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Another First At The Athenaeum An Appreciation And A Review

By William Biddle, Special to The Caledonian-Record

Since it was restored to its original 1871 condition and appearance a few years ago, the Athenaeum has given St. Johnsbury a number of exceptional cul­tural "firsts."

Among them, in the Great Hall up­stairs, have been the lectures in the Ver­mont Humanities Council First Wednes­days series, readings by several of the Northeast Kingdom's resident writers, the musical premiere of a Gwyneth Walk­er composition, and several ceremonies honoring the notable careers of writers and painters in our area.

Another "first" is the now regular ex­hibitions of both contemporary art and archived treasures in the atrium gallery that executive director Irwin Gelber has created out of the open space at the top of the grand staircase.

Gelber takes his stewardship of the historic landmark building, its library and museum of 19th century paintings seri­ously. Moreover, under his leadership, and reflecting Horace Fairbanks' inten­tion when he gave the Athenaeum and its art collection to the town, the Athenaeum has resumed another of its historic roles as a multi-purpose community cultural center. And in this regard, Gelber said, he wants more music.

Gelber is an accomplished concert pi­anist in his own right. He knew from summer poetry readings that the Gallery feels and sounds good. If we can have po­etry in the Gallery, he asks, why not con­certs in the Gallery as well?

And on Saturday, July 26, before an audience of about 60 invited guests, Gel­ber the impresario introduced a musical duo. Pianist Janice Weber, Gelber's for­mer colleague on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory of Music, has played with the Boston Pops Orchestra, with the Sarajevo Philharmonic, with the Shenzhen Philharmonic in China, at the White House, at Tanglewood, and in Boston's Symphony Hall, among a long list of other engagements.

Helena Baillie, a violinist and violist, has received numerous awards and prizes, has played with Pinchas Zukerman and with Vermont's own world-renowned Beaux Arts Trio. She has per­formed at the Alte Oper in Frankfart, at Carnegie Hall, and at Boston Sympho­ny's Higginson Hall. Among her teachers were Isaac Stern, Leon Fleisher, and the first violinists of the Guarneri, Emerson, Juilliard, and Tokyo quartets.

The Baillie - Weber duo's program in the Gallery, with the exception of two movements of the Mozart Sonata in e mi­nor played on the violin, consisted of pieces transcribed and adapted for piano and viola, spanning music history from the baroque work of little-known Tommaso Vitale through Mozart, Paganini, and Prokofiev to Pulitzer Prize winner William Bolcom's 1970s-era Graceful Ghost Rag. In an intimate hall and sur­rounded by a glorious collection of 19th century paintings, the audience felt as if it had been transported to one of the grand European households to hear the resident chamber musicians play works composed for the master of the hall.

The music was transporting in other ways: Weber's piano was deft, light of touch, and most importantly restrained so not to overpower the closeness of the gallery or the rich but quieter tones of Baillie's viola, Weber read her music and her partner simultaneously, anticipating the viola's every musical need. The pair of instruments, played with a conscious­ness of setting, were perfectly tuned to the room. Baillie played both violin and viola with an authority that stood up to the piano and filled the chamber. The concert included two Paganini pieces originally for violin. In any Paganini there is an enormous demand on the left hand of the violinist. This demand is all the greater when the same highly ener­gized music is played on the larger viola. Baillie's technical virtuosity rose to the challenge repeatedly.

As there is not a large body of music for solo viola, most classical music audi­ences regard William Primrose's rather lugubrious solo performance in Berlioz's Harold in Italy as the defining standard for the instrument. What a pleasure it was, by contrast, to hear an up-tempo concert in which the viola was played with a sprightly, crisp and yet lyrical touch. Baillie seemed exceptional.

The drama of diminuendos and crescendos in the Gallery, of passages in crisp pizzicato, and of the immediately visible affect of the musicians so close before the audience, further heightened the complexity and richness of the musi­cal experience. It was a showy performance in the best sense of that word: virtuosic pieces, a couple of chestnuts, all played brilliantly, played with new mean­ing and with fresh expression breathed into them.

William Biddle was for nine years a trustee of the Athenaeum where he con­tinues to borrow books, leads a writers' group, and attends poetry readings and First Wednesdays talks on the humani­ties. He lives in Barnet.