A Weekend At The Concerts...

Eastman Presents - Bernadette Peters

Saturday evening was the final concert in the Eastman Presents series, and they definitely saved the best for last! Bernadette Peters appeared with a small ensemble, comprised of a couple of her own musicians and musical director, and several musicians from the Rochester community. The lack of a full orchestra backing up Ms. Peters made for an intimate performance in Kodak Hall, even though the theater was quite full (but not sold out, as I would have expected). I was ecstatic that her song list included an abundance of Sondheim numbers – both those she had sung in roles on Broadway, and a few she hadn't (including “Johanna” from Sweeney Todd – I'm sorry, but I always find it odd to hear a woman sing that song). There must have been others in the audience who had seen her recent appearance as Sally in Follies, because when the orchestra started “In Buddy's Eyes,” there was a ripple of recognition. She also sang “Send in the Clowns,” from her performance in A Little Night Music, which I missed (I suffered through Catherine Zeta-Jones as Desiree for the sake of seeing Angela Lansbury, but perhaps I should have waited for the Peters/Stritch replacement cast).

Ms. Peters was extremely engaging – she joked with the audience that she was trying to sell a house in Florida, and she came down into the first few rows of the audience a couple of times. For a woman of 67, she looks fantastic, is remarkably agile in very high heels, and her voice is still all there. Her final offering, “Kramer's Song,” a lovely lullaby she had written for her dog (she's very active in Broadway Barks, a charity she founded with Mary Tyler Moore), left the audience happy and wanting more. While we won't see her back in the series next year, Eastman Presents is bringing us another Broadway diva – Kristin Chenoweth. Can't wait! 

Sound ExChange + Tigue

Because I hadn't had my weekend fill of music between the Lyric Theatre Recital and Bernadette Peters, I joined my friend Lynn at Artisan Works Sunday afternoon for something completely different. We had been alerted to this concert by a mutual friend and violist in Sound ExChange, Alexander Peña (he is also the incredibly energetic and talented Director of RocMusic, an El Sistema-inspired after-school music education program). Artisan Works, with its eclectic and extensive collection of artworks, was the perfect venue for this performance of alternative music. There were at least 100 people in the audience, including kids from the RocMusic program and their families. My guess is that it was many people's first exposure to this unique space.

toy pianos

The music was very intriguing. Tigue's performance was mostly percussion, and Sound ExChange's mostly strings, but the unconventional portions were what made this performance riveting. At various times, musicians sighed into microphones, played toy pianos, and bowed the vibes, which i'd never seen before. The music seemed as abstract to me as some of the sculptures and paintings in the hall – there was no obvious structure to hold onto, and plenty of dissonance. But even though I don't pretend to understand modern music, it was still enjoyable, and I was delighted to see so many young people attending, and being attentive at, a live concert.

bowing the vibes

We certainly are blessed in Rochester with such a wide variety of performing arts from which to choose. The only problem is having to choose.