Old and New Pieces at IMAP’s Spring Concert

In Mid Air Pro­duc­tions Spring con­cert cel­e­brated the poets buried or memo­ri­al­ized in West­min­ster Abbey, all in trib­ute to the upcom­ing royal wed­ding. There were sev­eral Richard D. Rus­sell com­po­si­tions on this con­cert, the old­est being “Reverie for flute and piano,” which was com­posed as an under­grad­u­ate stu­dent. “Long­ing” is a new com­po­si­tion based on a text by Matthew Arnold, and “Four Songs of Shake­speare in Madri­gal Style” was pre­miered a sum­mer ago at Mannes Col­lege of Music. Two songs from “A Law Divine” were sung: “Love’s Phi­los­o­phy” (text by Shel­ley) and “A Red, Red Rose” (text by Burns); these pieces had their pre­miere at last summer’s IMAP concert.

Round­ing out the Rus­sell pieces was another new com­po­si­tion pre­miered was “Cross­ing the Bar” based on Tennyson’s famous poem.

Many thanks to the superb per­form­ers: Emily Clare Thomp­son (also the day’s direc­tor), Iliya Roit­man, Dan Foran, Mark Fitzger­ald Wil­son, Kris­tine Hart, and Emily Con­klin. Robert W. Butts con­ducted a fine ensem­ble: Mar­garet Walker, flute, Aaron Dai, piano, Anthony Bevilac­qua, vio­lin, and Nancy Con­nell, cello. Other com­posers on the day included Mae­stro Butts, Mr. Bevilac­qua, and Kevin McCarter. Here’s a gallery of pic­tures, click image for larger size.