Newport Classical closes out summer Music Festival series with pianist Lara Downes at The Breakers

Classical pianist Lara Downes returned to Newport to conclude the 55^th Newport Classical Music Festival. The closing night concert took place at The Breakers on Sunday, July 21.

Attendees who came for the finale of Newport Classical’s summer music series were treated to the glitz and glamor of Gilded Age architecture, expansive ocean views, and a chance to stroll the grounds of the mansion with twenty-six of the life-size Indian elephant sculptures that are a part of The Great Elephant Migration – all together a wonderful way to sample different types of cultural and artistic touchstones at once. 

At 8 p.m., after a brief introduction by Newport Classical’s executive director Gillian Fox, Downes glided onto the raised stage and launched into her first piece, “900 Miles.” The romantic, almost fairytale-style notes trailed effortlessly across the keyboard, floating serenely above the audience in The Breaker’s double-height performance space. Watching Downes perform the first piece was mesmerizing, as she gave herself wholly to her instrument and the music, drawing on both auditory and visual effects to incite narrative (and to give the audience cues for applause). Downes is as much an actor and a translator as a musician.  

After the first song, Downes introduced the concept of her latest album, “This Land:” an exploration of America – the good, the bad, and the complicated – through 100 years of music from diverse voices. Many of the pieces she chose for this collection “express a very American sense of longing and nostalgia,” Downes said, as the original composers wrestle with their roots, American history, wanderlust, and the search for home in this country. Before each song, the pianist introduced the piece with a brief history lesson about the composer and cultural zeitgeist of when each composition was written, leading her audience through the historical, emotional, and cultural complexities America presents to her people. 

Downes moved through H. T. Burleigh’s “From the Southland,” a six-piece movement that wrestles with the conflicting feelings of joy, regret, nostalgia, and triumph, and Kian Ravaei’s variations on “This Land is Your Land.” The latter piece Downes described as a “journey” into the different meanings of the traditional patriotic song as it devolved from a sing-along into harsh, jarring, violent notes. Just when the piece felt like it might spin out of control, right on the edge of collapsing into a dark rage, Downes reeled it in with subtly and complexity, the deep, harsh notes and her vicious body language transforming into the throbs of a beating heart until finally fading back into the soft lyrics of “This Land is Your Land.” Downes finished the first act with the mellower “Shenandoah” and the jazzy, upbeat “Spiritual Suite” from Margaret Bonds. 

The second act had “too much music planned,” Downes joked, as she told the audience to set aside the program so that everyone could get to bed on time. To keep up the energy in the room, Downes played pieces from Scott Joplin, emphasizing the fast, dance-able beats of American honkytonk ragtime music. Following the ragtime, Downes forayed into the moody world of Florence Price’s “Piano Sonata in E minor” and then aptly ended on Paul Simon’s “America.” Soft, tender, loving, and with a hint of nostalgia, listening to “America” felt like reminiscing on an old love affair. As the final note hung in the air, it almost seemed to ask if this populace of Americans can rekindle that old flame and rediscover the complicated, messy love for the nation, acknowledging its flaws and failings while ultimately embracing the hopeful, grandiose ideas of the American experiment. 

Downes earned a standing ovation for her performance. Although the Newport Classical Musical Festival has officially come to a close, Newport Classical will return with more performances throughout the year. Interested parties should check the Newport Classical website for updated information and scheduling.