Monday, May 25, 2009
Memorial Day weekend
Saturday afternoon and evening, we went up to the Delaware pow-wow. They had a good dance with a lot of dancers and a lot of drums. I counted five drums in the center, and another three Northern drums were on the side of the arena in front of our chairs, and two more drums were on the side on the other side of the speaker's stand. We stayed til midnight.
Thursday, May 14, 2009
To boldly go
Well, I saw Star Trek today. It was a late afternoon matinee and I think there were only about half a dozen people in the theater. Good movie. Lots of action, and lots of camera shaking to make it seem like there was even more action going on. I particularly liked the performances of the new Mr. Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Dr. McCoy (Karl Urban). And, what's the deal with Mr. Chekov being seventeen-years-old? I won't talk about the rest of the movie cause I don't want to spoil things for those of you who've not yet seen it.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Musical Modernism
It's Contemporary Music Week at the Kennedy Center right now, so we're getting ten days of modern music from ensembles of all sizes. Last night, Kevin and I went to hear the National Symphony Orchestra play four mostly 21st century works under the direction of contemporary composer/conductor Oliver Knussen.
The evening opened with Julian Anderson's Imagin'd Corners, a twelve-minute tone poem inspired by visions of the Last Judgment and Resurrection of John Donne's Holy Sonnets. The composer makes use of a wide variety of novelty percussion instruments while exploring the abilities of the brass section. A quartet of horns played from the lobby at the back of the hall giving us an antiphonal effect of brass against orchestra (we just heard the brass from our seats on row E down front; I don't know how the effect worked for people in the various balconies of the concert hall). Anderson's writing demanded a lot of "playing between the cracks" for the brass players, so much so that the conductor explained between the first and second works that the horns weren't playing "wrong notes," but they were supposed to sound that way.
During the interlude, Maestro Knussen also explained some of his rationale in selecting the music for the evening's performance, calling the program "incestuous"—it included pieces by him, his teacher, his student, and his friend. Knussen is a large, heavy man with unkempt brown hair who chose to wear one of those black Maoist-style formal jackets that are so popular with European conductors.
Violinist Leila Josefowicz joined the orchestra for the second work, Knussen's Violin Concerto, Op. 30. Written as three interconnected movements, the beginning and ending passages were the same, representing, Knussen said, two pillars, allowing the violin to be suspended on a high wire between them. I found the concerto to be very accessible and almost melodic in the neo-Romantic style.
Miss Josefowicz was a fascinating soloist with an extremely expressive and emotive face throughout the concerto. A pretty young woman, she wore her long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail and fastened with a jeweled barrette. Her dress was a striking blue ensemble with a pale sky blue top over a deep turquoise, form-fitted skirt. Sky blue fabric draped from the back of each shoulder to below the knees waived in the air like long wings with every movement of her athletic performance.
After intermission, composer Augusta Read Thomas came out to talk about her work and to offer her thanks to her teacher Knussen for programming her Helios Choros I, which she said was part of a larger ballet. She wore a gold cocktail dress with a beaded bottom that was above-the-knee in the middle and mid-calf on the sides. Much the same as Anderson's work, this piece made extensive use of percussion instruments. It ended rather abruptly and without resolution, but that may be resolved with performance of the entire ballet.
The final work of the evening was the older piece of the day, a 1993 composition and the 1994 Pulitzer Prize winner by Gunther Schuller called Of Reminiscences and Reflections. The music was very beautiful and grand, yet still distinctly modern.
It is always difficult to write about modern music, since most readers have never heard—or heard of—the works and thus have no frame of reference for comparison. I will have to say that this was a very enjoyable musical evening (sometimes contemporary music can be quite painful), and Knussen did a fine job of selecting four pieces that were challenging yet eminently listenable.
I also have to assume that the National Symphony played well; with all the atonality of contemporary music, I sometime have to wonder why they bother to tune.
The evening opened with Julian Anderson's Imagin'd Corners, a twelve-minute tone poem inspired by visions of the Last Judgment and Resurrection of John Donne's Holy Sonnets. The composer makes use of a wide variety of novelty percussion instruments while exploring the abilities of the brass section. A quartet of horns played from the lobby at the back of the hall giving us an antiphonal effect of brass against orchestra (we just heard the brass from our seats on row E down front; I don't know how the effect worked for people in the various balconies of the concert hall). Anderson's writing demanded a lot of "playing between the cracks" for the brass players, so much so that the conductor explained between the first and second works that the horns weren't playing "wrong notes," but they were supposed to sound that way.
During the interlude, Maestro Knussen also explained some of his rationale in selecting the music for the evening's performance, calling the program "incestuous"—it included pieces by him, his teacher, his student, and his friend. Knussen is a large, heavy man with unkempt brown hair who chose to wear one of those black Maoist-style formal jackets that are so popular with European conductors.
Violinist Leila Josefowicz joined the orchestra for the second work, Knussen's Violin Concerto, Op. 30. Written as three interconnected movements, the beginning and ending passages were the same, representing, Knussen said, two pillars, allowing the violin to be suspended on a high wire between them. I found the concerto to be very accessible and almost melodic in the neo-Romantic style.
Miss Josefowicz was a fascinating soloist with an extremely expressive and emotive face throughout the concerto. A pretty young woman, she wore her long blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail and fastened with a jeweled barrette. Her dress was a striking blue ensemble with a pale sky blue top over a deep turquoise, form-fitted skirt. Sky blue fabric draped from the back of each shoulder to below the knees waived in the air like long wings with every movement of her athletic performance.
After intermission, composer Augusta Read Thomas came out to talk about her work and to offer her thanks to her teacher Knussen for programming her Helios Choros I, which she said was part of a larger ballet. She wore a gold cocktail dress with a beaded bottom that was above-the-knee in the middle and mid-calf on the sides. Much the same as Anderson's work, this piece made extensive use of percussion instruments. It ended rather abruptly and without resolution, but that may be resolved with performance of the entire ballet.
The final work of the evening was the older piece of the day, a 1993 composition and the 1994 Pulitzer Prize winner by Gunther Schuller called Of Reminiscences and Reflections. The music was very beautiful and grand, yet still distinctly modern.
It is always difficult to write about modern music, since most readers have never heard—or heard of—the works and thus have no frame of reference for comparison. I will have to say that this was a very enjoyable musical evening (sometimes contemporary music can be quite painful), and Knussen did a fine job of selecting four pieces that were challenging yet eminently listenable.
I also have to assume that the National Symphony played well; with all the atonality of contemporary music, I sometime have to wonder why they bother to tune.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Creation
Friday night we went to the Kennedy Center to hear the National Symphony Orchestra do Haydn's Die Schöpfung (The Creation). They were accompanied by the University of Maryland Concert Choir.
Conductor Helmuth Rilling took the podium without a score and led the assembled forces through the nearly two hour performance completely from memory.
Soloists for the evening were Klara Ek, soprano; James Taylor, tenor; and Nathan Berg, bass-baritone. Miss Ek wore a tight black sheath dress with a short, sheer, black capelet ornamented with stripes and a wide borden of silver sequins. The men were in white tie and tails (unlike the singers, the maestro wore a tail coat, but in lieu of white tie wore a white turtleneck shirt).
Overall, the orchestra and chorus put forth a solid effort, though the performance was not particularly memorable. The soprano sang some nice coloratura passages, and the tenor had a pleasant voice with plenty of squillo. I was less favorably impressed with the bass-baritone, finding a lack of consistency in his vocal production as he went up and down his register.
Cocktails at the Kennedy Center have gone up a dollar. :-(
Conductor Helmuth Rilling took the podium without a score and led the assembled forces through the nearly two hour performance completely from memory.
Soloists for the evening were Klara Ek, soprano; James Taylor, tenor; and Nathan Berg, bass-baritone. Miss Ek wore a tight black sheath dress with a short, sheer, black capelet ornamented with stripes and a wide borden of silver sequins. The men were in white tie and tails (unlike the singers, the maestro wore a tail coat, but in lieu of white tie wore a white turtleneck shirt).
Overall, the orchestra and chorus put forth a solid effort, though the performance was not particularly memorable. The soprano sang some nice coloratura passages, and the tenor had a pleasant voice with plenty of squillo. I was less favorably impressed with the bass-baritone, finding a lack of consistency in his vocal production as he went up and down his register.
Cocktails at the Kennedy Center have gone up a dollar. :-(
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
April poetry
Whan that aprill with his shoures soote
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye.
The droghte of march hath perced to the roote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
Tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the ram his halve cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open ye.
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Dancing
Dancing has been in the news a lot lately. Whether it's dancing with the stars or dancing on the basketball court, not a newscast goes by when that action verb isn't overused. Thursday, we got to witness dancing of another kind as we watched the National Symphony Orchestra dance its way through the Mozart Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat, K 595, with soloist Jonathan Biss at the keyboard and conductor Herbert Blomstedt on the podium. The orchestral playing was light and delightful.
After intermission, the orchestra made a complete change as it doubled its onstage forces to present the three movements of Anton Bruckner's unfinished Symphony No. 9 in D minor. The symphony can be described as no less than massive, and, if anything, it most certainly was loud. The octagenarian Blomstedt impressively maintained the intensity and energy of the long performance throughout the symphony.
After intermission, the orchestra made a complete change as it doubled its onstage forces to present the three movements of Anton Bruckner's unfinished Symphony No. 9 in D minor. The symphony can be described as no less than massive, and, if anything, it most certainly was loud. The octagenarian Blomstedt impressively maintained the intensity and energy of the long performance throughout the symphony.
Quotation
I strongly advise you to smoke a pipe; it is a remedy for the blues, which I happen to have had now and then lately.
—Vincent Van Gogh
—Vincent Van Gogh
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
