Johan Sebastian Bach’s “Süsser Trost, mein Jesus kömmt.” It’s appropriate that Capital City Concerts is opening — and closing — its 25th anniversary concerts with this aria for soprano and flute obbligato from the Cantata BWV 151.
“There would be no Capital City Concerts without it,” explains flutist Karen Kevra, who founded the series, one of Vermont’s finest.
“I think about the most significant thing for me about Capital City Concerts is the relationships, these musical relationships that, started off with a seed that was planted by Louis Moyse and then it grew.”
I’ll tell you more in a bit.
Capital City Concerts will celebrate with two different programs of chamber music, May 17 and 18, at the Unitarian Church, featuring alumni soprano Hyunah Yu, pianist Jeffrey Chappell, the Borromeo String Quartet, pianist Jeewon Park and cellist Edward Arron, violinist Laurie Smukler and Kevra, among others
The Saturday program (7:30 p.m.) features the J.S. Bach aria, Mendelssohn’s Cello Sonata No. 2, Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue” and Brahms’ String Quintet No. 2. Sunday (3 p.m.) includes Beethoven’s String Quartet, Op. 135; Liszt’s Waltz from Gounod’s “Faust” and Mozart’s String Quintet, K.516; and the J.S. Bach aria.
The concerts are dedicated to the late Michael Sherman, a longtime board member who was instrumental in the series’ success.
It all started some years before Capital City Concerts in my Montpelier living room. Kevra had just performed a recital with Cabot pianist Diane Huling and came to my house for drinks after. She requested a recording of Moyse’s father Marcel, the greatest flutist of the first half of the 20th century. But soon I put on a recording of Bach’s “Süsser Trost” aria with soprano Benita Valente and flutist Louis Moyse, a co-founder of Marlboro Music Festival and a great flutist in his own right.
Kevra stopped dead in her tracks. “Oh sh--! I didn’t know a flute could do that. I want to play like that!”
To make my story short, Kevra sought out Louis Moyse, who was then living in Westport, New York, and began lessons. Out of this there were two momentous events: Kevra became a “new” flutist, and, after a series of events, Moyse and his wife Janet moved to Montpelier, where he spent his last decade sharing his gifts with the community.
“Louis was the one who encouraged me to start a concert series,” Kevra said. “I was complaining about the lack of performances for myself, and he said start a concert series.”
And so Community Concerts began in 2000, first with a solo recital by Shelburne pianist Paul Orgel, one of the state’s finest. Kevra made the series unique by inviting Vermont and out-of-state musician to perform together in unique programs.
“Louis was involved in the programming, and, of course, he was involved in coaching,” Kevra said.
In fact, Moyse’s inspired coaching attracted some of the country’s best musicians to play on the series.
“And the reception to his coaching was always one of delight,” Kevra said. “What I would give to go back and be able to do that again. When you have somebody like Louis involved who brings life and meaning in the rehearsals, it takes it to a totally different level.”
Chappell, who recently performed with Kevra on the series, was part of the final concert of the inaugural season when he played “Rhapsody in Blue.” He had met Kevra at Michael Arnowitt’s Milennium Festival in Montpelier.
“After I heard him play the Chopin G minor Ballade, I invited him for the first season,” Kevra said. “He is the performer who has performed the most over the years. I think there was one season in which he did not perform.”
Yu, a very special Korean-American soprano, came to the series at my suggestion. She had just made her professional debut in Bach’s St. Matthew Passion at Blanche Moyse’s New England Bach Festival in Marlboro in 1999.
“The very first time we did a Bach concert, and she was our soprano,” Kevra said. “And my God, did she hit it off with Louis!”
The Boston-based Borromeo String Quartet, one of this country’s finest, first came to the series in 2004.
“I could go back and count, but I bet they’ve performed maybe 10 times over the years now that has become an enduring friendship,” Kevra said. “And it’s been a pleasure for me to have known them for so long and to see the way in which that quartet has evolved, and particularly to see how (founding first violinist Nicholas Kitchen) has evolved. I think he is truly a great violinist.”
Park, a particularly fine Korean American pianist who had already appeared at Randolph’s Central Vermont Chamber Music Festival, came at Yu’s suggestion.
“Of course, soon after hiring Jeewon, we hired (Park’s husband) Ed Arron, which made all the sense in the world,” Kevra said. “God, if we want to talk about really great musicians, I think it’s fair to say Ed is my favorite cellist on Earth.”
Smukler is one of New York’s finest violinists, who happens to have been Kevra’s son Own Lenz’ violin teacher.
“Laurie first played in 2010 when she brought her colleagues from the Purchase College Conservatory of Music to come and do that incredible concert that included Arnold Schoenberg’s ‘Transfigured Night.’ Playing that together, that was pretty amazing.”
Appropriately, the second concert will close with a repeat of Bach’s “Süsser Trost” aria with Yu, Kevra, and strings.
“Everything grew from that,” Kevra said. “And I might add, the more that I practice it and the more that I listen — to be fair, Louis’ recording, the only one I listened to — the more I feel like it is the most beautiful thing that Bach ever wrote. It’s really extraordinary music.”
Jim Lowe is music critic and arts editor of The Barre-Montpelier Times Argus, and can be reached at jim.lowe@rutlandherald.com or jim.lowe@timesargus.com.