SHANDELEE MUSIC FETIVAL Highlights From Our th 24 Season 2017
AUGUST 2017
AUGUST 2017
Wednesday, July 26, 2017
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Barbara Bedell: Shandelee Music Festival opens with a jazzy start
The Shandelee Music Festival’s 24th Sunset Concert Series opens at 8 p.m. Aug. 5 with the Fred Moyer Trio presenting “An Evening of Classical Jazz,” featuring Fred Moyer on piano, Peter Tillotson on bass, and Bob Savine on drums. In speaking about the trio, publicist Carol Montana said Moyer’s career has taken him to more than 40 countries and many rave reviews. Tillotson has performed just about everywhere, from garage bands to Lincoln Center. Savine, after completing his formal musical training at Penn State and Berklee College of Music, has performed with a diverse group of musicians including the Artie Shaw Orchestra and vocalist Keely Smith. The Boston Globe called the Moyer concert “a success on the highest level .... something to write home about.” The concert will be at the completely accessible grounds and pavilion at 442 J. Young Road in Livingston Manor. Tickets are $35, $30 for Festival members, and $10 for students 17 and younger. Advance reservations are required by calling 439-3277. Subscriptions are available for a 10 percent discount. For information, visit shandelee.org.
Friday, July 28, 2017
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LIVINGSTON MANOR - Shandalee Music Festival’s Sunset Concert Series begins Aug. 5 with An Evening of Classical Jazz featuring the Fred Moyer Jazz Trio. The season continues Aug. 10 with An Evening of Chamber Music featuring the Verona Quartet, followed by An Evening of Guitar Duo on Aug. 12, with Duo Siqueira Lima. Chamber music is back on the bill, Aug. 15 with the Manhattan Chamber Players. The Rising Star Artist Concert takes place on Aug. 17, featuring Ivan Vihor on solo piano. The season ends with chamber music featuring Borislav Strulev (cello) and Irina Nuzova (piano). All performances begin at 8 p.m. and all concerts will be followed by a dessert reception. The climate-controlled Shandelee Music Festival Sunset Concert Pavilion is located at 442 J. Young Road. The grounds and the Pavilion are completely accessible. Tickets are $35 for adults, $30 for Shandelee Music Festival members, $10 for students 17 and under. Advance reservations are required. Info at 439-3277, shandelee.org.
Thursday, August 3, 2017
Barbara Bedell:
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Coming up ** Music of Latin America will highlight the third in the popular Sunset Concert Series for the Shandelee Music Festival at 8 p.m. on Aug. 12 in Livingston Manor. The concert will be presented by the talented chamber ensemble of Cecilia Siqueira of Uruguay and Fernando de Lima of Brazil. Winners of numerous awards, including the Profissionals da Musica Award 2015 in Brazil and the International Press Awards 2014 in the U.S., they will play selections of Scarlatti, Debussy, Piazzolla, contemporary composer Cesar Camargo Mariano, Dominguinhos and Villa-Lobos. They have played at more than 40 festivals and concerts around the world. Tickets are $35, $30 for Shandelee members, and $10 for students 17 and younger. Advance reservations are required by calling 439-3277 or visiting shandelee.org.
CURRENTS
AUGUST 3-9, 2017
Shandelee Music Festival: from jazz to chamber music Wed, 08/02/2017 - 11:41am LIVINGSTON MANOR, NY — It’s the Shandelee Music Festival’s 24th season of bringing world-class music to the Sullivan Catskills, and they’ll be expanding its Sunset Concert Series to six concerts. It all begins on Saturday, August 5 with “An Evening of Classical Jazz,” featuring the Fred Moyer Jazz Trio. The season continues Thursday, August 10 with “An Evening of Chamber Music,” featuring the Verona Quartet, followed by “An Evening of Guitar Duo” on Saturday, August 12, with Duo Siqueira Lima. Another “Evening of Chamber Music” follows on Tuesday, August 15 with the Manhattan Chamber Players. The unique Rising Star Artist Concert takes place on Thursday, August 17 and features Ivan Vihor on solo piano. And ending the 2017 Sunset Concert Series on August 19 is “An Evening of Chamber Music” with Borislav Strulev (cello) and Irina Nuzova (piano). All performances begin at 8 p.m., and will be followed by a specialty dessert reception. The climate-controlled Shandelee Music Festival Sunset Concert Pavilion is located at 442 J. Young Rd.
Section:
Verona Quartet
ARTS & LEISURE
Contributed photos The Fred Moyer Jazz Trio
Concert tickets cost $35 for adults, $30 for Shandelee Music Festival members, and $10 for students 17 and under. Concert reservations are required by calling 845/439-3277. Sunset Concert Series’ subscriptions are available for a 10%discount. For more information visit www.shandelee.org.
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
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Barbara Bedell: Manhattan Chamber Players come to Sullivan
Concertgoers are in for a special treat, according to music lover Carol Montana, the gifted publicist who has listened to, and interviewed on several occasions, the talented Manhattan Chamber Players. They will be in Livingston Manor next Tuesday as part of the Sunset Concert Series at the Shandelee Music Festival on Young Road in Livingston Manor. They will perform great works in the chamber repertoire composed by Schumann, Ravel and Dvorak. Concert time is at 8 p.m. As with all Shandelee concerts, a specialty dessert reception will follow the performance. Members of the audience and visitors to the area have commented that this is a very special and friendly touch that they look forward to. Tickets are $35, $30 for Shandelee Music Festival members, and $10 for students 17 and under. Advance reservations are required by calling 439-3277. Subscriptions are available for a 10 percent discount. For more information, visit shandelee.org.
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Thursday, August 17, 2017
Barbara Bedell
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Coming up ** The grand finale of the Shandelee Music Festival’s Sunset Concert Series on Saturday will feature “An Evening of Chamber Music” with Borislav Strulev on cello and Irina Nuzova on piano. The concert is at 8 p.m. at the Sunset Concert Pavilion at 442 Young Road in Livingston Manor. Tickets are $35, $30 for Music Festival members, and $10 for students 17 and under. Advance reservations are required by calling 439-3277. For information, visit shandelee.org or call 4393277.
BARRY PLAXEN’S REVIEW OF THE SHANDELEE MUSIC FESTIVAL th
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August 5 & 10 2017 Livingston Manor “An Evening of Classical Jazz,” featuring a magnificent performance by the Fred Moyer Jazz Trio opened th the Shandelee Music Festival’s 24 season on August 5. It was followed by “An Evening of Chamber th Music” featuring the impeccable Verona Quartet on Thursday, August 10 . “Classic Jazz” as presented by Moyer (piano), Peter Tillotson (bass), and Bob Savine (drums) means performing transcriptions made mostly from famous jazz performers’ recordings, such as Oscar Peterson’s versions of “Night Train” & “Blue Moon”, Ahmad Jamal’s takes on “Moonlight in Vermont and “Surrey with the Fringe on Top”, Bill Evans’s rendition of “My Foolish Heart” and Monte Alexander’s interpretations of “Feelings,” “Satin Doll” and “Perdido.” Musical treasures from Errol Garner were likewise included in this classical evening For a jazz trio to play “someone else’s music” is not the norm, as they are not necessarily playing what they are feeling in their own “now” moment, but are bringing you a “classic” jazz performance that was someone else’s “now” moment, making for quite an interesting listening jazz experience. Their own arrangements, followed with my favorite song, Jerome Kern’s “All the Things You Are,” with Peter Tillotson’s sweet and smooth opening of the prettymuch-generally-unknown verse on bass, (yes, with his bow), followed by “On the Street Where You Live” and “The Trolley Song.” Moyer, himself, is quite a virtuoso – especially when it comes to his masterful runs and arpeggios. (I have heard him before in a superb classical music concert in Montgomery.) Demanded with vociferous applause by the thrilled, sold-out audience, the world class trio encored with “Witchcraft”. August 10 brought The Verona Quartet to Shandelee’s Sunset Pavilion stage. This was my second experience watching and hearing this world-class quartet, having heard them wow a crowd in Milford, PA, recently.
BARRY PLAXEN’S REVIEW OF THE SHANDELEE MUSIC FESTIVAL th
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August 12 & 15 2017 Livingston Manor For the third concert in the series of its six 2017 chamber music concerts, the Shandelee Music Festival offered a most unusual duo guitar concert on August 12, 2017. Unusual due to the fact that the classical music was arranged for the two instruments by Fernando de Lima, one of the two performers of “Duo Sequeira Lima.” Spouse Cecilia Siqueira is the other guitarist. For my ears, Senor de Lima’s arrangements were best in his arrangements of three sonatas by Baroque composer Domenico Scarlatti. Since we are used to hearing keyboard sonatas played on the piano or harpsichord, the strumming seemed to enhance Scarlatti’s style and its technical needs, i.e., runs, arpeggios, Baroque melodies, etc. At the very start of the first sonata, my ears perked up; they liked the “new” sound of Scarlatti. Contrary to the above, I found the guitar strumming a detriment to the Impressionistic quality of Debussy’s “Arabesque No. 1” when they first begin playing it. It seemed to totally change the velvety, lush, Debussy sound, unlike the softer plucking of a harp, which Debussy’s used often. For some unexplainable reason, the arrangement for “Arabesque No. 2 was not as jarring; perhaps I was getting used to the sound. de Lima’s arrangement of Handel’s “Chaconne in G major,” a very Sarabande-like work, was also quite lovely, if not a bit subdued as we are used hearing it played on a piano which has a grander range of dynamics. Short pieces for individual instruments are not de Lima’s only choices for arranging. He and Siqueira performed a “split” version of Villa-Lobos’ four movement “Bachianas Brasileiras No. 4,” written for piano originally, BUT scored for orchestra a few years later. They opened the concert with the first two movements, and closed the concert with the last two. de Lima’s arrangement of Piazzolla’s “Primavera Porteña” followed another Piazzolla work that was the exception on the classical program, as it was arranged by Sergio Assad. They were probably the most interesting works of the evening, harmonically speaking.
BARRY PLAXEN’S REVIEW OF SHANDELEE MUSIC FESTIVAL’S LAST TWO 2017 CONCERTS
FAST & FURIOUS: Ivan Vihor th
The 5 concert in the 2017 Shandelee Music Festival’s series was the “Young Artists Concert” featuring 20-year-old Ivan Vihor on August 17 in the Concert Pavilion. This remarkable pianist made his orchestra debut at the age of 10, performing a Bach concerto. Since then, he has won numerous awards at piano competitions. It is easy to understand why after hearing the concert in which he performed a Beethoven sonata, a Chopin ballade, Scriabin sonata, an adaptation of an operatic theme of Handel’s by Liszt, a Liszt sonata and a fast & furious Chopin piece for his encore. Vihor showed exceptional ability when it came to the technical aspects of the works he performed, so his choosing an encore that demanded to be played in a fast and furious manner came as no surprise His moving and delicate moments were also highly in evidence, especially for me in Beethoven’s “Sonata No. 23 in F minor, Op. 57” in which he displayed a mature sense of phrasing and total overall understanding of the masterwork’s structure. In addition, the Liszt adaptation of the Handel “Sarabande and Chaconne” requires both delicacy for its lovely theme and much technique for the wonderful variations, and young Vihor happily brought all that out superbly, as he did with all his offerings. I believe this is the same work we heard a week earlier for concert # 3 performed on two guitars, but this time with the piano affording much more exuberance and expression. The Shandelee Festival is noted for its Young Person’s Concerts. They are always so very inspiring as we watch young adults continue to assure the legacy of classical solo piano music.
POWER AND PIANISSIMOS: Borislav Strulev
th The 6 concert for the 2017 Festival on August 19 was, in a word, peculiar. Or perhaps, a better word, anomalous, in that it was extremely atypical of what we expect to witness. Billing it as “An Evening of Chamber Music” featuring Borislav Strulev (cello) and Irina Nuzova (piano) is something of a misnomer, in that only the first half of the evening deserved that title. That first half started out with Ms. Nuzova “merely accompanying” Mr. Strulev in Bach’s “Toccata, Adagio and Fugue in C Major, BWV 564.” With hearing no more than the first three notes, we knew we were in for something more than just outstanding. At intermission people asked me (even though it was listed in the program), “was that Bach?” That was due to, I assume, mostly the Adagio movement. Though it requires much pianissimo, Strulev
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