<<  -- 5 --  Jennifer Paull    AARON RABUSHKA

The last movement, Allegro vivo, is a colourful dance, a marked contrast to the previous, slow Andantino. The dappled lighting of 'Moulin de la Galette' in Montmatre, by Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919), makes me think of a happy throng enjoying life and living. Clever contrasts and writing bring light and shade. Did Chagall or Renoir plant a Circus Tent in the Champ de Mars by the Eiffel Tower? Are we in Paris in the Belle Epoque? Perhaps this is one of the Circuses painted by Edgar Dégas (1834-1917)? The musical picture is evocative of the style, mood, and easels of the period.

Somehow a ghost of William Walton walks through Façade and into Rabushka's Circus Ring for a brief moment. Another hoedown finds its way into our happy, colourful gathering, and the concerto ends triumphantly!

It's a delight, be the Tower Blackpool or Eiffel.

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) and Charles Ives (1874-1954) have ghosts of Military Bands and New England fiddlers walking through their picture frames. Havergal Brian (1876-[amazingly] 1972), that atrociously neglected, British composer of such epic gems as the Gothic Symphony, wove his multi-layers everywhere. These three composers were born within a mere sixteen years of each other, a coincidence I note, en passant.

Somehow it doesn't surprise me that Aaron Rabushka is a member of the Havergal Brian Society. Rabushka's pleasing palette from Hebrew Hoedowns, to winsome Waltzes via refined construction and spirituality, make his the canvasses of yet another maverick.

Rabushka tells me that he moved to Fort Worth, Texas, just in time to miss the Renoir exhibit. People in Fort Worth shouldn't worry. They should just listen to his music instead.

Whichever instrument you play, or wish to hear, I encourage you to visit Aaron Rabushka's home page and look up his compositions.