Spoleto Festival USA General Director Mena Mark Hanna cut to the chase May 26 when introducing a tribute to the late chamber musician Geoff Nuttall: “Geoff did more than play music. He embodied it, he energized it.”
More than just in name, the night’s recital of “Celebrating Geoff Nuttall” felt like a celebration. Far from a program of slow, somber selections, there was an air of celebrating life throughout every song.
Opening with a rendition of Tchaikovsky that produced a fine dusting of rosin across the stage, the orchestra created an electric energy in the venue that ended up permeating every performance. Pianist Stephen Prutsman marched onto the stage at Charleston Gaillard Center in a stunning red jacket at the top of the performance, and by the time conductor Robert Spano lowered his baton, Prutsman’s face matched his jacket.
Perhaps never before has an audience been more entranced than during the performance of Gabriel Fauré’s “Élégie,” with Alisa Weilerstein accompanying the orchestra on the cello. Whether it was the result of Weilerstein’s playing–rich with vibrato to the point that any note held without felt like an icy vice grip on the entire venue–or the piece itself is uncertain.
What is certain, however, is that once “Élégie” finished and Spano lowered his baton, the entire room was silent for nearly a full minute, seemingly unsure whether to applaud or openly weep.
The program featured an original piece written by Osvaldo Golijov as a tribute to Geoff Nuttall “The Fire Outlives The Spark.” Featuring the inimitable voice talents of countertenor Anthony Roth Costanzo, the piece featured lines from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “Adonais” – a fitting refrain to mourn two great artists.
While a piece written to remember an artist such as Nuttall may have been overtly and directly focused on him, “The Fire Outlives The Spark” instead took an approach which seemed representative of Nuttall. Golijov beautifully incorporated new meaning into an already-existing work, not unlike how one curates selections for chamber music. Certainly the original poem was written in mourning, but in the context of “Celebrating Geoff Nuttall,” it took on the nature of celebrating life, rather than mourning its end.
Following Nuttall’s well-documented eclectic personal music habits, “Quella Fiamma, ch’il petto m’accende,” the night’s Handel selection, was presented like an underground rap battle. Costanzo and oboist James Austin Smith seemed to face off in a semicircle with their fellow musicians, each verse punctuated by those surrounding them as they chimed in with their respective instruments.
The final two selections in the program, “Salut d’Amour” and “Symphony No. 102” from Edward Elgar and Franz Joseph Haydn, were both introduced by those close to Nuttall: his widow, Livia Sohn, and former St. Lawrence String Quartet member and childhood friend Lesley Robertson. Both shared stories not of Nuttall’s death, but rather ones that celebrated his life and unending optimism.
In both selections, the shared joy and love between the musicians on stage was palpable. Some hugged between songs, they offered mutual support in their harmonies, and they even moved in and out in unison with each other at one point, the same kind of onstage humor Nuttall himself was well known for.
Featuring an extra, off-program act to close out the night as many audience members began to leave, “Celebrating Geoff Nuttall” was not only an event to remember, but one those in attendance will not soon forget.
C.M. McCambridge is an arts journalism graduate student at Syracuse University.
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