beauty and tranquility of the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill provides the ideal atmosphere for a chamber music festival. Those who book their reservations early are fortunate enough to stay in the village, in historic Shaker buildings, surrounded by the 3000-acre village which looks virtually the same today as it did a century ago. The length of this blog post, and the number of photos, is a good measure of my enthusiasm for the place and the project.
The concerts take place in two unique spaces: one, the central Meeting House where the Shakers performed their famous devotional ceremonies, and two, a tobacco barn. The morning concerts in the meeting house, instituted in the second year, have grown in attendance to full capacity, and the afternoon concerts in the barn have been sold out since the festival’s inception. Listeners journey annually from Cincinnati, Lexington and Louisville, with a couple this year coming to us all the way from Chicago.
The Meeting House exudes a peacefulness and friendliness that puts all listeners in a receptive mood. We have been gradually expanding the scope of repertoire for the festival, and this year’s Meeting House concerts included works by living and 20th century composers, as well as music by Haydn and Mozart.
The tobacco barn is constructed with spaces between the vertical siding boards, allowing ventilation for tobacco drying. The extra ventilation was nice for the musicians too, as the temperatures crept up during the afternoons. The sun seeping through the spaces in the wall gives the tobacco barn a lighting scheme all its own.
Friday evening’s performance, the first of the festival, was for donors, with a serene reception before the concert and an elegant dinner served afterwards. CMS Director of Artistic Programs Michael Lawrence (foreground) assisted us for the weekend’s concerts and festivities.
Joining us this year were violinists/violists Yura Lee and Lily Francis; violinist Ani Kavafian, cellist Jakob Koranyi, flutist Tara Helen O’Connor, and pianist Anne-Marie McDermott.
The young Swedish cellist Jakob Koranyi joined me for a whirlwind rendition of Barriere’s Duo for Two Cellos. Barriere was a French cello virtuoso who lived during the time of Bach.
Wu Han officially opened the festival by welcoming the audience, and Patrick Castillo was engaged by the Society to introduce the music at the morning programs as well as to deliver hour-long lectures before each evening concert.
After the short program, the musicians and donors were treated to an elegant dinner on the lawn.
Our musicians and New York staff were conferred the honorary title of Kentucky Colonel on documents signed by the Governor. This entitles us to some privileges that I have yet to comprehend, beyond being able to call myself a colonel.
The company of family members on tour is always a joyous bonus for musicians. This time it was the lucky pianist Anne-Marie McDermott, whose husband Michael Lubin joined us for the weekend of music, bourbon-tasting and sightseeing.
On Saturday morning, the Meeting House was packed to capacity. Patrick introduced the concert, which included a reprise by Yura Lee and Jakob Koranyi of their spectacular rendition of the Ravel Duo from CMS’s spring concert, Ravel’s World.
Michael Lawrence enlightened a curious audience member on musical notation.
One can walk 10 minutes from the Meeting House to the barn through bucolic settings.
Piano talk
The barn concerts’ intermissions are parties in themselves.
The Brahms Piano Quintet
After the concert, CMS board member Andrea Walton (center) joined us for the traditional musicians’ bourbon-tasting happy hour, and later hosted us for a delicious traditional dinner at the village inn.
Sunday morning’s Meeting House concert was Tara Helen O’Connor’s recital. She played the entire program, which included works by Haydn, Piazzolla, Villa-Lobos, and a set of songs from “The Social Orchestra” by American legend Stephen Foster, who apparently lived thirty miles from Danville.
This is the only traffic noise in the village.
The festival concluded with a performance of the Schubert Cello Quintet. I could not help introducing the piece from the stage, sharing with the audience my own sense of the milestone represented in any series by the first performance of this masterpiece.
The audience definitely caught my drift and listened to the monumental work in rapt silence. I can honestly say it was one of the finest, most flawless performances of the work I have ever given. And I have given a lot of them.
A barbecue in the front yard of our beautiful residence concluded the festival. I commend and congratulate my colleagues of the weekend, every one of whom outdid themselves and delivered the kind of performances that will go a long way towards making the Festival of the Bluegrass a permanent cultural institution in America.
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