Rachel's Musical Adventures - In Memory of Johnny Frigo

July 19, 2007 at 8:52 AM

July 21, 2007: Performance at the Amati Music Festival in New York

On Saturday, July 21, at 8:00pm, I will perform with pianist Yuan Sheng at the Amati Music Festival in Hunter, New York. The recital will include: Beethoven’s Sonata No. 1, Strauss’s Sonata, Bach’s Sonata No. 1 in G Minor, Bellstedt’s Caprice on Dixie, Dvorak’s Humoresque, Coleridge-Taylor’s Deep River, and Espejo’s Airs Tziganes.

For more information, please contact the Amati Music Festival at (201) 567-0221 or visit amaticonservatory.org/Festival/welcome.

New YouTube video

Rachel performs Prelude from Sonata No. 2 “Obsession” by Eugene Ysaye

Rachel introduces and performs the Prelude from Sonata No. 2 “Obsession” by Eugene Ysaye, May 4, 2007.

By the way, I’m using a baroque bow because I just performed a concert of solo Bach and I forgot to grab my modern bow for the encore!

To watch all of my YouTube videos, please visit www.youtube.com/RachelBartonPine.

New podcast episode

“Episode 7: Rachel Barton Pine discusses classical improvisation”
Rachel discusses the differences between classical and non-classical music and classical improvisation, including baroque ornamentation and the use of rubato. Includes various musical examples.

Do you have a question you’d like me to answer on my podcast? Just send your question via text or as an MP3 attachment to rachelbartonpine@aol.com. Please also let me know if you have any comments or suggestions. If you use iTunes, be sure to subscribe!

“In Memory of Johnny Frigo”
July 15, 2007

On July 4, I lost a dear friend. Johnny Frigo passed away at the age of 90. For those of you who weren’t fortunate enough to know him or his music, he was one of the greatest jazz violinists of his generation, comparable to Grapelli. He knew, toured with, or recorded with virtually every jazz great. For many years, Johnny was the first call string bass player for all of the studio work in Chicago. When the electric bass came into vogue, Johnny quietly transitioned to violin (an instrument he had studied in his youth). He took a Sunday morning gig on violin so he could get his chops in shape without anyone in the music community catching on.

Johnny was phenomenal. It wasn’t just his ability as a fiddler that made him such a wonderful musician, though he had an encyclopedic knowledge of tunes and knew the changes like no one else after his many decades playing bass. It was the humanity that infused his music-making which set him apart – the great depth of spirit with which he sang on the violin, his humility when accompanying guest artists, subtly enhancing their performance without drawing attention to himself, and his unmatched sense of humor, especially at moments when you least expected it. He obviously loved what he did and had a lot of fun doing it.

Johnny was a composer, writing numerous songs including ‘Detour Ahead’ and the Chicago Cubs theme song ‘Hey, Hey, Holy Mackarel.’ He was a poet with a masterful wit and gift for imagery. He was a gifted visual artist with a stunning collection – it was years before I discovered this facet of Johnny and I was very fortunate to receive a personal tour through his exhibition at the Old Town School of Folk Music, a memory I will always treasure.

Johnny was one of the few regular dinner guests at my home. My husband and I would pick him up in the lobby of his building and spend magical evenings hearing tales of life in the 30s, 40s, and 50s and talking about music. Johnny grew up very poor in the Great Depression, and I’ll never forget the sad look in his eyes as he recounted the stories of hunting sparrows for food with his slingshot.

For as long as I could remember before it closed a few years ago, Johnny played at Toulouse on the Park every Monday night with his dear friend Joe Vito on piano. In a small room with velvet walls and mirrored ceilings, the two of them cast a spell on everyone gathered there. No one spoke for fear of missing a note. The stream of jokes between numbers filled the room with laughter. Johnny had such a great sense of timing. At least once an evening, he would set down his violin and recite a few of his poems. Creative, touching and humorous, somehow they were an organic extension of his musical art and his concerts would have been less complete without them.

Musicians were always stopping by Toulouse, from Lyric Opera soloists to Mark O’Connor, and none could escape without jamming with Johnny. No matter how good these other musicians were, he had a way of supporting them that made them sound even better. I would stop by every week that I was in town, and it was a favorite date spot for my husband and me. Johnny would always insist that I play. I even tried leaving my violin at home, but he would just hand me his. With the spell of Johnny’s improvisations in the air, I always felt that my performances of pieces like Kreisler’s Recitativo and Scherzo had a special intimacy and spontaneity that I can’t quite capture anywhere else. Johnny’s favorite piece in my repertoire was Paganini’s 24th Caprice. Whenever I played it, after the applause died down, he would look at the audience and say, “I play the same tune, but I do it in B-flat!”

In 2004, Johnny graced my wedding by performing at the reception. As always, he charmed the guests and left a profound mark on the evening.

I’ll always be thankful for the time I was able to spend with him and grateful for his kindness and encouragement. Johnny left behind many musicians whom he inspired and fans whose lives he enriched. He was one-of-a-kind and the world is emptier without him.

teaching with Johnny Frigo and Hans Holzen at Mark O’Connor’s Fiddle Camp

hanging backstage with Johnny Frigo and Mark O’Connor

To read my blog entries from 2000-2007, please visit www.rachelbartonpine.com/blog.php.

ClassicsToday.com reviews American Virtuosa

Artistic Quality 10/10 Sound Quality

Back in the late-'50s/early-'60s, my violin teacher sent me home after each week's lesson with a handful of LPs--recordings of famous violin pieces, transcriptions, and arrangements performed by the world's greatest violinists--Heifetz, Stern, Milstein, Menuhin--which (as she knew they would) never failed to inspire a young student to practice, practice, practice. After all, how could you resist wanting to work as hard as it took to be able to play such magical musical gems as well as the masters--to make your own instrument sound those beautiful melodies, your bow skip over the strings with such ease, and your tone charm all who would listen with its vibrant resonance?

With this new release, violinist Rachel Barton Pine and Cedille recall the glorious era of the headline-inducing violin recital, the art of the arrangement and transcription, and the thrill of virtuoso performance for its own sake. And yes, Pine's choice of music and her brilliant playing could serve as inspiration to a new generation of prospective string players, just as those by the old masters did during the days of the LP.

Pine's own focus and inspiration come from Maud Powell (1867-1920), the "first great American violinist", who not only was a phenomenal performer and accomplished transcriber/arranger, but who in her pioneering recitals also was a champion of new works by American composers, including African Americans and women. Pine has already proven her formidable technical and interpretive skills--in Bach, Brahms, Joachim, and Bruch, among many others; here she treats us to 18 works from the 19th and 20th centuries, most of which were either dedicated to or arranged by Powell. From Amy Beach's gorgeous Romance to Dvorák's Humoreske, Sibelius' "Musette" from King Christian II, Carl Venth's Aria, and Cecil Burleigh's Four Rocky Mountain Sketches, Pine and her very able piano partner Matthew Hagle treat us to a true celebration of the violin in its several guises--as singer, percussionist, poet, and even humorist.

There are beautiful melodies everywhere--the kind that musicians used to unashamedly perform both in parlors and on concert stages--and there are also purely entertaining novelties and virtuoso show-off pieces, from Chopin's "Minute" Waltz to Herman Bellstedt's dazzling Caprice on Dixie for Unaccompanied Violin. Two of the disc's highlights are spirituals arranged by Powell--Deep River and Nobody Knows the Trouble I See--the latter of which Pine smartly chose to quietly, reverently end her recital.

Pine revels in every double-stop passage and soaring melody, takes full advantage of opportunities to "dig in" or softly float; she shows her sensitive side in the muted harmonics of Massenet's Twilight and in one exquisite section of Max Liebling's Fantasia on Sousa Themes. In fact, she never leaves any doubt that she's having a great time with this music (listen to the surprising "Stars and Stripes Forever" conclusion to the Liebling!), or that she truly respects and is inspired by "the art of one of the greatest violinists ever." The sound is unfailingly vibrant and ideally balanced between violin and piano (not always an easy feat), allowing Pine's 1742 Guarneri violin to freely express itself. Highly recommended!

-- David Vernier

From Donna Clegg
Posted on July 19, 2007 at 4:18 PM

Thanks for the moving tribute to Johnny Frigo. He was may favorite teacher at fiddle camp, 2002. He was old enough to speak bluntly and get away with it, yet funny enough to make you laugh after you thought about what he'd said. He was definitely a young spirit in a seasoned body. I enjoyed reading more about his life.

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Rachel's Musical Adventures - In Memory of Johnny Frigo

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