SAVANNAH — The Savannah Music Festival, now in its 36th season, includes a wide variety of musical genres. “Our basis is to have a healthy mix of styles of music and to foster interactions,” said artistic director Ryan McMaken. As in the past, this is a festival that seems especially focused on hard-to-categorize “genre-bending” artists and works. Classical music has always been included in the menu here, but the mix of classical categories has changed over time.
For years, the classical highlight was a visit by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, but that ended with the pandemic, and a return doesn’t seem to be on the horizon, likely for financial reasons. In 2015, the festival staged an operatic double-bill featuring Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi, part of a collaboration with the Savannah Voice Festival, but that didn’t continue. Each season always featured a mix of recitals and chamber concerts, and McMaken said the festival “now has more of a chamber focus” than before.
Unfortunately for visiting classical fans, this season’s nine classical concerts are spread over the 17 days, with several of the most interesting events taking place midweek. Opening weekend, covered in this visit, included only two classical concerts.
Michelle Cann
Michelle Cann, who routinely performs with major orchestras, offered a recital March 28 focused on “composers who have inspired me.” All the composers were African American women, and all were severely neglected. Presumably for this reason, the pianist spent as much time explaining biographical details about the composers as she did playing. She is charming and articulate, but my own preference would have been to hear more music, with the background information put into program notes, or perhaps in a pre-concert lecture.
The program opened with a short work, Negro Dance, by Nora Holt. Sadly, this is the only surviving work by Holt (1885-1974), as the scores for over 200 of her works disappeared when her home was vandalized while she was on tour in 1926. Negro Dance has a ragtime feel and dramatic rhythmic contrasts. It’s an attention-getter, highly virtuosic.
Four Seasonal Sketches by Betty Jackson King (1928-1994) vividly describes the four seasons, each quite distinct in style. Spring arrives via dramatic arpeggios, Autumn features ostinato drumming, while Winter includes a reference to Debussy’s “The Snow Is Dancing” and conjures up an atmosphere that feels brutally cold. Cann played with utter confidence.
A devoted champion of Florence Price (1887-1953), Cann performed the first two of Price’s four Fantasies nègres. The first consists of variations on the spiritual “Sinner Please Don’t Let This Harvest Pass.” Cann first sang the spiritual a cappella in a big, rich mezzo-soprano voice, then played it with ample rubato: an expressive triumph. The second fantasy was quite a bit more subtle but equally demanding.
The concert ended with a pair of stirring works by Hazel Scott (1920-1981): her improvisations on Rachmaninoff’s Prelude in C-sharp minor and Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2. Both are wild and bluesy, and were played with impressive vigor.
This event took place at Trinity United Methodist Church, a lovely Greek Revival sanctuary built in 1850, which is home to all but one of this season’s classical concerts. Compact, with about 500 seats, it has excellent acoustics. Unfortunately, only about 100 people attended this concert, almost all of them white.
Mozart by Candlelight
This concert on March 30 was the first of four Philip Dukes & Friends concerts, featuring the festival’s resident chamber ensemble, headed up by violist Philip Dukes. It was the one classical event not held at Trinity Church. Instead, we journeyed to Trustee’s Garden, a former iron works in a decidedly industrial area on the edge of town, where a metal factory building has been turned into a performance space seating about 300 people (sold out for this event). McMaken said that “Philip wanted a club-like atmosphere.” But the venue is something of an acoustical disaster. McMaken explained that foam padding had been installed, and a pair of sound-reinforcement technicians, who manned a console at the back, told me they’d planned extensively for this event. All of this clearly had an effect. The hall sounded less like a metal box but had become a cold, dead space.
As violinist Benny Kim, violist Dukes, cellist Eric Kim, and pianist Sebastian Knauer played Mozart’s Piano Quartet No. 1 in G minor, the acoustics seemed to exaggerate intonation issues that might have been less apparent in a more forgiving space. This was an energetic reading with fine coordination and balance, but here it seemed off.
Mozart’s Violin Sonata No. 21 in E minor was the evening’s most successful work as performed by violinist Jack Liebeck and pianist Simon Mulligan. For some reason, the acoustics did less damage here. Liebeck is technically a magician, and he plays with flexible tempos on the slow side and carefully modulated vibrato. Mulligan was impeccable. Page turners are becoming relatively rare as iPads take over and more pianists seem to memorize things, but one made a discreet and welcome appearance here.
After a lengthy intermission, we returned to find the room slightly transformed, with candles here and there. As promised, the musicians arrived “in period attire” (if you can forgive the black wigs). In addition to Liebeck, the two Kims, and Dukes, the ensemble included violist Robin Ashwell and bassist Marc Chesanow. As they launched Mozart’s Divertimento No. 1 in D major. it became apparent that the costumes were not enough to overcome the acoustical damage. The performance was professional but felt perfunctory, and the warmth of the Andante was swallowed by the room.
As soon as the Divertimento ended, out popped an elaborately costumed woman who we soon learned was Constanze (Mozart’s wife, played by Natasha Drena) with the first of several letters from Mozart that she read. None of the letters had anything to do with the music on the program. Instead, they seemed chosen for their threats of spankings or warnings about protecting Mozart’s honor, all enacted with campy expressions.
The final work, Eine kleine Nachtmusik, got a highly competent performance as Constanze, seated front and center, nodded in approval. This silliness, together with Mozart’s letters, which arrived after each movement, had a kryptonite effect, at least for me. Between the final movements, a letter arrived from Sophie, Constanze’s sister, with a mournful description of the composer’s death, to be followed incongruously by the perky Rondo.
The same concert, performed by these gifted musicians without gimmicks in a proper venue, would likely have been a musical success. After the obligatory standing ovation and yet another letter, the ensemble played an arrangement of The Marriage of Figaro overture as an encore.
Festival Highlights
On March 27, prior to my arrival, violinist Julia Fischer performed with pianist Jan Lisiecki. In addition to the four Philip Dukes & Friends concerts, the festival lineup includes Sebastian Knauer playing film scores (April 5) and the Danish String Quartet (April 9). The festival features 72 performances ranging from Sicilian folk music to Afro-pop, with lots of jazz and bluegrass.
The Savannah Music Festival continues through April 14. For a schedule of events and to purchase tickets, go here.
