By Jeff Johnson

Post and Courier Reviewer

Spoleto festival USA’s Tuesday concert combined the Westminster Choir, the Charleston Symphony Choir and the Spoleto Festival USA Orchestra: all under the direction of Joseph Flummerfelt. The program had been designed around the responses of Mozart, Brahms, and Verdi to spiritual crises.

Mozart’s ‘Coronation Mass’ is an early work written on commission and filled with lots of lovely music and a few moments of theatrical grandeur. Jennifer Zetlan and Mark Thomsen had a charming duet in the ‘Kyrie.’ They were joined by Barbara Rearick and Stephen Morscheck in a very jaunty quartet. In the final ‘Agnus Dei,’ Zetlan sweetly sang an extended solo, which would have graced the score of ‘The Marriage of Figaro.’

The ‘Coronation Mass’ shows Mozart at his most commercial. It is beautiful and not very demanding and the audience loved it.

When Brahms read Fredreich Holderin’s poem, contrasting Haven’s tranquility with the turmoil of human life, he immediately started to set it to music. ‘Song of Destiny’ in three contrasting movements is one of Brahms’ most thrilling works. Flummerfelt’s conducting emphasized the languor of Heaven as well as the clash and clatter of human life.

Verdi wrote the ‘Te Deum,’ the final section of his ‘Four Sacred Piece,’ really thinking it was his final musical statement to his Italian public. The work is a choral cry of intense anguish to God, which finally resolves into uneasy peace.

‘Te Deum’ brought the huge audience at Gaillard Auditorium to their feet, ending the concert on a note of triumph.

Have you seen our Tweet wall? It will be making appearances around town at special events. It is the brainchild of Sarah Zimmerman, a Goldring Arts Journalism writer who studies design. It is the Twitter feed for all items Spoleto and Piccolo.

Tweet and join the conversation. Use #spoto to appear on the wall. (Hint: It changes every 6 seconds.)

Tags: tweet wall

Look on the web or in Sunday’s The Post and Courier for your keeper print section - Spoleto 2010 - the complete calendar for Spoleto Festival USA and Piccolo Spoleto 2010. It tells you day by day what is happening, litsing the times, venues, costs and where to get tickets.  If you forget to pull it out of the paper, you can download it here from postandcourier.com.

We also tell you about the Goldring Arts Journalism Program, a collaborative project with The Post and Courier, that brings 19 graduate student and two professors to Charleston to cover the festivals.

Hint: It’s orange, says Spoleto 2010 and has the much discussed Spoleto poster on the cover.

The Post and Courier’s special section for Spoleto Festival USA and Piccolo Spoleto is rolling on the presses right now. It will be in Sunday’s Post and Courier. Keep it handy, since it is the combined calendar of all events. Or you can follow us daily in The Post and Courier, or on postandcourier.com/news/spoleto for all the news that happens this year.

And yes, we have that poster from Maya Lin on the cover. Any comments about the connection between South Carolina and Rhode Island are greatly appreciated.

The Spoleto Today team is working on our special section - the only combined calendar that has all the listings for Spoleto Festival USA and Piccolo Spoleto. Pick it up in The Post and Courier on Sunday, May 23, or at various locations around town. Look for daily coverage of the festivals starting on May 28.

So here’s the Piccolo Spoleto Poster by Tate Nation. Do you know what it means? The vote around town was that it was art, but what does that make the Spoleto Festival USA poster by Maya Lin. And just what was she trying to say with that? Here’s her poster:

Tags: maya lin, Piccolo Spoleto, spoleto festival usa, tate

The City of Charleston is working hard on the Piccolo Spoleto schedule and book. Tickets are now available through piccolospoleto.com.

Once you’ve been to Charleston during Spoleto, the spell of the city hooks you. Here’s a message from one of the Spoleto interns from last year, who is now longing for the Holy City. She’s also writing a blog for Southern Living.

Hi!

An Alabama native, I interned with Spoleto last year as a public relations apprentice—which meant daily perusings of P&C’s Spoleto Today. Though I’m back in Birmingham these days, I’m craving Spoleto and keeping up with everything thanks to your website!

I’m interning at Southern Living and blogged about weekend’s events on the Travel blog. I just wanted to let you know that there is a link to your website. If there is anything you can do to help drive traffic to our blog, I’d appreciate it—the website is another gateway to a plethora of Charleston  information (decades worth) for visitors.

http://talesfromtheroad.southernliving.com/

Thanks so much! Good luck with the finale—I sure miss The Post & Courier!

Ashlyn

(Thanks Ashlyn!)

By Stephanie Harvin
The Post and Courier

Patrons were sitting under the oak trees last night at The Cistern when Spoleto Festival USA canceled ‘Noche Flamenca’ because of inclement weather. A free outdoors Piccolo Spoleto jazz concert was also canceled earlier in the afternoon for the same reason.

‘We take it day by day, often minute by minute,’ said Paula Edwards, marketing and public relations director for Spoleto Festival USA. ‘We won’t call it unless we have to.’

As thunderstorms moved through the area, ‘Flamenca’ was canceled just as it was about to begin. The flamenco group has two more outdoor performances, tonight and Saturday night, in the same venue as space is available. Edwards said that the festival will honor tickets from Thursday’s performance at either show, or patrons can call the box office and Spoleto will issue a refund.

In other instances this year, the festival has moved the performances to an indoor venue and notified patrons as they entered the Cistern.
The weather forecast for today calls for a 60 percent chance of thunderstorms.

The festival’s finale at Middleton Place on Sunday is a rain-or-shine event, so no refunds will be issued if it is rained out.
Piccolo Spoleto canceled a free Jazz in the Street concert at 5 p.m. earlier in the afternoon.

To contact Spoleto Festival, call (843) 579-3100. To contact Piccolo about events, call 888-374-2656.

Tags: 2009, Charleston, cistern, flamenca, flamenco group, free jazz, harvin, inclement weather, indoor venue, instances, jazz concert, oak trees, outdoor performances, patrons, paula edwards, post and courier, public relations director, saturday night, shine event, spoleto festival usa, stephanie, weather forecast

By Mary Solomon
Post and Courier Reviewer

For an hour and a half of unsurpassed chamber music, the Circular Congregational Church was the place to be Wednesday night.

Part of the Spotlight Concert Series, Ensemble Argos played the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Gabriel Faure, and Robert Schumann.

Members of the Greenville-based piano quartet are Mellasenah Edwards, violin; Christina Placilla, viola; Kenneth Law, cello; and Stephen Buck, piano. The ensemble was formed in 2007 but perform as if it has been together longer. Individually, they came with impeccable credentials and have played both solo and chamber music around the world.

For an opener, they chose to play one movement, the Allegro, from Mozart’s ‘G minor Piano Quartet.’ Their playing exhibited the liquid, fluid smoothness of Mozart.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: 2009, andante cantabile, argos, c minor, Charleston, circular congregational church, courier reviewer, ensemble sound, festival, fluid smoothness, g minor, gabriel faure, impeccable credentials, mary solomon, member ensemble, music around the world, piano quartet, plaintive melody, playful mood, post and courier, robert schumann, Spoleto, well deserved break, wolfgang amadeus mozart