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Chamber music, our way

By Rich Copley rcopley@herald-leader.com

A piano and a chamber quartet meet.

Since we are in Lexington, we can plausibly say they meet on the stage at the sales pavilion of a prestigious horse auctioneer.

They acknowledge each other. They exchange pleasant greetings that turn into gregarious exclamations in a way only a chiming piano and soaring string quartet can exchange them. Soon, they are whispering confidences, finishing each other's sentences and speaking in their native vernacular, the piano shouting in choppy blues, the strings singing simple folk songs.

"It was beautiful instruments having wonderful conversations." said Gail Bennett of WUKY-91.3 FM.

This meeting at the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington on the stage of the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion was planned, though its roots were in a chance encounter.

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based composer Daniel Thomas Davis was commissioned to write Book of Songs and Visions for Piano Quintet by the Festival. Last night's performance was its world premiere, as the opener for the second half of the four-piece concert. The three-day festival, which concludes at 1:30 p.m. today, is in its second year.

"It's quite a special thing that this is a festival that is so new, and it is taking a chance on commissioning new work," Davis told the audience at a pre-show chat. "It's a thing that festivals 40 and 50 years old are afraid to do, so I congratulate them for having the courage to take the plunge of making new music."

After the show, concertgoers said they found the new work interesting, and appreciated the spirit of the festival.

"You can't just rest on the laurels of Beethoven, Bach and Brahms," said Lexington resident Patty Ramsey. She added that, as a pianist, she appreciated the difficulty of work that was played by the festival's quintet of musicians, led by Lexington native Nathan Cole, a violinist in the Chicago symphony Orchestra. The other four musicians all have international performing careers.

The festival and Davis were matched up by chance.

Festival President Charlie H. Stone ran into Davis in a railway station in New York City. They stuck up a conversation and soon Davis was engaged to write the new work. Stone and Cole wanted a piece distinctly rooted in Lexington, so they made sure Davis got to know the place.

"I was given the opportunity to interact with the community ... for a few months before I wrote the piece," Davis said in his pre-show remarks. "It is a very rare thing to get to listen to your audience before they listen to you."