Pacifica Tribune 4
Pacifica Tribune Review of Seth Montfort's December 9, 2005 Pacifica Performance
By Jean Bartlett
Arts Correspondent
You know that famous French born extremely influential composer, Maurice Ravel?
Well as it turns out he competed three times unsuccessfully for the prestigious Prix de Rome award and was booted in the preliminary round during his fourth attempt in 1905.
This hint has been brought forth as a reminder that musical competition does not mean that Great Aunt Edna from the “Deliverance” side of the family will be featured on attic piano and accompanying vocals.
If that thought has kept you from these preliminaries, you have one more chance this coming Friday, the 16th, to rediscover the thrill of musical Olympians.
On with the show.
First up national and international soloist, chamber musician, and accompanist Allison Lovejoy, performing in the classical competition began with a presentation of “Une Barque sur l'océan,”
(A Boat on the Ocean) (Ravel.) This piece, written in 1905, was composed in the day when the new and exciting great ocean liners competed in time as they made their way across the Atlantic and the winner received the highly coveted “Blue
Riband.” A glorious choice to begin a competition and Lovejoy’s presentation was absolutely stunning.
With a power that bordered on might, Lovejoy took us along a wonderfully expressive piano journey
through wave and wind, balanced by poetry and color.
Next on the menu; the “Barcarolle in F sharp major Op. 60” (Frederic Chopin).
Lovejoy played with a piano fluidity and romance that pooled a thoughtful and sensual glide beneath the stars of Venice.
Bravissimo!
Last minute scheduling conflicts dropped several contestants from the program so Mr. Montfort took a seat at the Hall’s concert grand.
He continued the flow of water music with “L’isle Joyeuse” (Debussy).
This piece tumbled from Montfort’s fingertips in a spray of: wind, sea, sand, dreams and a little romantic mischief.
Next the pianist performed “El Brejeiro” (The Brat), a tango by Ernesto Nazareth.
This music is as full as the hips which catch its rhythm and move and Montfort moved.
With piano strokes teasing, halting, laughing and full of flavor, Montfort next played “Jamaican Rumba” by Arthur Benjamin.
Then the lights dimmed, or perhaps more so the spotlight shined upon the cabaret singer in the torchy black dress, boots and wig.
She was as at ease with the crowd as she might have been with a dismissive flick of a cigarette.
Her name, to her audience’s surprise, was Allison Lovejoy and she was here not only to compete in the cabaret competition but to set the simmer on fire with her sultry vocal and piano sashay.
The songs performed were her songs, based on real stories in the vein of Nina Simone and Kurt Weill, with a presentation that would have made Dietrich stand on her chair and applaud.
Her first song was “about or overly medicated society” and it was called “Pills.”
This song took a lazy Louisville stroll mixed it up with Bourbon Blues and came back round like a talking hip sister.
Lovejoy’s voice peeled out notes in film noir savvy and her stroll on the piano snapped in tribute to old Fats Waller.
Next up, from the rock opera Lovejoy is penning entitled “Seven Deadly Pleasures,” we heard “Beauty Full.”
This song is about that drastic surgery to keep those good looks, drastic.
With a boys-in-the-backroom piano delivery and a vocal to stop the presses, Lovejoy sliced beauty into fine.
Her last song was about a former neighbor in San Francisco, a gypsy, who worked at a restaurant and poisoned “those” men with foxglove.
Lovejoy’s song “Foxglove” is oom-pah-pah piano mixed with Klezmer, spangled rhythms and mist.
Funny, biting, songs of wit, Lovejoy walked us into the cool of cabaret.
Next Montfort soared through a blaze of inspiration on piano: “Balada Mexicana” (Ponce); “Etude in C minor, Opus 10 No. 12” (Chopin); “Duet for Two Fingers” (Montfort); “Odeon” (Nazareth); “Etude-Tableau in E flat minor, Opus 33 No. 6” (Rachmaninoff); and “Battle of Manassas” (Thomas Greene Wiggins); which left his audience and the piano drenched in satisfaction.
The final contestant of the evening was pianist Sandra Simich. Already celebrated in Europe, Simich ended the evening’s performance with “Etude No. 3 in E major” (Chopin) that was articulate, insightful, rightfully painted with embellishment and flowing with flawless pianism.
We thought we had heard all that there was to paradise but Simich showed us the gates were still open.
This is what you’ve been missing if you haven’t attended these competitions.
One more, this Friday night.