Sitka Summer Music Festival Notes
By Susan Wingrove-Reed
The calendar is now our musical friend – the Sitka Summer Music Festival is in full swing. Tonight’s free 6:30 p.m. concert at the Mean Queen will get us in the mood for a busy four weeks of wonderful world-class chamber music. And don’t forget the Bach’s Lunch at 12:15 p.m. on Thursday in the beautiful Odess Theater on campus. All this will rev us up for the weekend concerts featuring music by Scott Joplin and Ludvig van Beethoven. Zuill Bailey has invited some old and new friends to come to beloved Paris of the North and share their passion for all kinds of music. And this is a stunner of a start….
Friday night at the SSMF, 7:30 p.m. at Centennial Hall (pre-concert chat/interview at 6:45) is a thrilling opener: pianist Richard Dowling will present an all-Scott Joplin program that will make your soul sing. Joplin’s first major hit (1899) was “The Maple Leaf Rag”; he went on to write a total of 44 astonishing, lyrical rags. He is now known as “The King of Ragtime.” Before his untimely death in 1917, he predicted, “When I’m dead twenty-five years, people are going to recognize me.” And he was darn close. In the 1970s, he was “re-discovered” after a solo album by Joshua Rifkin thrilled both classical and jazz fans. Then, the 1973 Academy-award winning movie “The Sting” included Joplin rags in the score and won the hearts of millions. Our SSMF artist recorded ALL of Joplin’s piano music a year ago; in the acclaimed CD liner notes, Bryan S. Wright stated, “Richard Dowling’s performance of Joplin works must surely rank among the happiest and most successful….Rarely, if ever, has a pianist with such technical facility, emotional sensitivity and all-around good taste applied himself to Joplin’s complete scores….
Dowling’s performances are revelatory.” Dowling will play 18 of these brilliant, infectious, poignant-to-joyous jewels. Friday night = a SSMF must-see and hear.
Saturday night is a celebration of Beethoven in a unique program of string trios. 2020 is the 250th anniversary of Beethoven’s birth, so the SSMF is getting started early with the worldwide party. Kurt Nikkanen (violin), Scott Rawls (viola) and Zuill (cello) will play the complete Op. 3, a set of three early and very distinctive works. Beethoven moved from Bonn to Vienna in 1792 and quickly earned a reputation as a brilliant and temperamental artist. Complex as a young adult, he had survived an achingly difficult childhood then found almost instant fame in the big city as a pianist and soon after as a composer; he was not prepared for dealing with the upper-class aristocrats. He insulted the guests at a party because they were chatting while he played, yelling, “I shall not play for such swine!” as he slammed shut the piano lid. Composer Luigi Boccherini affectionately described him as “an unlicked bear.” He was “an architect of daring,” a magnetic and charismatic musician blazing new trails from the start.
Close friends recalled that Beethoven could be “comical, lively and sometimes even chatty.” He was an early riser, practiced and composed until midafternoon; he took long walks and would later meet friends at a tavern to catch up on the news. He was an avid nature-lover; “It seems as if in the country every tree said to me ‘Holy! Holy!’ Who can give complete expression to the ecstasy of the woods?”
The striking trio in C minor is best described as symphonic and full of passion – you will swear you hear more than three instruments. The Trio in D major is the most elegant of the three and features remarkable democratic balance between the instruments and sensuous moods. The Trio in G Major is a joyful, dazzling gem – very technically demanding for the players. Annotator Orrin Howard enthusiastically concluded, “After the last time the brakes are put on and the destination is sighted, there is no detaining the open-throttle race to the finish, ending as exhilarating a journey as young Ludvig ever engineered.”
A final reminder in case you have not gotten tickets or finished planning your weekend activities – there is a delightful SSMF brunch cruise on Saturday 10 a.m.-1 p.m. departing from Crescent Harbor Shelter. Great eats, even better scenery, insights into Beethoven’s early career and his trios, plus live music played masterfully and passionately. To top things off, on Sunday at 3 p.m. don’t miss the annual Free Family Concert, at the Sheet’ka Kwaan Naa Kahidi. Great for all ages – with root beer floats at the end. BP and Sea Mart sponsor this fun event. See you there!
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Susan Wingrove-Reed is a music educator from Anchorage. She writes program notes for the Sitka Summer Music Festival, and gives pre-concert lectures.
On Dean’s List
Connor G. Buxton of Sitka, a mathematics major, was named to the dean’s list for the spring 2019 semester at Clarkson University, Potsdam, New York.
Dean’s list students must achieve a minimum 3.25 grade-point average and also carry at least 14 credit hours.
Kids Trout Derby
Set for Saturday
Sitka Rotary Club, Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and U.S. Forest Service are inviting kids to participate in the annual Swan Lake Junior Trout Derby on Saturday.
Registration begins at 8 a.m. Prizes are to be awarded between noon and 1 p.m. The free event is for children, ages 2-12 years, accompanied by parents.
Fishing may take place from shore or by boat. Flotation jackets are required for boaters.
Included will be prizes, displays, fish prints and games. The Rotary Club will be selling hot dogs, chips,and drinks for $1.
ADFG has liberalized the fishing regulations for the Saturday of the fishing derby, which means kids can use bait, and catch up to two trout of any size (normally, only trout between 11-22 inches can be caught). The lake is stocked with up to 300 trout annually.
New Arrivals
Baby Girl Doherty-Stortz
Willow Mae Doherty-Stortz was born 6:06 p.m. April 5 at Flagstaff (Arizona) Medical Center.
At birth she weighed 6 pounds, 5 ounces, and was 21.5 inches long.
Parents are Sasha Stortz and Kyle Doherty of Flagstaff. Stortz is a research associate at Northern Arizona University, and Doherty is a PhD candidate in forestry.
This is the couple’s first child.
Grandparents are Libby Stortz and the late William Stortz of Sitka; and Wendy Doherty of Corte Madera, Calif., and Tim Doherty of Sedona, Ariz.
