Letter to the Editor: Beautiful music

By Sun Advocate

Editor:
A truly spectacular musical event was presented on Wednesday at the Price Municipal auditorium. The well-known gifted violinist, Billy Brown, was accompanied by equally gifted Jennifer Chiara in two dynamic violin concerts by the two greatest composers in musical history, namely Mozart and Beethoven.
The well attended event held the appreciative audience spellbound during both of these renditions which requires virtuoso performers. In both instances the violinist and the pianist showed they had the timing and intonation as well as the extremely demanding techniques well under control.
Billy Brown’s gift of playing the violin became apparent before her teen years, and her unusual talent led to her studies with some nationally known teachers and concert masters, together with her experience playing with prominent regional orchestras and ensembles. In addition to her violin performances she is also a gifted tubist and woodwind player. We wonder how she and Jennifer find the time to do all they do musically, in addition to being mothers to their children.
Jennifer’s roll in the program was one of a very demanding nature, being the entire orchestra supporting the solo violin. The Mozart concerto was written for solo violin one of five concerti written by a youthful Mozart in a span of four months in 1775. The accompanying piano section was not written by Mozart and requires a demanding sense of timing and pianistic technique. Jennifer met all the requirements of such accompaniment. Her credentials are likewise impressive. She has been an accomplished pianist since her elementary school days and has played with and for many theater orchestral performances.
The crowning finale of the evening was the first movement of the Beethoven Violin Concerto. This-the only violin concerto by Beethoven, is fondly referred to as the queen of violin concerti. It is almost universally considered the greatest of all works in the field, which includes, Brahms, Mendelssohn, and Tschiakovsky, and several other great composers. This monumental work with it’s soaring arpeggios and ascending descending scales from the open G string almost to the bridge of the E string requires the utmost in intonation and precise ingering. Billy performed all of these elements faultlessly.
The accompanist, Jennifer Chiara, likewise had to combine all the elements of a full orchestra into a piano score. This work the Beethoven concerto in D with its two sharps required triads and tetracords on both hands to achieve the desired musical compliment. This work has been described as a piano concerto with a violin obbligato. In any case the work was performed with the sensitivity and musical technique seldom seen on a concert stage.
We appreciate the Price Culture Connection for staging this program. It is great to know of the enormous talent in the Price area in the field of great music, and their willingness to share the talent with the public.