A Review Of Recent ARTS Piano Concert

Fayetteville’s Arts for Rural Texas (ARTS) is one of those bright cultural stars in our neighborhood’s firmament, one of several that sets our area apart from the more everyday elements of a rural environment.

ARTS sponsored a piano recital last night Friday that captured that specialness. All the pieces were written by Frédéric Chopin, one of the Romantic era’s most brilliant composers and master of the piano.

The concert’s pianist, the young and upcoming Miles Gil-lette Bockhorn performed the nocturnes, études and polonaise with aplomb and confidence.

Chopin produced 21 nocturnes during the early 1800s; most are known for the lyrical, melancholic, even dreamy qualities.

Surprisingly, Miles chose to omit the Opus 9, No. 2 in E flat Maj, the one most familiar due to its inclusion in countless movie and TV scores. He opted for three other nocturnes, less famous, perhaps, but, in my mind, equally evocative. Each was performed flawlessly.

Chopin was also known for his 27 études, which are among the most challenging of the genre. Miles played both numbers 1 and 2 of the Op. 25. The former, three-minute piece was elegiac, regal even; the latter, a short, one-and-a-half-minute piece was performed with seamless legato, like a songbird trilling in the distance.

The final pièce de resistance, Chopin’s Polonaise-Fantaisie in A flat major, Op. 61, is one of Chopin’s largest works. While slow to gain favor with musicians shortly after it was published in 1846, it grew in popular stature when Rubenstein and Horowitz later embraced it in their programs. Serving as narrator as well as performer, Miles explained how Chopin’s Polonaise is crafted to shift between the almost militaristic Polish-dance spirit to the more soaring, atmospheric sounds of the fantaisie. The rapid-fire trills and arpeggios of the middle section defy characterization. And Miles pulled them off exquisitely.

Miles––who is from Fayetteville and is the son of Laura Gillette, the music director at First Presbyterian Church in La Grange–– is currently serving as this summer’s keyboardist for St. James’ Church of La Grange. The music director there, Don Kirby and the entire congregation are delighted to experience his wizardry on their Steinway baby grand as well as their Johannus digital organ, which eschews the pipes of a normal pipe organ. It instead uses the recorded orchestral sound stops captured by actual recordings of some of the finest pipe organs in Europe.

A truly memorable recital. Thank you, ARTS––oh, yes, and Miles.

All are welcomed to the 10:30 a.m. Sunday service at St. James’ where Miles is at the keyboards while Luke Huser is the cellist.

Perhaps another inspiring recital will be in the offing before the summer is over. Stay tuned.