To the editor:

Music in Landrum has grown to provide a healthy variety of musical offerings to our area. We were treated to two in as many days last week!

On Saturday, we heard the now 14-year-old Christopher Tavernier in a solo piano recital performed on a Steinway concert grand. I have heard Christopher in several performances beginning when he was 12, and told Whitney Blake about him. This marks his fourth appearance for them. Sunday, we heard Dr. Eun Sun Lee, violin, and Fabio Parrini, piano, play a program of romantic classics.

Young Tavernier played a robust program of virtuoso fare billed as a musical journey through the classical world. Christopher’s musical lineage includes Franz Liszt, whose music he champions. Right now octaves are his forte, as well as piano-spanning arpeggios, all found in abundance in Liszt’s music.

My friend Phyllis Martin commented, “He plays them faster than I can listen!”

Christopher played a 1923 Steinway concert grand lovingly restored by my colleague who lives on Lake Lanier, Keith Freeburg. The piano is every inch a Steinway, with rich, full tone across the entire scale. Keith noted that it is for sale.

Parrini partnered with Dr. Lee in the delightful Handel Sonata No. 4 in D Major. He then played several solos before accompanying Lee in several short romantic pieces. They concluded with Elgar’s Salut d’Amour, which was played for her mother’s birthday.

Landrum Presbyterian Church’s little Baldwin grand was nicely controlled by Parrini not to overpower the violin, but he produced big tone to fill the church during his solos. Lee played with feeling and the subtle nuances of fine musicianship “always.”

The free performances sponsored by Music in Landrum are funded through an endowment from the Mary Comerford Memorial Fund. Music in Landrum is a South Carolina non-profit corporation. Sales of CDs and DVDs and donations also support their performances, including the new Chamber Series with the Spartanburg Philharmonic Orchestra, which began in October 2014.

Garland O. Goodwin
Columbus