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  Home Page » A&E » Kasia Sokol Plays Tribute To Alexander Murray

Kasia Sokol plays tribute to Alexander Murray

by Judith Reynolds
Special to the Herald "That's how much I appreciate this violin," Kasia Sokol said immediately after giving a deft yet highly emotional interpretation of Ernest Bloch's "Nigun" - on Alexander Murray's violin.

Sokol is assistant professor of music at Fort Lewis College, concertmaster of the San Juan Symphony and director/conductor of the Durango Youth Symphony. She organized a tribute to Alexander Murray (1909-1989) in whose name the FLC music faculty has given recitals for the last 18 years.

Since its inception, the series has raised FLC scholarship funds from ticket sales. Sokol thought it was time to give a recital in honor of the namesake and let people know about Murray's life as a musician. She did much more than that last Friday in Roshong Recital Hall. While intermittently telling Murray's life story in words and pictures, she honored him by portraying a complex life lived through the grandeur of music. Sokol played a few works which Murray recorded, and she offered three of her own favorite pieces, one of which served as a benediction.

Sokol opened with Mozart's Sonata for Piano and Violin KV 296, a well-loved work for its clarity and liveliness. Accompanied by Linda Mack, professor of music, Sokol brought out the work's intense contrasts and beautiful logic. Mack's deft playing underscored the work's clarity by almost totally avoiding any use of the pedal. Sokol's rendition of the languid second movement with its emphasis on the lower strings gave the illusion she had substituted a viola for Murray's violin.

To further demonstrate the instrument's expressive range, Sokol and Mack performed another Murray favorite, the highly romantic solo from Tchai-kovsky's "Swan Lake." With a heavily pedaled, arpeggio-rich introduction on the piano, Mack prepared the way for Sokol to make the violin sing its liquid song. The two musicians followed with a sharp, energetic rendering of the most popular of Brahms' Hungarian Dances. This little two-minute work zipped by with brisk flourishes, heart-pounding rhythms and heart-stopping retards.

One movement from Bach's Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord in E Major demonstrated how crisp and sometimes dry Murray's violin could sound. Playing over cellist Katherine Jetter's basso continuo, Sokol limited her vibrato to render straight, clear runs and a final, ghost-like line drawn out to close the work.

Throughout the selections, Sokol performed in front of projected pictures of Murray with his violin. In between pieces, Sokol spun out his life story. Born in Scotland, Murray began playing a makeshift violin as a child. When the family immigrated to the United States, his talent became obvious, and a proper violin and a teacher were secured. By age 13, Murray was invited to be a soloist with orchestras and this led to participation in chamber groups. Ascending the ladder of a classical music career, Murray played steadily in Oregon and California. He was so successful, he purchased a Guarneri violin in 1937 and subsequently performed with various philharmonic orchestras in Chicago, Boston and New York.

Murray's shift into the life of a Hollywood studio musician, Sokol explained, answered the question: "What else did he need?" The answer was: "A life." When Murray married and started a family, he chose to also have a steady income and a home base - Los Angeles. His career-changing decisions took place in the late 1930s, and by the early '40s, he was playing in the Paramount Studio Orchestra. With intermittent shifts in the industry, his studio career had ups and downs. In one trough, he had to sell his beloved Guarneri and purchase another violin, the one on which Sokol plays.

"I cannot imagine what that must have been like," Sokol said.

Murray and his wife, Marian, had three daughters. Durango's own Andie Davison spoke about her father and his enormous music collection, which the family gave to Fort Lewis College after his death in 1989. As a result, the FLC music department began the Alexander Murray Recital Series.

In what turned out to be another dramatic moment in an evening of surprises, another Murray daughter, Bonnie Murray Tamblin of California, literally blew in from a delayed Denver flight. She brought with her a new DVD of film clips with her father's music. The audience listened and watched excerpts from "Dr. Zhivago," "The Quiet Man" and other films.

After listening to Murray's music, Sokol said she didn't want to play, so she completed the story. At the end, she offered two works, her own choices, as a final tribute. And so she played the Bloch "Nigun," which has been described by composer Roger Sessions as expressing "the grandeur of human suffering." Then Sokol closed with a light but bittersweet work by her fellow countryman, Polish composer Henri Wieniawski, "Legend." The beautiful irony of two words - "legend" and "legacy" - hung in the air. No one could have missed their meaning in this most unusual tribute concert.

Judith Reynolds is a Durango writer, artist and critic. Reach her at Jud_reyn@yahoo.com.