Cheers and bravos erupted from the packed house at the National Academy of Sciences, Friday evening, May 14. Many people waited in line as long as two hours or listened from the academy's great hall as the music was piped in, in order to hear Awadagin Pratt and the Mendelssohn String Quartet make their Washington debut.
Not only was this the first Washington performance of a major new talent, but it was also the inauguration of the Carolyn Royall Just Fund in the Library of Congress. Ms. Just, who practiced law in the District of Coulmbia for nearly 50 years, was also an accomplished amateur violist with an affinity for chamber music. Her generous bequest will support the presentation and broadcasting of Library concerts.
The concert was presented by the Library of Congress as part of its 1992-93 concert series. Naumburg Piano Competition award winner Awadagin Pratt's playing ably demonstrated the full spectrum of his abilities -- from the power and sheer volume emanating from the piano as he performed the the Bach-Busoni Chaconne from the Partita No. 2 in D minor, to his complete command of the keyboard and facile technical skills evidenced in Franz Liszt's Funerailles from Harmonies poetiques et religieuses. In addition to his talents as a pianist. Mr. Pratt is equally gifted as both a violinist and conductor and was the first graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music to receive degrees in three performance areas.
Mr. Pratt has a particular fondness for chamber music and was joined in the concert by the Mendelssohn String Quartet, composed of violinists Nick Eanet and Nicholas Mann, violist Katherine Murdock and cellist Marcy Rosen. The quartet has established a reputation as one of the most imaginative and exciting quartets of its generation. Currently, the quartet is beginning a three- year residence at Harvard University, while performing extensively in the United States and Europe. The group opened the concert with the Mozart Quartet in D major, K. 499, and collaborated with Mr. Pratt in Dvorak's Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81.
The concert was recorded by CBS and will be broadcast in part on CBS Sunday Morning with Charles Kuralt sometime in June.
