The chapel vibrating as sound bounced out of the piano was a magical experience. On Thursday, Dec. 3 and Friday, Dec. 4 the Russian Winter Arts and Music Festival continued from earlier in the semester. The first night featured student performances, showcasing Will Platt ’19, Justin Winokur ’18, Mitch Paro ’16, Andrew Shaw ’16, Claire Raizen ’18 and faculty accompaniment by Tony Lin and Christine Coyle. This was a particularly fun performance because of the variety of instruments and styles featured.
Platt and Lin, playing violin and piano, respectively, opened up the evening. The piece, Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky’s “Valse sentimentale,” from the end of the 19th century, had a slow dance rhythm. It compelled the audience to sway along.
Next, Winokur and Paro performed a tenor-piano duet. As a listener, it was harder to pick up the tune in this piece because of the piece’s complexity. Both musicians seemed to be following their own beat, but then there would be moments of perfect alignment. Together, both piano and tenor would shorten and sharpen their sounds or elongate them. This was really fun to listen to because the chaotic nature of the piece had moments of compete fluidity.
The next instrument encountered was the clarinet, played by Shaw and accompanied by Lin on the piano. The music, Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee,” was very appropriately named. This piece had a dizzying effect. As the clarinet song spiraled downward, the piano accompaniment seemed to spin upward.
Following Shaw, Winokur played his second piece of the evening on the cello. This piece has a romantic sway to it, encouraging the audience to picture a ballroom in a tsar’s palace full of synchronized dance moves.
Next was Raizen’s short, fast cello piece. The surprising change in tempo made it all the more enjoyable.
And for the finale of this performance, Lin played two pieces: Sergei Rachmanioff’s “Etude-tableau in D major, Op. 39, No. 9” and Sergei Prokofiev’s “Etude in D minor, Op. 2, No. 1.” Lin played in an engaging style; he changed his position on the bench depending on the tone of the notes. When he played high notes, he seemed to be sitting on nails, but when performing low notes, he pounded on the keys. Both pieces were fast and dramatic.
The Russian Arts and Music Festival continued all of the next day, too. In the afternoon, there were presentations on Russian masterpieces of art by students from Slavic Studies 165: From Russia with Love. Molly Brunson, a professor of Slavic languages and literature at Yale University, responded and expanded upon each of the students’ comments, continuing the discussion about Russian visual artworks.
Later that evening, Olga Nikolaeva read sections from Boris Godunov, while the audience followed along in translation. Emily Frey Giansiracusa’s lecture, “Boris Godunov and the Terrorist,” followed. These presentations were an interesting addition to the festival, adding an academic component. The only issue for the non-experienced ear is that the Russian language is difficult to decipher, so listening to the plots and characters became confusing very quickly. Fortunately, most of the members seemed to have some experience with the Russian language. Even some members from the Russian New London community arrived for the later lecture.
The final performance of the Russian Arts and Music Festival was an all-faculty showcase. Students got to observe their professors’ deep passions and talents. The enthusiasm was remarkable. First Kumi Ogano played two pieces: Rachmaninoff’s Moments Musicaux, Op. 16 in B minor and E minor. These pieces complemented each other beautifully. The first is slow and methodical, while the second is faster. Next, Gary Buttery on tuba and Patrice Newman on piano produced quite a sound. One would play louder with more emphasis, and the other would play quieter background music. Then they would switch. They were a dynamic duo.
The final piece of the night, Modest Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, played by Lin, was by far the most magnificent. The piece took about 20 minutes to play through. The titles of each of the pictures were listed in the program, and as the tone changed, it was obvious that the composition had moved on to the next picture. One of the really cool things about the names of the pictures being represented was that they displayed elements of Russian culture. “The Promenade,” “The Market Place at Ligmoges” and “The Great Gate of Kiev” displayed the city life of a Russian town through the loud, exclamatory, hustle-bustle music. Meanwhile, “Cattle,” and “The Ballet of Unhatched Chicks” provided an image of country life, with low steady overtones, and flurries of high notes, respectively. The pieces about “The Gnome,” and “The Hut of Fowl Legs (Baba-Yaga)” referred to Russian folklore – particularly Baba-Yaga. She is supposedly a witch who lives in the woods in a tree house. But instead of a tree, the house is made of chicken legs. The music based around this piece was suspenseful, fast then slow, and seemed to be saying, “uh oh, uh uh oh.” All the pieces combined produced a beautiful work of art.
Lin played this composition masterfully. It was a very impressive display. When the final notes of “The Great Gates of Kiev” rang through the chapel, the audience stood and cheered for one of the primary organizers and performers of the Russian Arts and Music Festival. •
