Revival of Ragtime Takes Over SPAC Stage
by Don A. Metivier, The Post-Star, June 19, 1974
A group of college students re-created the 70-year-old music of a long-dead composer Monday night at the Saratoga Festival.
The combination of the New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble and the music of Scott Joplin made for a superior evening of music at Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
The 15 young musicians under the direction of conductor Gunther Schuller played a total of 17 ragtime pieces, most of them written at the turn of the century by Joplin.
Schuller, who made the program somewhat educational with his thoughtful comments on the music and its nearly forgotten composer, must be credited with much of the nationwide revival of ragtime music.
He managed to obtain a copy of the famed “Red Back Book,” a collection of stock ragtime arrangements made for dancing, parades and band concerts, and during a regular New England Conservatory Concert included one ragtime number on the program.
A tape of the program came to the attention of Angel Records, which had the musicians record an album, “Scott Joplin: The Red Back Book,” which became the biggest seller ever recorded by the company.
Ragtime music swept the country. The producers of the film “The Sting” got the arrangements from Schuller, and included Joplin music in the film’s score, including the now familiar “The Entertainer.”
The New England Conservatory Ragtime Ensemble, now one of the most popular concert groups in the nation, still are students at the Conservatory, continuing a degree program.
They could drop everything and become ragtime players,” Schuller said. He noted they will perform at every major musical festival in the east, but will stay in school to continue their studies.
The young group opened the program with “The Entertainer, which featured David Reskin on piccolo and Myron Romanul on piano. Romanul later charmed the audience totally with a solo performance of “The Entertainer,” which is pure ragtime.
They romped through “Pineapple Rag,” and the beautiful “Solace,” both of which were taken from their recording to be included in “The Sting’s” score.
Thomas Foulds was featured on trombone in the rousing “Sunflower Slow Drag,” which showed how ragtime was used to develop circus music.
The group closed both portions of the program with Jelly Roll Morton’s “Grandpa Spells” and both times had the small, but obviously knowledgeable and enthusiastic audience.
The young Ragtime Ensemble played the entire program of four-part rags with an ease that belied the difficulty of the music. The all-white ensemble was totally at home with the “black” music and in addition fought the weather that saw torrents of rain fall for more than an hour.
The utter happiness of the ragtime music was mirrored perfectly in the young musicians who were having as good a time as the audience and their conductor.
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