Wifey and I purchased a bottle of 2008 Sauvignon Blanc at Duckhorn Vineyards on our trip that year to Napa Valley, and it’s been resting in our cooler ever since, awaiting the perfect occasion for its consumption.  Yesterday was the last concert of our 2011 Chamber Music of Saugatuck season, which was quite possibly our most successful season yet.

We opened up the Duckhorn last evening.  We’re usually fans of reds, but my goodness, this Sauvignon would turn even the most diehard red fan into a convert!  The most aromatic nose of any white I’ve ever tasted — a pungent yet gentle blossoming of spring lilacs and sun-drenched lilies — the perfect prelude to the cool taste that follows.  (Jim, our sommelier on our board, probably already knows this.)

The wonderful Duckhorn did have one drawback, however, in that it amplified the feelings of sadness we were experiencing now that the season was over.  Saugatuck is far and away the highlight of our entire year; it brings us back to the reasons for why we do what we do.  Making music should be fun; it should forge lasting friendships; it should be celebrated for its own sake and not for the sake of some other purpose.  Our audience is true and loyal, our board is completely supportive of our ideas and concerns, our meetings are productive and fun (yes, it’s possible), and our performers love playing for everyone.  This all sounds incredibly idealist, I realize, but the strange and shocking thing is, it’s true!! Music can and does exist like this, and even as cynic-prone as I can be, Saugatuck has proven it to me — it has proven it for three summers now.  Music in academia is a far cry from this, which is too bad.  However, this opportunity fell seemingly randomly into our laps, and for that we are grateful – forever grateful – because these six weeks of blissful hard work may be the very thing that keeps us nourished and vibrant through the ten-and-a-half wintry months in between.

Next year is the festival’s 25th anniversary, which only means that it’s going to be even bigger, more work, and much more bliss.  We are already in the throes of the planning process, and are so excited to tell you what we’re up to that we are hardly able to contain ourselves!  But!! — our lips are sealed, for now.  Sorry.

Leah Hottel, our senior intern, poses for a (silly) farewell photo with Jenny and Drew

Jenny and Drew with both of our interns, Leah Hottel and Larissa Fall

It’s the last week of CMFS 2011 and it’s going to be a barnburner!  Here are links to some notes on the program to whet your appetite:

Spohr:

http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2009/July09/Spohr_Dbleqts_8570963.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis_Spohr

Shostakovich:

http://www.ljms.org/Performances-and-Tickets/Program-Notes/Tokyo-String-Quartet.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Shostakovich

Mendelssohn:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octet_(Mendelssohn)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Mendelssohn

The Perugino and Burdick-Thorne String Quartets rehearsing during CMFS 2011's final week

Doesn’t the stage seem so much bigger?  It’s because the piano is gone!  Jim and his crew came to move the piano yesterday morning.  Yup, no more piano — it’s not needed for this week.  And, it’s better, because now our eight performers actually have room to move their bows and not stab one another.

With a high-maintenance baby in our lives, I realized just now that I haven’t been able to do any real blogging this summer…I’ve only posted program note links (and was even late doing that one week).  Yikes!  That isn’t terribly exciting…I beg your forgiveness!

Last week’s performance, especially the Ravel Trio, has got to be one of the most satisfying and fun chamber performances we’ve ever done.  Personally, the entire program was Heaven to me; if I were to be stranded on a post-apocalyptic island somewhere, I’d want to have recordings of both Debussy Sonatas, Mother Goose, and the Trio on the island with me, and that’ll be good to get me through.

And it seemed like the program was not just a hit with me, for Jenny and I have received more Facebook messages and emails congratulating us for this concert than any other.  It’s pretty awesome.  But the reception for all of our concerts this year – not just this last one – have seemed more positive than in past years.  Musical Tales was a hit; Sylvia Norris was a hit; Aebersold and Neiweem drove our audience to near-mania; and All in the Family completely raised the bar.

Maybe it’s just me…or maybe it’s preggo hormones, since we did plan the season during Jenny’s pregnancy.

In any case, we’d like to thank you for being so accepting and so excited about our programming.  At the end of every season, we always wonder how on earth we are going to do it again next year, but we’ve proven to ourselves twice now that, indeed, it is possible.

And speaking of proving things to ourselves, we entered this journey with the Ravel Trio with strong doubts about whether we could play it well, given our challenges with colicky Matthew, and the additional challenge of hosting my visiting family during the performance week (who, by the way, flew in from California and attended Thursday night’s concert!  I believe that sets a record for the geographical demographic of our audience. [Although, certainly correct me if I'm wrong.]).  But, we did it.  Earlier in the season, someone asked me: “So, can new parents run a music festival?”  I puckered my lips into a smile and replied, “Yes, of course!”, but was really thinking to myself, ‘Oh man, I sure hope so.’  So, as we embark on our last and what will certainly be a successful final week of our 2011 season, Jenny and I can rest assured.  We can totally do it.

Hmmm…I suddenly feel like having a victorious glass of wine.  But before I do that, I’ll post some photos from the past few weeks of the festival that almost got away from me.  See you this Thursday and/or Friday to celebrate the conclusion of our 2011 season!  And, yes, I will post program note links before then.  Cheers, and thanks again for all of your support!

Haijin patiently awaits as she anticipates performing on Beethoven's Septet.

Paul gives his delightful introduction to Strauss' Till Eulenspiegel.

Brad, Mihai, and Kelly give a powerful and incisive rendition of Stravinsky's Soldier's Tale.

The complete cast of "Lasting Impressions."

Joan and Alicia.

Jenny and I with my California family after the Ravel Trio.

The Votapeks, Berofskys, and Smiths give a stunningly polished and exciting performance.

Leah and Larissa, our wonderful interns, leave no detail overseen.

Claire and Ralph enchant our audience with charismatic introductions to their selections.

Ravel’s Ma mere l’oye (Mother Goose):

http://www.sfsymphony.org/music/ProgramNotes.aspx?id=41986

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_mère_l’oye

Debussy’s Sonata for Cello and Piano:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cello_Sonata_(Debussy)

Debussy’s Sonata for Violin and Piano:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violin_Sonata_(Debussy)

Ravel’s Piano Trio:

http://www.chambermusicwilliamsburg.org/solistiNotes.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piano_Trio_(Ravel)

Claude Debussy:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Debussy

Maurice Ravel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maurice_Ravel

Mozart:

http://www.timsummers.org/?page_id=58

http://www.earsense.org/chamberbase/works/detail/?pkey=40

http://occidentis.blogspot.com/2010/02/programme-notes.html

Martinu:

http://www.laphil.com/philpedia/piece-detail.cfm?id=769&bc=1

http://kennethmartinson.com/pdf/bohuslav_martinu.pdf

Dvorak:

http://www.chambermusicwilliamsburg.org/ritzNotes.html (scroll all the way down)

Mozart:

http://www.cmnw.org/programNotes/071710notes.html

Schubert:

http://www.ljms.org/Performances-and-Tickets/Program-Notes/Fantasie-in-F-Minor-for-Piano-Four-Hands-D.940.html

Liszt:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_préludes_(Liszt)

http://www.cmcolumbus.org/06-07_Season/Program%20Notes/bianconi.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mephisto_Waltzes

Barber:

http://www.danbury.org/concert/spoprog.htm

Gershwin:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhapsody_in_Blue

A few quick photos from this fun week.  Many, many thanks to all our musicians — Chris, Amanda, Judy, Lauren, Sylvia, Gabe, and Sarah — for two truly sensational concerts!

Christopher Martin rehearses the Tournier.

Sylvia Norris' fingers dancing across the strings.

Gabe Southard gave an especially entertaining introduction to the Hanson on Friday evening.

Last rehearsal, right before the Woman's Club doors opened.

Gabe warms up before the doors open.

Gabe entertains not only our audience, but also himself.

The Tournier was spectacular and dazzling. Bravo!

Howard Hanson:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Hanson

Jacques Ibert:

http://samanthaflute.com/sketching.ibert.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques_Ibert

Antonio Pasculli:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Pasculli

http://www.vcisinc.com/oboemusic.htm

Marcel Tournier:

http://www.audaud.com/article.php?ArticleID=7950

http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=226968

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Tournier

Gabriel Faure:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Fauré

What a week.  The 4th-of-July parade, the educational concert, the thank-you party, and two evening concerts…the three of us are totally wiped out.  I can’t believe another CMFS week is beginning on Monday already!  Both of us are out of gas (literally-our cars are running on fumes), need to water our dying plants, catch up on emails, do numerous loads of laundry, sleep (maybe), brush our teeth, wash our hair, etc.  Thank God there’s a sabbath day tomorrow to tackle some of these unfinished tasks (grin).

Someone brought to my attention this GR Press article that we somehow missed from back in May: http://www.mlive.com/entertainment/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/05/chamber_music_festival_of_saug_5.html

Cool.  Thanks, Jeff, for the great shout-out.

A couple other press pieces that we somehow missed, both from the Holland Sentinel –
The first one about our educational concert (apparently called the Young Listeners Concert?!),http://www.hollandsentinel.com/features/x2103899237/Young-Listeners-Concert-will-be-July-7, and the second piece about our opening concerts, http://www.hollandsentinel.com/feature/x230670337/Fab-Five-Five-local-events-you-need-to-see-this-week (scroll all the way to the bottom of the page).  Good stuff!  Thank you, Holland Sentinel.

A huge thanks to our amazing performers Mihai, Brad, Kelly, Haijin, Blake, Leslie, Nick, Paul, and Wendy for their stupendous performances Thursday and Friday evenings.  You all made for a perfect start to our 24th season!  Jenny and I are so, so grateful to be able to have you perform.

Also, I posted a brief selection of photos from our Educational (i.e., Young Listeners) Concert on my personal blog at http://blog.drewle.com.  I will re-post them on this blog later when I get a moment, but please feel free to take a peek there in the meantime.

Looking forward to next week!  Good night, everyone…time to catch some shut-eye.

Stravinsky’s Histoire du Soldat (The Soldier’s Tale):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Histoire_du_soldat

http://programnotes.wikia.com/wiki/Stravinsky_-_Suite_from_L’Histoire_du_Soldat

Richard Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegel Einmal Anders!, Op. 28:

http://www.answers.com/topic/till-eulenspiegel-einmal-anders-for-horn-violin-clarinet-cello-double-bass-after-richard-strauss

http://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/Till-Eulenspiegel-einmal-anders-Op-28/976108

http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/files/extranet/docs/PR/PCMT%20Prog%20%20Configure%208%20.pdf

Beethoven’s Septet in E-flat major, Op. 20:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septet_(Beethoven)

http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/files/extranet/docs/PR/PCMT%20Prog%20%20Configure%208%20.pdf