ON SCHUMANN, AND BEING HUMAN
Lieder of the pack: The formidable trio of Doug Clark, Vladislav Kovalsky and Katherine Harris are here to take the fear out of chamber concerts, with not one but TWO free performances of an all-Schumann program this week.
Admit it — classical music scares you.
You could say that your apprehension stems from the whole formality of the gowns-and-tuxedos presentation; the sense that you’re trespassing in a rarefied world where you have no right to tread. Or you could blame the cost factor, with season tickets to the top big-city companies going for the price of a certified pre-owned Lexus.
What if we were to tell you that an entity exists, right in your back yard, that can remove those fears? A way to experience some first-rate chamber music, free of charge, in a relaxed and comfortable setting that’s close to home and far from kind of the pomp and pretension that puts new listeners at a disadvantage? And did we mention that it’s free?
Unless you’re one of the proud parents who have enrolled their kids in the Red Bank-based Monmouth Conservatory of Music, you’ve probably passed by the rather nondescript building on White Street (former temporary home to the Red Bank Charter School) thousands of times without giving it any thought. Under the tenure of their Russian-born director Vladislav Kovalsky, however, the MCM has stepped up their yearly schedule of faculty and guest-performer recitals presented in the spacious all-purpose room of the building adjoining Trinity Episcopal Church.
For four years now, the Conservatory has also presented a season of free monthly concerts at the Middletown Township Public Library, under the name Music for a Wednesday Evening.
In an interview that first appeared on our mothership site redbankgreen, Kovalsky remarked, “Whoever planned the library must have had a great knowledge and love for music…it seems to go against all laws of acoustics and building materials, but it’s been a wonderful place for music.”
It doesn’t have to make perfect sense, of course — otherwise why do such things as free concerts? — but the community room of the recently re-imagined library on New Monmouth Road has proven to be a satisfying little venue for these musical offerings, with a come-as-you-are welcome mat extended to the public, and a folding-chair vibe that favors precision performances over preciousness.
This Wednesday, June 3, the main branch of the MTPL will once again be the setting for a faculty-with-special-guest presentation of the MCM; this one a full program focusing exclusively upon the vocal works of Robert Schumann. And if you happen to miss the performance, they’re doing it all over again this Saturday in Red Bank. Read on.
A concert pianist of international repute, Kovalsky appears on June 3 and 6 with a fellow MCM faculty member, tenor Doug Clark of The Monmouth Civic Chorus, for a program in which Clark will be performing Schumann’s entire 1840 Dichterliebe. Clark and Kovalsky delivered selections from the 16-song cycle in a concert almost a year ago to the day — and the two later collaborated on a CD of Schubert’s Die Schöne Müllerin, which they also presented as a free concert in Middletown.
Carlton Wilkinson, the extraordinary music writer for the Sunday Asbury Park Press (and the only other local journalist we’ve ever quoted at length here in oRBit) had this to say about Schumann:
Schumann’s music is utterly beautiful, some of the most beautiful ever written, in my opinion. It also is some of the most impassioned — so much so that it still is occasionally criticized as second-rate. In our age, composers appear to value a large amount of emotional and social restraint, a restraint missing in our horror films, TV shows, financial debacles, wars and the traumas and humiliations of daily living. In high art, reason is expected to prevail.
Clark and Kovalsky will be joined this week by a special guest performer Katherine Harris, a professor at Kean University and a soprano who will be singing a selection of other Schumann lieder as part of the program, the Middletown performance of which begins at 7:30pm.
Then on Saturday, the trio returns for an encore performance that commences at 4pm inside the MCM’s headquarters at 50 White Street. It’s preceded at 3pm by a free recital featuring the Conservatory’s Youth and Children’s Chorus, under the direction of Marissa Rosen.
So let us review what we have learned. An opportunity to catch an intimately scaled concert by a trio of internationally performing artists. Free of charge and free of dress code. Performed in two conveniently located, comfortable settings. Showcasing the skills of people who are among the most respected practitioners of their art in the state of New Jersey. What’s not to love — and what’s left to fear?
Admission to the MCM event is, as we said, free of charge, but reservations are recommended — and they can be made by calling (732)741-8880.
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June 02, 2009
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