Home  Entertainment Reviews Review: Casa Rondena (Aug. 6)
|
Review: Casa Rondena (Aug. 6) |
|
|
|
|
Written by D.S. Crafts
|
|
Monday, 06 August 2007 |
|
Mozart, Mendelssohn and Meritage. That was the trinity on display Sunday evening for the start of the fourth annual Festival de Música Rondena at the Casa Rondena Winery. As we have come to expect from the festival, the finest wine offered by winery owner John Calvin accompanied the finest music prepared by Artistic Directors Guillermo Figueroa and Valerie Turner. All this is set in the pastoral setting of Casa Rondena in the village of Los Ranchos.
Sunday, the first of three programs this summer, brought to the stage what radio host Dan Haik likes to call "meat and potatoes," a culinary metaphor for standard repertory. In this case the Mozart String Quintet in C Major, K. 515 was followed by Mendelssohn's String Quartet in E flat, Op. 44, two masterworks of the chamber string literature. Violinist Daria Tedeschi-Adams, long associated with California winery programs as well as the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, assumed the first violin part in the Mozart. This quintet employs two violas, and the addition of just one stringed instrument to a string quartet makes a substantial qualitative difference in sound, almost starting to feel like a chamber symphony. In the opening Allegro the ensemble played freely with the extra-rich sonority of five strings, cellist Jesús Morales leaping through a dramatic opening arpeggio. The Menuetto precedes the Andante, and here the Trio section was most poignant, full of emotional modulation and lyrical fancy. Tedeschi-Adams engaged in continual duet with first violist Stephanie Schweigart in the slow movement, the darker viola echoing the bright phrases of the violin. Everything came together splendidly in a robust finale, a movement of pure sunshine played just as the sun was going down outside the hall. After a short break and some welcome ice water, Guillermo Figueroa was at the helm for the Mendelssohn quartet. The opening Allegro could not be mistaken for anyone but Mendelssohn with its highly characteristic melodic phrases. Figueroa as he loves to do, interpreted "allegro" as a crisp tempo that sparkled with all the musical jewels the composer embedded. An understated Scherzo provided the springboard for the gorgeous Adagio non troppo in which Figueroa produced one beautiful phrase after another. The Molto Allegro con fuoco (Very Fast with Fire), again unmistakably Mendelssohn, indeed came blazing forth in a fury of string timbre, all instruments finishing in a great flurry of sound which brought a vigorously appreciative audience standing in admiration. The delicious candlelight dinner that followed the music had a Greek theme and was catered by Blue Sage, run by chef team Scott and Gwenn Clapp. The Festival continues over the next two Sundays, each featuring a different musical program and boasting such acclaimed artists as Rafael Figueroa, Lori Lovato, Jean-Luc Matton, Elmar Oliveira, Sandra Robbins, and Carol Wincenc. An exciting line-up to be sure.
Comment on this article
Send your comments to ABQjournal (Show/Hide Form)
Other Visitors Comments
There are no comments approved to share, thanks for your comments ....
|
|
permalink
|
About Reviewers D.S. Crafts (Website) Composer Daniel Steven Crafts came to New Mexico from San Francisco where he had hosted a classical music radio program on KPFA. His first commission from opera star Jerry Hadley, "The Song & the Slogan" based on texts by Carl Sandburg, was made into a TV program for the PBS network and aired nationally in 2004 and won an Emmy for Best Music. His latest opera La Llorona is a collaboration with novelist Rudolfo Anaya based on his play "The Season of La Llorona." Mr. Crafts is currently working on another commission from Jerry Hadley for a piece about the American Southwest which includes texts by Rudolfo Anaya and V.B. Price. Two CDs of his music, Contemporaries (short, satirical keyboard works) and ARIAS (excerpts from his various operas) have been released on the BACAT label in San Francisco.
David Steinberg David Steinberg has covered state government, the courts, city and county government in Santa Fe for the Albuquerque Journal. He's been an arts writer for the past 20 years, and serves as the book editor, for the Journal. Over the years, he's also acted in plays, sung in choruses and played trumpet.
Jennifer Noyer Jennifer Noyer has been writing dance reviews for the Albuquerque Journal for 17 years, as well as contributing articles for Dance Magazine and other art journals. She trained in dance with Hanya Holm in New York City and Colorado Springs, and studied several dance techniques at the graduate level at the University of Michigan. After teaching dance at Wayne State University she entered and completed a Masters Degree in Humanities there. In New Mexico Ms. Noyer has taught, directed, and choreographed contemporary dance for several years. Her writing on dance includes a monograph accompanying the video of choreographer Bill Evens’ ballet “The Legacy.” An overview of Evans’s world wide career, it was written and published during his tenure at the University of New Mexico. Ms. Noyer’s studies in the humanities, and her studio dance work influence her approach to dance as an integrative art form in the United States.
Barry Gaines Barry Gaines has taught Shakespeare in the University of New Mexico English Department for over twenty-five years and has received two outstanding teaching awards. He has written theater reviews for the Journal since 2000. He has attended theater all over the world including Shakespeare productions in Russia, South Africa, Denmark, and Poland. He has also served as literary advisor for two professional theater companies and written performance reviews for Shakespeare Quarterly. Gaines has taken two years of acting with Paul Ford and appeared in small parts in three plays at the Albuquerque Little Theater. He believes that he is probably a better reviewer than actor.
Joanne Sheehy Hoover Joanne Sheehy Hoover, music critic emeritus of the Albuquerque Journal, has written for NPR, PBS, the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Symphony, among others. She has also been a music lecturer for the Smithsonian Associates and a music critic and arts writer for The Washington Post. She was director of the Levine School of Music, one of the country’s largest community music schools, in Washington, D. C. 1980-1993. She and her husband moved to Corrales, New Mexico in July 1993. Also a poet, her fifth collection, “Einstein in New Mexico,” was published in 2002.
Marissa Greenberg Marissa Greenberg is a member of the faculty of the University of New Mexico English Department, where she teaches Shakespeare and early English literature. A prior guest reviewer for the Albuquerque Journal, Greenberg will be reviewing theater while Barry Gaines is out of town. She also composed and edited the program notes for last year’s Albuquerque Shakespeare Festival and has written performance reviews for Shakespeare Bulletin. A graduate of Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, Greenberg has been performing and studying drama for most of her life. She is thrilled to have this opportunity to review for the Journal.
If you have your own question about the news that you'd like to see answered by an AP journalist, send it to newsquestions@ap.org, with "Ask AP" in the subject line. Visit the ASK ap web site.
|
:
...go to bookmarks