By John Atkinson, Standard-Times correspondent
Jul 14, 2000 1:28 PM
Deciding on a single word to best describe Wednesday night's Buzzards Bay Musicfest concert in Marion, I'd have to go with "crisp," once, of course, I've passed "delightful," "beautiful," and "relaxing," all of which apply.
The orchestra and piano soloist were as crisp as fresh lettuce in a summer salad in their renditions of selections by Rossini, Mozart and Wagner. The ensemble playing under the guiding hand of Conductor Russell Patterson was some of the best and smoothest of its type to be heard anywhere, and my suspicion was confirmed when Mr. Patterson told me he and Mr. Rivers have performed frequently together. In the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 12, that confidence in one another's ability was apparent.
The opening overture by Rossini was delightful, with the little tapping sound that gave it a certain perkiness.
In the second half of the program, Wagner's infatuation with Siegfried and Isolde and all of those other "Ring" characters was nicely served by the Musicfest musicians and the four-part Mozart Symphony No. 39 in E Flat Major ended the concert with the same crispness with which it began.
The symphony gave the strings and reeds, especially, an opportunity to show how superbly integrated they are, which is amazing considering they play together only this short period each year.
A piano instructor in Marion extolled to me how fortunate the area is that Maestro Patterson chose Tabor Academy as the home of the musicfest, now in its fourth year.
A chamber concert is set for 8 p.m. tomorrow and an orchestral program for 2 p.m. Sunday. All concerts are held in the Fireman Performing Arts Center on Front Street and are free of charge thanks to the very generous support of many Marion people and others in the area. The musicfest is hosted by volunteers of the Marion Art Center.
Leslie Stroud, the wife of Tabor Academy's headmaster, will play flute with the orchestra at Sunday afternoon's concert, during which violinist Brian Lewis will be featured.
All of these musicians have played in famous concert halls across the country and in Europe, according to their resumes highlighted in the printed programs. In bringing them together, Mr. Patterson, who had retired as artistic director and conductor of the Kansas City Orchestra and Kansas City Lyric Opera and moved to Centerville, on Cape Cod, responded to a desire of many talented musicians living in the Northeast to perform together.
The pride that Marion takes in being chosen for the site of these concerts was summed up by a man sitting in front of me who, while stretching his legs during intermission, said with an expansive sweep of his arms, "I graduated from this place (Tabor) 65 years ago and this (the musicfest) is wonderful!"