I am back home after a very pleasant week at Chautauqua in what is becoming an annual tradition for us. Daughter Sara and granddaughter Claire flew in on Saturday morning; I met them at Elizabeth’s house and rode with them in the first vehicle of our caravan. Mike loaded the sailboat and kayaks into my van and followed us. Rachael arrived from her six weeks Study Abroad experience in Avignon, France, around dinner time; she and Elizabeth completed the parade in a third car.
We rented a house at 8 Judson Avenue, about halfway between the Amphitheater and the Main Gate, an excellent location except for its distance to the lakefront. The house is set up to accommodate as many as eleven people; it was just right for the six of us. I appropriated the first-floor bedroom; Beth, Mike, and Rachael occupied the second floor; and Sara and Claire, the third floor.
During the nine week “season”, the Institution sponsors a series of lectures by national experts in the Amphitheater every morning, with a specific theme each week. This week’s theme was “Infrastructure: Building and Maintaining the Physical, Social, and Civic Underpinnings of Society”. To a card-carrying Civil Engineer like me, this sounds like the best of all possible topics, at least as far as the “Physical” attribute is concerned. Unfortunately, each of the five speakers gave his/her “stump speech”, with very minor modifications to justify its link to Infrastructure. Fortunately, each of them gave an interesting, informative presentation on his/her special topic.
The main thing we learned from Nobel Laureate in Economics Paul Romer was that it is important to carefully plan the infrastructure ahead of time when laying out a “new city”. Former Arkansas Governor, Baptist Pastor, and current political analyst Mike Huckabee briefly discussed funding highway construction in Arkansas before shifting to a sermon on the merits of focusing society on the Golden Rule. MIT nuclear engineer and entrepreneur Leslie Dewan eloquently presented the case for resurrecting nuclear energy in this country as the only practical alternative to fossil fuels. Novelist Amor Towles used the title of his recent best-seller, “The Lincoln Highway”, as a link to the week’s theme, then gave an entertaining talk on his approach to writing novels. Finally, Library of Congress Librarian Carla Hayden discussed the role of public libraries in connecting disparate segments of society. Five excellent presentations, but I would have preferred focus on the physical aspects of the infrastructure.
Equally important to the Institution’s cultural agenda are the evening musical programs. We went to three concerts by the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. First was a viewing of the classic film “The Princess Bride”, with the orchestra playing the sound track. This is a current fad for symphony orchestras that I have ignored; it turned out to be a very rewarding experience. Tuesday night they performed compositions by two under-appreciated African-American composers, Florence Price and William Dawson. Both works were based on Negro spirituals, including several familiar ones.
Thursday night pianist and artist-in-residence Alexander Gavrylyuk performed Rachmaninoff’s “Rhapsody on Variations of a Theme by Paganini”, followed by the orchestra playing Shostakovich’s “Fifth Symphony”. Shostakovich’s Fifth is a problem for me. I think we have heard it recently at least three times. This is the work that salvaged Shostakovich’s career (and possibly saved his life) in 1937 when its premiere convinced the Communist Party bosses that he was a collaborator with them. It also convinced us anti-Communist types that he was a villain (in contrast with Rachmaninoff and Stravinsky who escaped to the West). In the 1970s, however, he claimed that his conversion to Communism was with his fingers crossed and that any serious student of music listening to the finale of the Fifth would recognize this. Rachael agrees with this; I am still wondering how many times I must hear it before I become a believer.
At any rate, we heard three enjoyable concerts performed by a fine orchestra. How does the CSO compare with the Pittsburgh Symphony? Their principal trumpet is at least as good as his colleague in the PSO. Proof? Both share the same name, Micah Wilkinson, and occupy the same body. This is not true of the other principals, nor is the CSO nearly as large as the PSO, nor are its spear-carriers as talented. Fortunately, the difference is small enough that the run-of-the-mill listener is perfectly happy with both.
We also attended the theater, a dramatic performance of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice”. Again, we members of the run-of-the-mill category were able to enjoy it without recognizing the decrease in overall quality inherent in adapting a classic novel for performance on the stage. Two astute experts in the field independently observed that the absence of the novel’s narrative voice detracts immensely from the effectiveness of a play.
Two visits were highlights of the week. Wednesday Jonathan and Marsha Maddy drove up from Franklin and attended the morning lecture with us; we then spent a delightful afternoon on our porch, catching up on each other’s activities. The next afternoon Phil Atteberry stopped by and visited with me for a much too short hour. I met him years ago at Allegheny Jazz Society events and have enjoyed his two-hour long radio program, “Saturday Swing Session”, on WQLN Erie for many years. After he left, I spent the afternoon thinking of things I wish I had brought up for discussion.
We celebrated Beth and Mike’s twentieth wedding anniversary with a lovely dinner, on a gorgeous summer early evening on the porch of the Athaneum Hotel, overlooking the lake front. I postulated that I couldn’t imagine a more attractive venue than that; so far, no one has disagreed with me.
Everything about the Chautauqua experience is remarkably positive. The immaculate condition of all the buildings and grounds; the opportunities for education, entertainment, and recreation; and the low key, courteous, outgoing friendliness of everyone there add up to a near-Utopian environment.