Mansions

Apollon Musagete; Concerto in D; Dumbarton Oaks; Danses concertantes; Igor Stravinsky, composer; Sinfonietta De Montreal; Charles Dutoit, conducting

After I moved to the Washington, DC – Annapolis – Baltimore area, it didn’t take me very long to find myself on contractor rosters for jobs outside the US Marine Band. Soon enough, I had work at hotels, museums, embassies, private homes, clubs, churches and mansions. Through the years, I have particularly enjoyed playing in the mansions. The courtly aura, august tone and emanation of charm that dignify these larger-than-life lodgings testify to a grander age of elegance, refinement and gentility.

A particular favorite has been a stately home called Evermay. With garden-clad grounds in the heart of Georgetown, the interior of the two hundred and sixteen year old home exudes warmth, geniality and, perhaps, a fonder, more charitable and benevolent side of the cool Federalist classification she receives. To play music on her century-old Steinway in her hospitable wood-paneled parlor is to conjure up a day that has long gone by, one bedecked with a little more chivalry, with people of poise and shy sophistication. Was there ever such a day? It’s hard to say, isn’t it?

Up the road from the Evermay sits the Dumbarton Oaks Park and mansion. Built in 1800, its grounds, like Evermay’s, are rigged out with beautiful gardens, but on a much larger scale. In 1920, long-time Foreign Service member Robert Woods Bliss purchased the mansion and its lovely acreage. Mr. Bliss and his wife collected interesting artifacts and books over the course of their lives and, in 1940, they donated them, along with the estate, to Harvard University to create Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. I’ve always wanted to play at this mansion, but it hasn’t happened.

Upon the occasion of Mr. and Mrs. Bliss’ thirtieth wedding anniversary, Mr. Bliss commissioned composer Igor Stravinsky to compose a chamber concerto. With more than just a casual nod to J.S. Bach, Mr. Stravinsky offered a work for flute, clarinet, bassoon, two French horns, three violins, three violas, two cellos and two double basses in the style of the Baroque master’s Brandenburg Concertos. Mr. Stravinsky gave his Concerto in E-Flat the additional name of “Dumbarton Oaks”.

Igor Stravinsky once said, “The Church knew what the Psalmist knew: Music praises God. Music is well or better able to praise him than the building of the church and all its decoration; it is the Church’s greatest ornament.” Isn’t that beautiful? He also said, “Why is it that whenever I hear a piece of music I don’t like, it’s always by Villa-Lobos?” Ooooooooooooooooooooo, mean!

Credits: To J.S. Bach, for a lifetime of applying a nose to a grindstone. Despite all I say, I love your Brandenburg Concertos. I also like that you were a Lutheran.