On Jan. 28, Associate Professor of Music and Teacher of Violin Samantha George was joined by Stas Venglevski, virtuoso of the bayan. They opened with “Improvised Invention,” a medley of Johann Sebastian Bach works arranged by Andrey Golski. According to Venglevski, it isn’t a very popular medley, but it’s one that both he and George decided they liked.
The second piece, “Escualo” by Astor Piazolla, was originally for solo violin, but Venglevski’s accompaniment on the bayan felt completely natural, as if it was how the piece was intended to be played.
With these first two works, I assumed I was in for a performance full of gothic overtones, which I wouldn’t have minded at all. However, with the third song, “Piazza Vittorio (Choro Maxixe)” by Celso Mechado, the mood rapidly switched. Instead of feeling like I was strolling through a vampiric manor, suddenly I was clapping along to a plucky tune I could imagine hearing in an old-time saloon. My expectations were shattered, then skyrocketed going forward.
The fourth piece was “Devil’s Dance” from “The Witches of Eastwick” by John Williams, and it came with a fun story from Venglevski. He had first heard it played years prior when George performed it during a recital. He’d liked it so much, he had asked for the music, which she gladly gave him. He gave it back to her for this recital so they could play it together.
After that, Venglevski performed five pieces from his own “Animal Suite.” The first song was swapped from “March Parade” to “Cat’s Ball,” a song in honor of his own cat that had died a couple of years prior. This section of the recital was my personal favorite of the night. It was easy to imagine each piece as the animals they were named after: “Cheetah’s Chase,” “Tortoise Lament,” “Cockfight,” and “Mice Party Polka.” The last one was particularly fun, as Vengleski motioned for George to join him once more.
The next song was another Venglevski composition called “Love and Pigeons,” which he himself described as very “unusual polka.” As someone who does not typically enjoy polka, I at least loved it for the duration of this song. Pigeons and polka might be a match made in heaven.
After that performance, Vengleski asked for any requests from the audience. Someone yelled out, “Flight of the Angels.” This surprised Vengleski, who only paused for a brief moment before beginning to play. When he finished, he promptly announced that he does not take requests.
The next three pieces, “Spring Dance” by Grigoras Dinicu, “Jalousie” by Jacobe Gade and “Two Step” by Alexandr Tsygankov, all continued to be delightful. When the musicians concluded, they took their bows and walked off the stage to thunderous applause. When it wouldn’t stop, they returned to the stage to play a final piece: “Gitanerias” by Ernesto Lecuona.
After the performance, I reached out to George to ask about the improvisation that took place during the “Animal Suite.” It surprised me to learn that that wasn’t the only place that they had been improvising. It truly speaks to the talent of both of the performers that everything felt so perfectly practiced. What I believe was most special about the entire performance was how evident it was that both George and Venglevski were having fun. The energy they brought to the stage was infused in every song and truly made it a recital worth watching.