When Midsummer’s Music kicks off its 28th season this Friday (June 15th) at Birch Creek, it is going to be a rousing and celebratory affair. Sure, we’ll have the festive “champagne” toast with Island Cider, a great reception following the concert, and some spectacular music in between. But what will really make it special this year is WATER! This event will be the kick-off of our summer-long collaboration with the Celebrate Water project in Door County. Brett Bicoy, Executive Director of the Door County Community Foundation, will be with us to speak a bit about this great project, and in addition to the wonderful Franck Piano Quintet, we will be performing some interesting and provocative water-related music.
When I first learned of the Celebrate Water project last fall, and was asked if Midsummer’s Music would like to participate, I was at a bit of a loss. I couldn’t think of many chamber music pieces that suggest water. Chamber music generally lacks references to extra-musical ideas. Sure, there is Schubert’s beloved “Trout” Quintet, and we are going to do that. But symphonic music has Debussy’s “La Mer,” Respighi’s “Fountains of Rome,” the “Moldau” of Smetana, the thunderstorm in Beethoven’s Sixth… I was envious and flummoxed. A Mozart Quintet in C Minor isn’t very helpful in such a quest. But Allyson Fleck, our Assistant Artistic Director and new Executive Director, and I started brain-storming (pun intended) and came up with several works suggestive of some different aspects of our relationship with water. The first of these is an imaginative depiction of an Egyptian Water Wheel, or “Escalay,” by Hamza el Din, which we will perform on our first program.
The more we worked on our programming, the more the ideas started to “flow,” and pretty soon we had several such works “sprinkled” throughout our season. Do you see how you can get caught up in such a “current?” Well, I had no idea of what might be in store, but I think maybe we got a suggestion of it just recently. It was the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, and Midsummer’s Music was presenting the Pro Arte String Quartet from UW Madison at the brand new Kress Pavilion in Egg Harbor. Even though we were just the presenter, it seemed like the season was starting, and the excitement over having a major performance in the Kress Pavilion was palpable. In fact we had nearly 100 people in attendance and this glorious second story room with its westward view of the Bay was nearly full. But leading up to all that was a bit of drama.
A few hours earlier, when Jean and I pulled out of our driveway onto highway 42 not far from the Washington Island Ferry dock at Northport and headed toward Gills Rock, we could see some heavy weather to the northwest. In fact it wasn’t just heavy – it was ominous. Strange shaped, fast moving clouds and eerie colors glowered at us. Not a propitious prelude for a concert. Once we turned southeast heading toward Egg Harbor, the threat was off to our right and seemed like it might possibly be moving across our path instead of with us. I thought, maybe we will get clear of it as it heads over toward Michigan. Indeed, that seemed to be the case. As we got closer to Egg Harbor things seemed to improve despite the strong wind we were experiencing.
We went inside and up to the second floor. What a beautiful room with a fireplace at one end and floor-to-ceiling windows most everywhere else. The view was captivating, but it wasn’t just a beautiful water scene surrounded by forested hills. The sky was dancing with every kind of cloud and the wind was strongly out of the east as the flag just to the west of us almost at eye level kept exclaiming. Saying this was unsettled weather was to put it mildly, but we were inside, and it wasn’t raining. However, it was still 45 minutes until the performance, and most of the audience hadn’t arrived. We had advertised heavily for this event, but I was fearful that a sudden downpour at this moment, à la Beethoven’s “Pastoral” Symphony, would discourage our audience. I just wanted it to hold off until 7:01 when everyone would be inside and the quartet would be launching into a Haydn Quartet.
We didn’t quite make it. 10 minutes before 7:00 and all this pent up volatility let loose. Torential Beethoven! What a place to witness such a storm. It seemed like we were right in the clouds with gusty winds, lightening, and sheets of rain pelting us. The flag had turned abruptly 180 degrees, but we were dry and safe. Most of our audience was already inside enjoying the show, except for the last few intrepid souls who arrived a bit saturated but cheerful.
By the time the quartet started to play, the rain had mostly stopped. The wind was still twisting the clouds into a variety of ingenious and dramatic shapes – and then the pièce de résistance. Halfway into the first movement of the Haydn Quartet, a rainbow appeared right behind the quartet. In fact, it seemed to be coming right up out of David Perry and his violin. I always thought his playing was our pot of gold, but this confirmed it.
Well, Celebrate Water is under way, and Midsummer’s Music is joining in starting at Birch Creek on Friday just a mile or so away from the Kress Pavilion. Additional performances of this program take place on the 16th at St. Luke’s in Sister Bay, June 20th at Hope Church in Sturgeon Bay, and June 22nd at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Ephraim. I think we have had a vivid preview of a spectacular, unpredictable, and exciting season. Fasten your seatbelts, and then call 920-854-7088 or visit www.midsummersmusic.com.