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Concerts on the Creek series is pure delight for chamber music lovers

Chamber music is, by definition, intimate. And no matter how much you spent on your home sound system, there’s no recording in your collection that can match the experience of a live concert.

In the extraordinarily intimate venue of the Third Chair Chamber Players Concerts on the Creek series – it’s in the home of flutist and Third Chair founder Becky Van de Bogart – the purity of the notes is underlain by the breath of the musicians and the faint click of the keys. A bare few feet from their audience, these skilled musicians create an intensity of music that seems to infuse and permeate the soul.

As with seeing a movie in the theater surrounded by an audience as opposed to watching it in your jammies from your bed, the experience of the evening is as much about being among music lovers in a beautiful home overlooking Medicine Creek and the Republican River Valley in Cambridge as it is about Claude Debussey or Heitor Villa-Lobos.

The shadows were long on the manicured grounds as we arrived at the home of Van de Bogart and Dick Shoemaker, President and Chairman of Pinpoint Holdings, a communications company headquartered in Cambridge, Nebraska, for the first of two scheduled Concerts on the Creek. While a few were gathered on the patio sipping wine as we arrived, most were in line for the beautifully catered Mexican dinner included as part of the evening’s entertainment.

The food was excellent, a skillful blend of old standbys like enchiladas and tamales, but with something for the more adventurous, too, such as gazpacho and fresh fish tacos with a delightful corn salsa. But pleasant as the food was, the evening was about chamber music, and there were no disappointments.

Becky quieted the audience by the force of her presence and laid out the evening’s entertainment: a Haydn piece for violin, cello and horn; a Villa-Lobos for flute and cello; and a sonata by Debussy for cello and piano. Then an intermission with mango ice cream, returning with more modern pieces by Katherine Hoover and David Schiff.

The audience of about 100 were rapt as the Third Chair Chamber Players presented their program. Cellist Tracy Sands delighted the audience not only with her skill, but with a story of how she had acquired her cello, made in 1789. She said she’d taken her sister-in-law with her to try out cellos an instrument dealer had assembled for her. Although the instrument she chose was out of her price range, she knew it was the right choice when her sister-in-law told her, “When you play that one, it makes the hairs on my legs stand up.”

In an evening heavy with cello parts, Sands gave a virtuoso performance that brought out the instrument’s vitality, even on the modern pieces that its maker could hardly have conceived.

In addition to Sands, the evening featured Van de Bogart on flute; Donna Carnes, violin; Graham House, horn; Ed Love, clarinet; and Sheri Erickson, piano.

As evening faded into night, a quartet of violin, clarinet, piano and cello performed the divertimento from “Gimpel the Fool” by David Schiff, a complex, modern piece that might have been harder for many to accept except for the intimate venue where one could watch every step of the music’s creation.

After a standing ovation for the players, the crowd faded into the evening, commenting, “how beautiful”, “what a lovely experience”, “what a delightful evening”. If you missed the June concert, it’s not too late to get tickets for the Saturday, July 31 event. For details, visit online at www.tccp.us, or call (308) 697-3010.

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