A musical menagerie to benefit local SPCAs

Oct. 26—ELIZABETHTOWN/SARANAC — Bow-wows and meow-meows and multi-legged, great and small, will be feted in "Dogtoberfest with Cattitude," two weekend concerts, which features 300 years of music inspired by animals, from Vivaldi and Rameau to jazz and avant-garde, and includes six living composers.

The first concert will be held Saturday, Oct. 28, at the Hand House, Elizabethtown to benefit the North Country SPCA.

The second concert, to benefit the Elmore SPCA, will be presented by Hill and Hollow Music Sunday, Oct. 29, 3 p.m. at the Saranac Methodist Church, Route 3, Saranac.

Suggested donation is $20 for each concert.

Highlight of the program is Lucien Garban's spectacular piano four-hand transcription of Saint-Saëns' "Carnival of the Animals," performed by Rose Chancler and Jennifer Moore, with Ogden Nash verses narrated by Benjamin Pomerance.

Other performers include Janice Kyle, Janine Scherline, Michael Emery, Bill Zito and Patricia McCarty.

"We are trying to raise money for two local SPCAs," McCarty said.

"We all came up with music for our instruments about animals. The more we researched it and the more we thought about it, the bigger the program got. There's quite a lot of music that we just don't have time to play on these concerts. We might have a whole another program."

The centerpiece of the concert is the piano four-hand version of the Saint-Saëns "Carnival of the Animals" featuring Chancler, Moore and Pomerance.

"That's a beloved piece," McCarty said.

"It's very famous. That's a big chunk of the program. It has like 14 different animals portrayed in it. The rest of the program is mostly short pieces for various instruments that are inspired by animals."

The program includes:

"La Poule" from Pieces de Clavecin Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)

Janice Kyle, oboe & Jennifer Moore, piano

Largo from The Four Seasons: Spring Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741)

Michael Emery, violin, Patricia McCarty, viola, Jennifer Moore, piano

Portrait of Donnie, my little dog Emil Sjogren (1853-1918)

Rose Chancler, piano

Two Cats, Hootie & Tiki Daniel Dorff (b. 1956)

Janice Kyle, oboe & Janine Scherline, clarinet

"Tick" from Three Arachnids (2001) Paul Groh (b. 1961)

Patricia McCarty, viola

Canticum (1968) Leo Brouwer (b. 1939)

Bill Zito, guitar

"SPCA Blues" from Django: Tiny Variations on a Big Dog (2009) Gabriel Kahane (b. 1981)

Rose Chancler, piano

Bebop for Beagles (2007) Benedikt Brydern, (b. 1966) Hoover's Holiday, Cookies in Space, Purzelbaum, Roosevelt's Sun Shower, Flea Control: Mission Impossible, Kitchen Blues, Bebop for Beagles

Michael Emery, violin & Patricia McCarty, viola

Animal Antics (2014), with text by Shel Silverstein, Lori Ardovino Bear (b. 1960)

Janine Scherline, clarinet & Benjamin Pomerance, narrator

"We have everything from Baroque music Rameau and Vivaldi, to avante-garde Leo Brouwer and some be-bop and blues," McCarty said.

The artists started thinking about the program last December.

"We were tossing around the idea, wouldn't it be fun to do a benefit?" she said.

"The idea of playing on the word Octoberfest and calling it Dogtoberfest meant it had to take place in October. So that was always a puzzle because some of the musicians are pretty busy in October. Then someone said well, you know you can't leave the cats out? I think well what are we going to say about cats. So Janice Kyle came up with the word cattitude. She thought she was making it up, but it's actually a word. They said anybody who has a cat knows what it means. So we decided to call this event Dogtoberfest with Cattitude. So the cat people wouldn't feel left out."

The diverse program is very modern sounding.

"I think I'm playing probably the ugliest piece on the program, but it's only four minutes long and it's about a tick," McCarty said.

"You don't expect music about ticks to be beautiful, and it isn't. But the composer tells me that everybody who has heard it says he has truly captured the essence of a tick. We have some humors things, a moose and a bear, it's a piece for clarinet and narrator Benjamin Pomerance is going to narrate that piece as well as the Saint-Saëns . The verse that goes with the Saint-Saëns are Ogden Nash. I guess they're pretty well known. They are very clever, quite humorous.

"Even if you don't think you like classical music, this isn't entirely classical. What it is it's concert music inspired that's inspired by animals, so it's not especially serious. It's pretty humorous for the most part. The imagery is quite vivid. Each piece really does portray an animal or an insect or something."

Email: rcaudell@pressrepublican.com

Twitter@RobinCaudell