“Summertime. It was a song. It was a season.” — Benjamin Alire Saenz
If music up close and intimate is your delight, you have no further to look than the Mohawk Trail Concert Series in Charlemont. More like a salon than a concert hall, the venue takes place in the Federated Church, where practically every seat feels personal to the performers and commands a clear sight path to the stage. But even more inviting than these qualities is the quaint and curious blend of the bucolic and the virtuosic — of world-class artists kicking back and relaxing into the homespun New England charm of the place and its people — almost all longtime devotees and enthusiasts with a shared passion for the history and mystery that surrounds the ” little church that could.”
The summer of 2016 marks both the end of an era and the passing of the torch for the concert series. With the death of Ruth Black last year at the age of 86, preceded in 2000 by her husband and co-founder, violinist-composer Arnold Black, the final founding member of MTC has left the stage for the last time.
While the MTC torch officially exchanged hands last year with the installation of its new executive director, cellist Mark Fraser, Ruth Black, ailing but ever enthusiastic, was still well in evidence nonetheless.
Now the scenery has shifted substantially, for a glance at this summer season reveals the absence of composer-pianist William Bolcom and chanteuse Joan Morris, beloved veterans of some 43 seasons at MTC, who are also a husband-wife duo that harbored a deep love of the American Songbook. And while no one can argue that they didn’t have their many moments in the sun over the course of those four-plus decades, I would be willing to wager that it will be a very long while — if ever — that any equally passionate and delightful purveyors of American popular music will come our way. They were not merely pianist and singer, but also raconteurs extraordinaire and seasoned musicians who had often rubbed shoulders with the likes of E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen (“The Wizard of Oz”), Bock and Harnick (“Fiddler on the Roof”), or Stephen Sondheim and Leonard Bernstein. While they remain alive and active, give or take a bum leg or a slipped lyric now and then, they may be now become residents of the MTC Hall of Fame. Thank you, Bill — once upon a time my theory professor at Queens College — and Joan, a terrific musical ham.
Such irrevocable changes bring to light the specialness of such venues as Charlemont’s chamber music cabaret, a unique and now renowned performance setting.
The spotlight is full upon the new programming for the season, spearheaded by Adaskin Trio cellist and Mark Fraser of Deerfield, an overview of which follows:
The artistic directors of Mohawk Trail Concerts take the stage, with Masako Yanagita, violin, Mark Fraser, cello, Estela Olevsky, piano, performing the J. S. Bach Suite for solo Cello No. 4 in Eb major (excerpts), Beethoven’s Sonata for Violin and Piano in C minor, Op. 30 No. 2 and Brahms, Piano Trio in C major Op. 87.
An intriguingly different musical ensemble, with Latin guitarist David Burgess and violinist Masako Yanagita, featuring works for solo guitar by Garoto, Costa, and Rabello and Astor Piazolla’s “Histoire du Tango” for guitar and violin.
The concert gives us the once-regional, now L.A.-based jazz pianist Miro Sprague, performing with Marty Jaffe, bass and Eric Miller, trombone. Sprague is a gifted young performer who seldom yields to the temptation to let his “fingers do the walking,” but who instead deeply reflects upon his music in the act of performing it. The concert is family-oriented and free.
The Chiara String Quartet performing the ravishingly beautiful Ravel String Quartet in F major, the Bartok String Quartet No. 5 and the Beethoven String Quartet in Eb major, Op. 127.
The MTC’s annual Chicken BBQ on the lawn at the Federated Church prior to the Chiara String Quartet concert. This benefit for the Federated Church offers “ . . . delicious home prepared salads, scrumptious locally baked pies and breads.”
For reservations, call the Federated Church at 413-339-4294.
Andrew Garland, baritone, with Estela Olevsky, piano, with Robert Schumann’s song cycle, “Dichterliebe” and folk and Broadway songs by Mark Kohn, Cole Porter, Mitch Leigh and others.
Another unusual chamber music combination, the Laredo-Robinson Duo, with Jaime Laredo, violin, and Sharon Robinson, cello, performing the Halvorsen arrangement of Handel’s Passacaglia, the Mozart Duo in G major, K. 423, the Duo by Irwin Schulhoff and the Duo by Zoltan Kodaly.
A season ticket pass is available, $120 for seven concerts, a savings of $41. Send check to: Mohawk Trail Concerts. P.O. Box 75, Shelburne Falls, MA 01370.
Individual tickets: Adults $23, under 16 free. Open seating for every concert. No reserved seats. Doors open 30 minutes before each concert. Contact Mohawk Trail Concerts at 413-625-9511
An author and composer, columnist Joseph Marcello of Northfield focuses on music and theater. He can be reached at josephmarcello@verizon.net.