'Maverick Concerts 1 and 2.' Robert Starer: Anna Margarita's Will (1979); Twilight Fantasies (1985); Yizkor and Anima Aeterna; Song of Solitude (1995); Elegy for a Woman Who Died too Young (1990); The Other Voice (1998) Woodstock, NY. August 17, 2002.
Robert Starer's role as a longtime resident of Woodstock, NY, with his partner the novelist Gail Godwin, made the Maverick Concerts series a logical place for a concert in his memory. His death last year deprived the area, and indeed, American music, of one of its most distinguished creative personalities. The program, in the beautifully rustic wooden concert hall in the lush woods of Woodstock, that is home to Maverick Concerts, was long but rich in distinguished performances of memorable music. This correspondent must confess to little experience of Mr. Starer's music apart from what Danielle Woerner recorded on her compact disc She Walks in Beauty. Ms. Woerner is a very dear friend, and it was her involvement that led to my presence at the event. Ms. Woerner's contribution was a riveting performance of Starer's "scena" Anna Margarita's Will, set for Soprano, flute (Marcia Gates), French horn (Harry F. Ditzel), cello (Susan Seligman) and piano (a barefoot James M. Fitzwilliam), preceded by a reading of the evocative text by its author Gail Godwin. The scene is an imaginative monologue by a woman "d'une certain age" making an imaginary will and taking stock of her life in the process. Sometimes tart, often funny and finally very poignant, the monologue is a pungent commentary on her life and the people she has known. The music mirrors the wonderful text precisely and Ms. Woerner and her colleagues were able to encapsulate the character down to the moving and inspiring re-affirmation of life with which Anna Margarita's Will ends.
The evident love the musicians of the area had for Mr. Starer and his music was felt throughout the event. In particular, pianist Justin Kolb's touching and amusing recollections of Starer preceding his warm and carefully nuanced reading of Twilight Fantasies (1985), showed the great respect in which the composer is held in Woodstock. The piano piece, which is generated from a hauning two-chord progression, explores a variety of moods and textures, by turns dreamy and martial, and seem the most consciously "American" work o the program.
The
program also included works for variety of instrumental combinations: Yizkor
and Anima Aeterna (Marcia Gates, flute and Mary Jane Corry, harpsichord),
Song of Solitude (1995) (Erica Pickhardt, cello) and Elegy for a Woman
Who Died too Young (1990) (Marla Rathbun, violin and Susan Seligman, cello),
an austerely beautiful piece with apparent allusions to Shostakovich and traditional
Jewish materials. If intonation from the string players occasionally suffered
on a very humid night, it was a minor blemish in an otherwise splendid celebration
of a man's life in music.
The concert ended with substantial excerpts from Starer's 1998 church opera, The Other Voice, set to a libretto by Gail Godwin based on the life of the seventh century abbess Hilda of Whitby. The story was adapted by the librettist into a bridging narrative spoken by Bar Scott. The musical excerpts, which though substantial, had the effect of making one long for a complete, staged performance of the four-character piece, were stunningly and fervently performed by Barbaara Hardgrave, mezzo soprano (Hilda, the abbess).
Andrea Buergers, soprano (Elfreda, the young novice, a princess of the realm), Tom Miller, baritone (Rolf, the handyman/caretaker of the property, a kindly but rough fellow of pagan sensibility) and Matthew Ulrich, tenor (Caedman, Rolf's visionary but retarded brother, who prefers the company of animals to humans). Though all the singers were fine, Mr. Ulrich, in particular stood out for the remarkable sweetness of his largely unaccompanied solos. Barbara Pickhardt ably handled the spare, Britten-esque piano accompaniment. The magnificent quartet of reconciliation with which The Other Voice ends cast a proper and inspiring glow over the evening which was a wonderful survey of the music of a distinguished and sorely missed composer.
[Mr. O'Neal is Director of Promotion for music publisher Carl Fischer in New York] <>