Revealing, touching film at Hill Library about Orchestra

By MICHAEL CARUSO

The Chestnut Hill branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia was the site Sunday afternoon of an extraordinary event that could have far-reaching results. Daniel Anker’s documentary film, Music from the Inside Out, received a screening for local music-lovers and supporters of the arts in general, launching a fundraising drive that will hopefully culminate in the film’s national theatrical distribution early in 2005.

Why, you may ask, was Philadelphia chosen for this important step along the way in the life of a motion picture? Because the makers of the music in the movie’s title are the members of our very own Philadelphia Orchestra. And why Chestnut Hill? Because local residents are among the region’s “movers and shakers” in all aspects of our communal life. Their active participation in the project at this important juncture could be a prerequisite for its success. For instance, Chestnut Hill’s George Blood was the associate recording engineer for the film.

Anker, in a short introduction to the screening and in a longer discourse following its showing, explained that the genesis for Music from the Inside Out could be found in a lifelong affection for music. A more specific inspiration was the Philadelphia Orchestra’s six-week strike of 1996, making an eerie parallel to the ensemble’s current negotiations with the Orchestra Association over the terms of its new contract. At the time of the screening, negotiators were in the process of agreeing to a 30-day extension of the current contact, thereby avoiding the cancellation of the opening night concert on Tuesday.

Out of more than 500 hours of film, Anker has assembled a taut, 90-minute documentary that focuses on the individual musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra as just that — individuals. By doing what all good directors must do, Anker (who is also the movie’s producer) has chosen a dozen or so particular players and allowed them to offer the viewer a step-by-step revelation of themselves.

It’s often amusing and revealing to learn how given instrumentalists came to their specific instrument. Concertmaster David Kim’s mother was a pianist, but wanted a son who would become a great violinist. Renard Edwards became a violist because there were no violins left for him to play at his school. Timpanist Don Liuzzi loved deriving sounds from striking things as a child.

Music from the Inside Out dispels a particularly unfortunate stereotype regarding classical musicians — that they neither enjoy nor can play any other style of music than classical. As a very longtime teacher of classical piano playing who is currently figuring out his own arrangement of a pop standard Frank Sinatra sang on an album 40 years ago, I can personally attest that the opposite is most often the case. But it was delightful seeing brother violinists Jason and Zachary DePue joining a bluegrass band in a club performance, trombonist Nitzan Haroz not just playing but dancing to Latin music, and French hornist Adam Unsworth detailing his active involvement in jazz.

Unsworth enabled Anker to dispel another negative rumor about classical musicians — that they have no life outside the practice room and the concert hall. Unsworth initially took up running to enhance his all-important breath-support. He so thoroughly fell under the sway of long-distance running that he is now a bona fide marathon runner.

In a film filled with touching moments, perhaps the most achingly so comes from, appropriately, the orchestra’s premiere individual player — its concertmaster, David Kim. On two occasions, one following close upon the heels of the other, he first tells how his inspiring mother died when he was only 14, well before her dreams for his success had fully come true. And then, seemingly undeterred because of his confidence in the moviemaker’s discretion, he explains how he finally made the decision to abandon his attempt to establish himself as a first-rank concert soloist and chose to audition for the post of concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra.

When he subsequently states that he’s now the luckiest of musicians, you feel a swelling of price that this extraordinary man and musician plays in our town’s orchestra and gratitude that Daniel Anker caught this all in that most magical of media — film, which can capture for eternity the uninhibited spontaneity of the moment.

Of course, there’s more to making a motion picture than filming it. With the change of focus at PBS, away from the arts, funding a documentary about classical music has become more difficult, which explains Sunday afternoon’s fundraiser. Anker is hoping to raise enough money to get Music from the Inside Out shown in a few major markets such as Philadelphia at the beginning of 2005, building from that to a national release later in the year, eventually leading to an airing on television. The nonprofit organization helping Anker to do this is the New York Foundation for the Arts, whose telephone number is 212-366-6900. To get in touch with Anker directly, one can e-mail him at apifilms@aol.com.

DAME KIRI SINGS

The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts opened its series of vocal recitals Saturday night with a performance by Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, one of the classical music world’s most popular artists and one who is entering the latter part of her career with both her dignity and artistry intact. In a program of music by Handel, Vivaldi, Debussy, Hahn, Faure, Strauss, Berlioz, Poulenc, Wolf-Ferrari and Puccini, Te Kanawa displayed a voice that has retained almost all of its lustrous beauty and an interpretive gift that, while not always delving into the emotional depths of the texts of each song, nonetheless still proffers an intriguing tonal insight into each song’s world.

Throughout the program, pianist Warren Jones provided Dame Kiri with superlative support. Without ever overshadowing the singer, he laid out a firm foundation upon which Te Kanawa’s vocal artistry glowed like a priceless pearl.