Ravinia 2019, Issue 6, Week 12

36 RAVINIA MAGAZINE | AUGUST 12 – AUGUST 25, 2019 Philippe Quint and Marta Aznavoorian share a laugh while rehearsing “Charlie Chaplin’s Smile.” heard at Ravinia twice this year—in June with the Lincoln Trio, which has been a fixture at the festival since 2008, and also in May with theremin player Thorwald Jørgensen on the year-round BGH Classics series. The pianist admits to being flattered when Quint asked her to collaborate on the Chaplin project. “Philippe is a good friend,” she says. “I’ve known him for 10 years. But [this was a new experience.] We were making the arrangements of Chaplin’s music, and arranging is not in my comfort zone. It was a lot of trial and error.” Nevertheless, between Quint, Aznavoo- rian, and collaborators Charles Coleman and Leon Gurvitch, the collection of violin-and-piano editions of took shape over three years of meticulous work. “We were all working on everything all the time,” Quint told Violinist.com , “Sometimes it meant adjusting one note at a time, sometimes changing a chord, playing around with timing. The violin parts were written almost entirely by me. I wanted to make it sound more virtuosic, sort of modeling after the Heifetz arrangements of Gershwin, and also paying homage to Fritz Kreisler and the bon-bons that he wrote. I felt that Chaplin’s melodies had the same kind of charm, [and] I wanted to preserve that.” In concert, the Chaplin project includes a bevy of music from the actor/ filmmaker’s mind: a suite from City Lights , the tango (“Bitterness”) from Monsieur Verdoux , “Weeping Willows” from A King in New York , the Terry Theme (“Eternally”) from Limelight , a fantasy on themes from The Kid (arranged by Gurvitch), and, naturally, the Love Theme (“Smile”) from Modern Times . And there’s pieces from some of his contemporaries too. “We also included composers who influenced him,” Quint explains. “He admired Gershwin, so we are playing Heifetz’s arrangement of ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So.’ ” Also on the program are Debussy’s Clair de lune , Stravinsky’s Tango, the Hungarian Dance No. 5 by Brahms, and Tchaikovsky’s Mélodie from Souvenir d’un lieu cher . As the project developed, Aznavoori- an was impressed not only by the music but by Chaplin himself. “He had a very tough childhood,” she says, “but he came through it and was such a genius. He had complete control over every as- pect of his work. When he made a film, he directed it, acted in it; he wrote the script, composed the music. How many people could do that? “I’ve been thrilled to take part in this project,” she added. “The audiences love the music, and they tell us it reminds them of a fond memory.” “When I play Chaplin’s music, no introduction is necessary,” Quint concludes. “And after the program, when people come up to me, their most frequent response has been ‘Thank you for making me cry.’ ” Dorothy Andries is a freelance writer specializing in the performing arts and classical music. LARRY KAPSON (LEFT); ISI AKAHOME (RIGHT)