After George Gershwin's death, novelist
John O'Hara wrote in The New Yorker, "George Gershwin died on July 11, 1937, but I don't have to believe it if I
don't want to."
I know how he felt. I feel the same way about George Cleve,
founder and artistic director of the Midsummer Mozart Festival, who died last
summer. His loss is that painful.
A few days before his death, his protégée and surrogate
granddaughter, Audrey Vardanega, the brilliant 19-year-old pianist who made her
debut with the festival at age 14 (the youngest soloist in the festival's
41-year history), went to his home and played some of his favorite piano pieces
for him. It was the last live music he ever heard.
Since then, she's been struggling to find a way to express
her sorrow, and she's finally found it. On January 3 she'll perform a memorial
concert at the Hillside Club in Berkeley, playing the same pieces she played
for him last summer. It's called Concert For George, of course.
"The last few months have been a whirlwind of emotions as I
struggled to grasp how the world could possibly not have George in it,"
she says. "I found solace through wholeheartedly turning to the piano as a
source of grief therapy. The performance you will hear will not be a solo piano
recital. Rather, it will be as if I am playing for George in the living room of
his Berkeley home."
The playlist: Piano Sonata #4 by Mozart, Annees de pelerinage
by Liszt, Ondine (part of the suite Gaspard de la nuite) by Ravel, and Klavierstucke
(short piano pieces) by Brahms.
"The Mozart sonata was an
obvious choice because how can I not include Mozart in a concert for George
Cleve?" she says. "The first movement is incredibly beautiful, which reflects
the way I've felt for the last few months – sadness, a feeling of nobility, and
a catharsis. I haven't played a Mozart sonata in quite a while, but it felt
right for some reason.
"Ondine was one of his favorite pieces. I
decided not to play the other two pieces in the suite because they're showy and
virtuosic, and that's not what I'm trying to do in this concert. I don't want
to treat this like a solo piano recital. It's a way to mourn, to remember, and
a to express my gratitude for all that time I had with him and the enormous
effect he had on me."
The Hillside Club, a masterpiece of
the Arts & Crafts movement, was declared a City of Berkeley Landmark in
2004. Its exquisite, acoustically excellent concert hall holds only about 200
people. "It's a very intimate space, which is very fitting for this
concert, I think," Audrey says.
The concert starts at 7 p.m. Tickets
are available at the door and cost $20 for general admission, $15 for students
and seniors, and $10 for Hillside Club members. Audrey is donating her share of
the proceeds to Hand In Hand For Syria, a charity that works on the ground in that
war-torn country to provide direct assistance to families who are still trapped
there. You can find out more about it at www.handinhandforsyria.org.uk/
George Cleve died on August 27, 2015, but I
don't have to believe it if I don't want to.
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