A large crowd gathered on the green at St. Mary’s College of Maryland on Friday evening, July 30, 2010 for the last River Concert of the 2010 season.
The success of the concert was aided by the pleasant weather after several weeks of humidity and high temperatures. The concert began with a trumpet quartet called Fanfare, a brash and discordant piece conducted by Tom Vaudin. The musical work was immediately followed by Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony no. 5 in 4 movements. This well known symphony was first presented in 1808.
The first movement, the Allegro con brio, is probably the most memorable portion of a classical work known to the Western World. Who isn’t familiar with “dit dit dit dot”? The second movement, the andante con moto, was quite majestic, with repeated variations on a theme. The third movement, Scherzo Allegro, had lots of plucked notes and a mysterious and curious sound. Then came a delicious transition from a minor key into a joyous major key and the symphony moved directly into the fourth movement with its fabulous repeated ending. It was all enthusiastically played by The Chesapeake Orchestra and conducted by music director, Jeffrey Silbershlag.
From the expressions on the faces of the musicians, it was obvious that the orchestra enjoyed the piece as much as the audience. After Intermission, Kate Baldwin, a Tony award nominee for starring role in “Finian’s Rainbow”, took the stage with her attractive red hair and striking green gown. With a very lovely voice and fun filled expressive features, Ms. Baldwin wowed the audience with many Broadway tunes. She very recently performed in London in “Paradise Found”. She sang “It Might as well be Spring”, followed by two delightful melodies from “Carousel”, “When I Marry Mr. Snow” (with his fish) and “If I Loved You”. Jeffrey Silberschlag quipped “This (the next song) could be too exciting for this audience. They’re on medication.” Kate Baldwin sang from the 1963 Broadway musical “She Loves Me” a very clever tune called “Vanilla Ice Cream” and “Will He Like Me?”. Ms. Baldwin had performed in “She Loves Me” at the Williamstown Theatre Festival earlier in her career. Other Broadway musical pieces performed by Ms. Baldwin included “I Remember” from a TV musical called “Evening Primrose”, the fast paced “Another Hundred People” from the musical “Company” by Stephen Sondheim, “The Miller’s Son” from “A Little Night Music”, and from “Finian’s Rainbow”, “How are things in Glocca Morra?”
Kate Baldwin took a minute to introduce her pianist, Rob Berman, who created the special lovely musical arrangement of “How are things in Glocca Morra?”. He was a pleasant fellow from Baltimore that I met later at the Wyle reception. The last concert ended with Jeffrey Silberschlag’s annual musical joke that “I would like to be the first to wish you a Merry Christmas” and led the Orchestra in Leroy Anderson’s “Sleigh Ride”. Apparently, Mr. Anderson composed the classic Christmas piece during a July heat wave in 1948.
I hope you look forward with me to next year’s summer River Concert Series. The author, Joanna Macaulay, is a professional photographer and music lover from Calm Reflections Photography in St. Mary’s County. Some of her work can be viewed at http://www.calmreflectionsphotography.com
