By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Pianist Richard Dowling will perform on two stages almost at once on Thursday – connecting to audiences through both live and virtual means.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had that in my life, performing in two places at once,” said the seasoned classical performer this morning. “One in the flesh, and one virtually.”
The Sitka Music Festival will present Dowling in a virtual concert 6 p.m. March 11, as part of the Virtual Autumn and Winter Classics series.
The program will feature three classical music pieces, by Beethoven, Chopin and Gottschalk. Dowling, based in New York City, is a regular performer with the Sitka Music Festival, and in 2019 performed a concert here featuring the works of Scott Joplin.
Dowling spoke to the Sentinel as he drove four hours across Florida, to his live concert on Thursday at the Lost Tree Club in Palm Beach. That concert will be outdoors, with Dowling playing on an elevated stage, tables for two set apart at physical distances.
A few hours later – at 6 p.m. Alaska time – Sitkans can tune in to a different Dowling concert, recorded in Philadelphia around the start of the pandemic, February 20, 2020.
“I didn’t know it was going to be videotaped until I got there,” Dowling said, but added that he was very pleased with the result of a “first class video-recording.”
The portion of the Philadelphia concert presented through the Sitka Music Festival website will be the first half, featuring classical music.
“I’ve been through lots of group chats and virtual programs this past year – one hour is about the right amount of time,” Dowling said, and recalled, “It was a beautiful recital.”
The Beethoven selection is 32 Variations in C Minor. Dowling said last year was intended to be a big year of celebration in the classical music world with the 250th birthday of the composer in December 2020.
“But we get to have a do-over because he didn’t turn 250 until a few months ago,” Dowling said.
He described the piece as “very dramatic,” with “snippets of the Fifth Symphony – lots of people hear that and think, it sounds like some sort of piano version of the fifth symphony.”
The Chopin piece is Nocturne in B-flat minor, which he wrote at age 18.
“It’s so beautiful, very simple, very romantic,” Dowling said. “It’s really amazing to hear a piece that’s so mature written by a teenager. Teenagers have deep feelings but don’t necessarily know how to express them. Chopin was obviously a genius because here’s a piece you would never guess was written by a teenager. Just exquisite.”
The final piece was written by Louis Moreau Gottschalk: The Union, Concert Paraphrase on National Airs for Piano. Gottschalk, a child prodigy, was a first generation American, the son of an English businessman and a mom who was Haitian Creole. Featured in the piece are the Star-Spangled Banner, Hail Columbia and Yankee Doodle.
“It’s basically a big medley - and it has artillery and cannon fire – it really does a musical portrayal of Civil War battle,” Dowling said.
Gottschalk, a southerner on the side of the north in the Civil War, performed the piece first for President and Mrs. Lincoln.
“From his box seat, (Lincoln) took off his stovepipe hat, and bowed to Gottschalk from the box seat,” Dowling said. “He dedicated the piece to General George B. McClellan. ... It’s always an audience favorite.”
Those wanting to attend the concert may go to sitkamusicfestival.org and use the password SITKA
The virtual concert premiers 6 p.m. Thursday, and will stay up on the festival website through Sunday evening.
