Beautiful music

Pianist Martin Perry played several pieces by Hungarian composers, which were enthusiastically received by a large audience Saturday night. The concert was the first of a series in the Portland Conservatory of Music’s International Piano Festival. The sanctuary of the Woodfords Congregational Church, Portland, was filled, and Mr. Perry received hearty applause.

He first played “Eight Improvisations on Hungarian Peasant Songs, Op. 20”, by Bela Bartok, 1881-1954, followed by “A Piano Sonata, Op. 20” by Miklos Rozsa, (1907-1995).

Rosza was a Hungarian-born American.

Perry surely deserved the intermission, as the first two numbers took much energy, involving both hands and arms, constantly moving.

His last number, a piano sonata, was written by Elliott Carter, who studied music at Harvard, receiving a master’s degree in music. He then went to Paris to study with famed teacher Nadia Boulanger. He returned to the United States in 1939, and taught courses in physics, mathematics and classical Greek in addition to music at St. John’s College in Annapolis. After wartime service, he taught music at the Peabody Conservatory, Columbia, Queens College, Yale, Cornell and finally Julliard.

His sonata was not as complicated as the earlier composers on our program, but it was new to me. (I am a Beethoven-Mozart-Chopin fan). Musicologist Wilfred Kellors wrote about this sonata: “The second and concluding movement is a fugue similarly evolved into and returning to the fundamental chord and its overtones. As to rhythm, the sonata is constant in pulse but continually varied in rhythmic groupings. The shifts in meter are frequent, changing, on an average, every two or three measures. The resulting complex rhythmic structures are like jazz improvisation, with the beat left out.”

Perry is surely to be complimented. I can’t imagine memorizing these numbers, playing them, as he did, with no music on the piano, all from memory. Think of the hours of practice involved.

After the program, young Will Bristol, age 15, played a “Birthday Serenade” to Maxine Wright, who has been a generous and consistent supporter of the arts in Portland and of the Portland Conservatory of Music in particular. This year’s festival is dedicated to Maxine, who is celebrating her 90th birthday. She was sitting in the front row during the concert, and had her picture taken next to the piano, after Will had played several versions of the “Happy Birthday” song, which we in the audience eventually sang to her, with Will, a student at the conservatory, playing his last version.

It was quite a full musical evening for all who attended.

Beautiful flowers

On Friday I drove out, as I had planned, to Maine Audubon Headquarters, off Route 1 in Falmouth, parking in the lot at the end of the property. There were many cars there, and several people in the midst of the big array of peonies, going down the woods path to the open fields. A woman was describing the area to the group, mentioning that the property was owned by David Moulton, who raised many cattle in the fields. She then described the flowers. The pink, red, and white flowers were lovely, and several are yet to be in full bloom. So, if you’re planning to view them, they will be waiting for you.

Beautiful cake

Today’s recipe is from Ceil Dyer’s “Best Recipes from the Back of Boxes, Bottles, Cans and Jars,” 1979. That paperback is fun to read through, too.

CHOCOLATE MAYONNAISE CAKE

The introductory paragraph says “Mayonnaise in a cake? Yes, and what’s more, thousands of cooks have written in for copies of this old favorite, printed on the Hellmann’s jar.”

2 cups unsifted flour

2/3 cup unsweetened cocoa

1-1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1-2/3 cups sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup mayonnaise

1-1/3 cups water

Grease and flour bottoms of two 9-by-1-1/2-inch round baking pans. In medium bowl stir together flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder; set aside. In large bowl with mixer on high speed beat sugar, eggs and vanilla, occasionally scraping bowl, three minutes, or until light and fluffy. Reduce speed to low; beat in mayonnaise. Add flour mixture in four additions alternately with water, beginning and ending with flour. Pour into prepared pans. Bake in 350 degree oven for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pans for 15 minutes. Remove; cool on wire racks. Frost as desired. Garnish with sliced almonds, Makes two 9-inch layers.

Ramblings