By David Bolling
What I know about Antonin Dvorák (pictured) would fit in this sentence. What I know about Top 40 radio hits would probably fill this paper, because we’re talking about the soundtrack of my life, our lives. From Bo Diddly to Bob Dylan, from the Temptations to the Supremes, to Aretha and Joni, from MoTown to the Beatles, from Elton John to Nine Inch Nails, Stevie to Marvin to Tina, to the Stones, from Carole King and Linda Ronstadt, from The Who to Coldplay.
But Dvorák? Who can even pronounce that?
I didn’t grow up musically illiterate, but no one played Tchaikovsky at my high school hops (yes, I’m that old), and while I’ve been to my share of stadium concerts, and a scattering of full-symphony orchestra productions, I’ve never, ever heard or seen audience members on their feet, clapping and shouting along to the famous 1812 Overture. And the only reason I’m familiar with the finale of Rossini’s William Tell Overture is because it was the open and close soundtrack for the best TV show any third-grader could ever watch, The Lone Ranger Rides Again. (Hi-oh Silver Awayyy, Brah).
But while you can trace the origins of rock music back to Africa, it’s probably not true that “classical music,” as evolved with the great composers of Western Europe, was the “pop” music of its time. Because in every era going back centuries, there was folk music, with simple melodies and story-telling lyrics, which brings us back to Dvorák, a Czech composer and virtuoso violinist and organist who famously integrated the folk tunes of Moravia, Bohemia and even America into the melodic fabric of his symphonic work. And a brief, two-note opening of the fourth movement of his New World Symphony No. 9, was apparently borrowed by American film composer John Williams for the iconic and ominous soundtrack (“dum-dum, dum-dum, dum-dum”) of the movie, “Jaws.”
So why are we talking about Dvorák and popular music? Because the two music forms were brilliantly married this month through what will hopefully become a musical tradition when the Valley of the Moon Music Festival and the Transcendence Theatre Company underwent a strategic marriage in a “Perfect Sonoma Cultural Weekend” that combined “Postcards From Dvorák” – a concert series of the maestro’s chamber music – with the Transcendence production, “Radio Recall” – a bravura, out of the ballpark (literally), mash-up of top-40 rock songs going back to the Sixties. The two-part package was tied together with a strategically-priced menu of dining, lodging and imbibing options designed to appeal to out-of-town guests.
The “cultural weekend” theme lured me to my first Valley of the Moon Music Festival concert, a combination of Dvorák, Haydn and Bedrich Smetana, a Czech composer I (of course) had never heard of. Performing on a rotation of historic pianos, with violin, viola and cello, the world class musicians brought down the house, and when the final riveting note had been wrung from Smetana’s stunning Trio in G minor for piano, violin and cello, the audience stood en masse clapping and, yes, even shouting their praise. I was, as it were, blown away.
The performers, with names you may not be familiar with, but should be, were: Festival co-founder and pianist Eric Zivian; Festival co-founder and cellist, Tanya Tomkins; Aaron Wolff on cello; Elizabeth Blumenstock, on violin; Jeff LaDeur on piano; Juliette Greer on violin; Laura Krumm, mezzo-soprano; Nikki Einfeld, soprano; Rachell Ellen Wong on violin; Rosemary Nelis, on viola; Ryan Jung on piano; SoYoung Choi on violin.
The next night, I found myself back at the familiar Transcendence Theatre venue on Sonoma’s Field of Dreams, rocked to my roots by a concert of radio hits performed by the spectacular talents of just two singers – Aaron LaVigne and Jenna Rubali – and a sterling four-piece band, with Matt Smart on keyboard, Juan Carreon on drums, Isaac Carter on guitar and Eric Price on bass.
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