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Savannah Music Festival review
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Savannah Music Festival, now through April 3. www.savannahmusicfestival.com
CRITIC’S NOTEBOOK
Savannah –- If one sequence of events could sum up the new spirit of the Savannah Music Festival, it happened Friday, a humid and drizzly evening.
In a classical concert, at the ornately refurbished Lucas Theatre, the program included Vivaldi’s Concerto for Two Mandolins and Orchestra. Mike Marshall and Don Stiernberg played the solo parts. They plucked away in splendid counterpoint — two of the show’s six instrumental and vocal soloists.
Before the classical concert was finished, around the corner from the Lucas at the art-deco Trustees Theater, another concert was starting: “Mando Madness,” a mandolin circle jam starring Marshall, Stiernberg, David Grisman, Sam Bush and other heroes of the acoustic-folk scene.
When looking over the festival’s eclectic listings — blues, jazz, bluegrass, classical, dance — and talking with its director, Rob Gibson, my fear had been that Savannah would slip into what’s dissed as “the festival racket.”
Festival is a rosy word, isn’t it? A synonym for a fun atmosphere, it implies, by ancient tradition, the creation of unique events, where artists settle in for at least a few days and make give-and-take connections — with other artists and the audience. (A “racket” would involve a menu of prepackaged touring shows, where “festival” is just a marketing buzzword.)
Location is just as important. To a visitor, Savannah seems to have a rapidly broadening cultural sense — accompanied by a burgeoning arts scene. The Savannah College of Art and Design continues to refurbish old buildings around town, turning them into prized landmarks; you see SCAD marquees (and art students) throughout town. The wavy white Jepson Center for the Arts, designed by celebrity architect Moshe Safdie, is under construction. Savannah has long been an American museum town, where the city itself is the attraction. Increasingly, it’s also a place living of living art.
In his three years in Savannah, Gibson — the former chief of New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center and, before that, Atlanta’s Quantuum Productions — has done the hard work. He’s made an honest-to-goodness festival. Sharing personnel like Marshall and Stiernberg was one of many savvy hook-ups.
The 17-day event, which opened March 18, is all about connections. As David Grisman’s folky, contrapuntal jam band took requests in one theater, Eddie Palmieri’s suave and funky Latin Jazz Septet got people dancing at another space across town.
Violinist Daniel Hope gave the world premiere of “Abraham,” an attractive new violin concerto by English composer Roxanna Panufnik. Inspired by the Old Testament patriarch, common to Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths, the concerto includes aural snatches of Orientalism and Korngold-style romantic lyricism, with an optimistic ending. As a composer, Panufnik’s voice is mild. Her ideas are persuasive, but she doesn’t shout them. “Abraham” is among her most assured and compelling works.
More connections: Arianna Zuckerman, a New York-based soprano with an affecting voice, sang a recital last week, then sang Mozart at Friday’s orchestral concert, then helped judge the festival’s five-day American Traditions singing contest, which ended Saturday.
Each of the contest’s five finalists were required to sing in more than one American genre, selected from jazz, classical, country, folk and gospel. The winner of the $10,000 first prize was Andre McRae, a New Yorker of hammy acting skills and a thin, reedy baritone voice. Go figure. The best thing about McRae’s performance was his accompanist, pianist Robert Strickland, who is music director of Libby’s Cabaret in Atlanta.
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