Interchanging Idioms

Alisa Weilerstein joined Pacific Symphony for Dvorak's Cello Concerto and stunned the audience I love going to see a wide variety of classical concerts particularly when I get to see artists like Alisa in a variety of settings, playing a variety of pieces and watch their growth as an artist. It was my pleasure to see Alisa Weilerstein several years ago performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Vail Valley Music Festival (2009) where she played Schelomo, Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra . She has matured as a cellist over the past few years and she was pretty amazing back then. Where in Vail she inhabited the voice (and face) of Solomon, last night her performance pulled out both the demanding intensity Dvorak lavishly spreads throughout the first movement, while diving into the depth of despair in the second. The third movement frolics a bit, swerves toward the chaotic and then plummets into the pathos even deeper than before. It was an emotional roller-coaster and Ms Wei...

Book review Typically this blog is about music, but there is more to my life than just music. So, today I branch out into discussing a book I just finished Redshirts by John Scalzi. It is a wonderful read, even for people who aren't Science Fiction fans, those who have no knowledge of Star Trek and the related issues with unexplained deaths of those who wear red shirts, and even people who prefer reading gritty crime novels, present day character studies or sappy romance books. Redshirts is a thought-provoking romp, with lots of comedy, philosophical questions and the appropriate number of tugs on the heart strings. In the end, the "Redshirts" win in more than just they get their own story — they get a back story we care about. Redshirts are the people on the television show Star Trek who, for one reason or another (and often really lame reasons) end up dying, to give a sense of potential danger to the situation. "What's going to happen to the main charac...

The Society of Composers & Lyricist had a special showing of BRAVE last night with a Q&A session with Patrick Doyle after the film. Let me start of by say Pixar has done it again. BRAVE is a wonderful film, with a charming story line that really captures the beauty of Scotland. This is not a twee (cheezy) film that mocks Scotland like Brigadoon , but captures both the attitudes (good and bad) of the people, the feeling of the landscape and heart of the music without pandering to stereotypes. The voices are alive with the accent, albeit the accents have been softened a bit to be understandable (for an American audience). The rich colors of the countryside occasionally look cartoon-ish, but for someone who lived there for 10 years and traveled highlands, lowlands and islands extensively, believe the colors are real. Patrick Doyle dug deep into his roots growing up in Uddingston Scotland (just outside Glasgow) and brought in some stellar Celtic musicians to give the film an au...

Nicola's passionate performance of Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 was dramatic and powerful Too often we associate "Oscar" performances outside the film industry as overwrought, melodramatic or just plain cheesy. There was none of that with Nicola Benedetti's performance of Bruch's Violin Concerto No. 1 with the Pacific Symphony last night. From the opening low G spoken with an intense focus, it was obvious Nicola has something to say, and does so eloquently with the violin. During the first big orchestral interlude, Nicola immersed herself in the music. She physically responded to the jibes and exclamations of the orchestra. This was not a performance about turning on the talent when it's her time to play; this was all about expressing herself through the music. When she takes up the violin, it is with complete commitment, playing her part as an extension of the orchestral cast. Every part of her is involved in the performance. As the phrases rise, ...

by Ebner Sobalvarro Performance dates: January 20, 21, 22, 2012 The second weekend of the Mahler Project brought two of the more anticipated symphonies by the composer, including the Adagio of his uncompleted final symphony. Gustavo Dudamel and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 go way back, to the time when he was 16. It was the first big symphonic piece he ever conducted, and his connection to it has grown over time. He chose it in 2009 for the gala concert that inaugurated his first season as music director with the LA Philharmonic. He also toured the piece with them throughout the US in May of 2010. Mahler was in his late 20’s when he wrote it, yet it is an unusually mature work for a first symphony. Its theme is that of a romantic hero who must face the tribulations of a harsh world before emerging victorious. Dudamel made it crystal clear from the outset, like he did in ‘09: this is his Mahler 1. Whatever reputation he has built for himself as a lover of slow tempi would not be disp...

To be released January 24th, pre-orders are available now. Nicola Benedetti is only 24 years old, yet she has made her mark in the classical world with six amazing CD's, her latest, Italia , goes to new depths of richness featuring the Italian Baroque works of Tartini, Veracini, and Vivaldi. With the help of her Stradivarius violin Nicola reaches deep to capture the energy, pathos, and emotional depth of the music. From start to finish Italia is delightful, emotionally filled with an both intensity and intimacy. The opening two pieces by Tartini, Sonata in G minor & Violin Concerto in A minor allow Nicola to show off the rich sound of her $2million violin. Her performance is worth every penny. These two minor mode piece ache with a sense of longing, the recording captures this agony perfectly. It's as if we are able to listen to the thoughts of the composer as he sits on the hillsides outside Piran contemplating the Devil's offer. Vivaldi's Concerto in A, all...

Drew Baker displays an array of works that are all very stark in nature but vary in intensity The works on Drew Baker's New Focus recording Stress Position are puzzling to analyze. As a listener of new music, it is compelling to hear, but to put in any kind of verbal language after only experiencing it a few times is like trying to describe how you feel after your first taste of a new cuisine. What is very apparent on this recording is that the works are a continuation of the ever-ongoing adventure of examining different ways of performing piano (in this case its amplification), Baker's use of piano resonance and visceral sound in general, done successfully by pianist Marilyn Nonken and (on the piece Gaeta ) the percussionists Sean Connors and Peter Martin. Gaeta , scored for Water Percussion and 2 Pianos (the second piano part provided by the composer), is a piece that interchanges the shrill, tinny sound of the percussion with the sonic booms of the low-end of 2 keyboa...

Championing music seldom heard, but masterfully performed by Chris McGovern On Hilary Hahn's new album (13th overall, 7th for DG) the vitruoso offers up the 4 completed violin sonatas of Charles Ives, pieces that she'd been performing live in concert for several years with pianist Valentina Lisitsa, who appears on both her first studio recording with Hahn as well as her first on DG. As one goes through the 4 sonatas, it is evident throughout that Ives "painted" what he saw. The sonatas all contain themes from early-American songs, hymns and spirituals and seem to be inspired by contemporary life and activities in New England. Ives made a very interesting blend of his Americana with the sounds of a movement towards changing tonality in classical music. The four sonatas are all presented here in their final editions, the first 3 having been revised and re-thought by Ives in later years following the publication of the 4th and last piece "Children's Day...

A song cycle of poems retelling traditional fairy tales in a provocative, modern, dark, and ultimately liberating way Gillian Hollis and Dale Trumbore have been collaborating since they met as undergraduates at the University of Maryland, College Park. Snow White Turns Sixty was premiered as a stage production in 2010 by the Chamber Opera of USC. This isn't Disney. This isn't soft, fluffy and sanitized. The CD begins with "Joy" and a powerful punctuation on the piano. Gillian's voice then comes in with broad lyric line with a leap of a 7th, and goes up from there! The melody is wild like the opening line of the poem by Sara Teasdale "I am wild, I will sing to the trees..." Trumbore makes full use of Hollis extensive range climaxing in the end with "I can live!" But, rather than leave us hanging, the vocalist and composer give us closure as she repeats the last three words with a sense of hope and reflection. "The Kiss" ...

Meerenai Engages the Listener with Pure Flute Technique and Sound on her Debut Album Flutes are delightfully simple, yet incredibly complex instruments. When you look at the wave form, the sound of the flute is pure and clean. The emotional range and technical possibilities of the instrument are astonishingly diverse. Meerenai's new CD Sometimes the City is Silent seizes all these subtleties, yet proffers them in such a splendidly pure way, we are intrigued by the flute with all of its complexity without being immersed in an overly effected recording. The opening track “Hamburger” Flute Sonata in G major was written by CPE Bach in 1786. The music is florid and ornate, yet with a sense of regular structure typical of the early classical period. Meerenai captures the mood of the music on her modern Boehm-system flute with a sense of ease. While there are moments the performance doesn't quite flow naturally, we do get a sense of the playful nature of the...

Classical music is so much more than dead white composers. Leah Kardos is living proof of what it not only can be, it moves toward what is may be in the years ahead. The music is a mixture of styles and influences from Debussy to Tavener, Shostakovich to Bryars with pop elements from Bowie, Brian Eno and The Flaming Lips. From this rich tapestry we are given a sonic-scape that transports us into a distant world of colors, shapes and sounds like nothing I've heard before. At times the music is opaque and difficult to see clearly all that's happening, while at other times there is a clear lyric glide to the musical lines that float over the listener with utter beauty. Feather Hammer begins with "The Waiting" and an ethereal strumming of the strings within the piano. Eventually, the effects of distant "steps" appear as we wait and wonder where we are, who is coming and what will happen. This isn't the music of Psycho where we dread the next sc...

There is a current trend in thinking for some modern composers where live musicians are simply not capable of performing the music intricacy with the precision composers are putting into their music. Electro-acoustic music takes samples and distorts them in ways which are simply not possible during live performances. New Complexity provides music for live performers, but includes too much information for an actual performer to play live, so choices have to be made for performance.  Nicholas Vasallo take a new direction, using machines to play organic instruments.  Although the reasoning is similar to electro-acoustic music, the results are remarkably different. With electro-acoustic the sound can become less organic and highly effected, unnatural and at times (for me) video game-ish.  Nick's music is alive and vibrant with the organic instrument. The music in let the machines do it for us still has the rich sound because it's created by organic instruments.  On ...

“Netrebko...is not just a Met star, but the Met star.” – New York Observer The coming season marks the tenth anniversary of Anna Netrebko’s debut with the Metropolitan Opera, host to many of her greatest triumphs during the past decade. To celebrate this milestone, Deutsche Grammophon will release the soprano’s first live solo album, bringing together her most memorable Met moments – performances never before issued on record, most of them previously unavailable in any format – available September 20, 2011 The album, consisting of eleven tracks from nine operatic roles, includes performances with some of Netrebko’s most renowned co-stars including tenors Roberto Alagna, Joseph Calleja and Juan Diego Flórez. In addition she is supported by a starry roster of conductors including Valery Gergiev (her house debut), Plácido Domingo, James Levine, Marco Armiliato and many others. Spanning her entire Met career, from her 2002 house debut as Natasha in Prokofiev’s War and Peace to h...

Maria Bachmann & Matt Haimovitz performed the World Premiere of Philip Glass' Duos No. 1-5 at the Days and Nights Festival The music for Duos Nos. 1-5 are extracted from Glass' larger work Double Concerto for Violin, Cello and Orchestra , 2010, similar to the Violin Concerto No. 2 where the solo violin became "The American Four Seasons." The program was followed by an early Schoenberg sextet Verklaerte Nacht Op. 4 (1899) and then Philip Glass' String Sextet (1995). The program notes suggests the music for the concert is a return to the music of Glass' youth --music he would listen to with is father during the 40's and 50's. The blend of the newly composed pieces by Philip Glass with the older Schoenberg was delightfully rich and illuminating at how subtle shifts in style can create something entirely new. As a composer, I found it fascinating to take an existing piece apart to create something new, complete with flow an...

What's the point in writing a review? Doesn't anybody really care what I think This has been a busy week with the Philip Glass' Day's and Nights Festival. Add to it a variety of new CD's coming out in August/September getting ready for the Fall/Winter sales and I've a lot of reviews to get done. One of my friends asked me why I review music the other day, with the ancillary question, "does anyone read them?" Studies show blog and print media reviews have little to no effect on whether audience members actually go see a performance. This last case is even truer in the classical music world where a performance is seldom repeated, so a review is really only after the performance and has no bearing on getting audience members to buy tickets – at least not to the specific performance reviewed. However, there is the potential of using cut quotes --phrases or sentences from the review in future advertising. As such, festival and performers st...

Day Two of the Days and Nights Festival brings Chamber Music to new Heights Philip Glass has written operas, symphonies and chamber music capturing the hearts of classical music lovers since in the sixties. While his style of repetitive structures has been dubbed "minimalist" there is nothing minimal about his music. His early works immersed the listeners in waves of subtle changes like a sonic weather storm sweeping across the sky. Last night the Days and Nights Festival presented an evening of chamber music featuring both the music of Philip Glass and Franz Schubert. You might think these two composers are an odd mix, but the combination not only featured each of the composers well, but highlighted how Glass reaches back to previous forms of music to create something new and how forward seeking Schubert was with his music. The concert opened with Pendulum by Philip Glass - a work for violin and piano with Tim Fain on violin and Philip Glass on pi...

What was it like that first week with Adam and Eve? Was the world quiet and serene with no tasks but the naming of animals? Were the sunrises slow and majestic? In many respects I feel the First year of the Days and Nights Festival has that same atmosphere - the world just unfolding with possibilities. This afternoon's performance of John Moran…and his neighbor, Saori was a theater piece thoroughly composed. Taking elements from several of John's operas', The Manson Family and The Book of the Dead , interspersed with a piece entitled "John's Opening" you get a glimpse at his style --crafted theater set to a tempo like a composition, but far more encompassing than any musical piece could convey. There are bits of dialog to the audience which at first seem disjointed and out of place, even to the point of making the audience uncomfortable. However, these bits eventually come around again, like a theme in a piece of music, to where we begin to understa...

Constant, perpetual, everlasting piano duet by Chip Michael Wow, it's hard to express my excitement. It is always nice to get feedback, thank you. Music ought to be fun to play as well as to listen to. Based on this review it sounds like I hit the mark with Amaranthinesque . Yay!!! Thanks again Anne...

From barefoot entrance to delightful banter with Marvin Hamlisch, Idina charmed her fans at Red Rocks I knew of her from Wicked and her role as Elphaba, the 'Wicked' witch. She a Tony nomination for her portrayal of Maureen in Rent and is now part of the television hit show "Glee." Knowing all this didn't prepare me for the overwhelming personality she has on the concert stage. In tonight's concert she wasn't just saying pre-prepared lines of a character created by someone else. Many of the songs she sang were from her previous performances, but it was her personality that really filled the 9000+ venue of Red Rocks. She gallivanted on stage in a light yellow dress and bare-feet. From that first bubbly step she had the audience enamored. Her set list included "I'm not that girl" where she ripped our hearts out with the agony she portrayed as the character Elphaba, "Poker-face" which was the song she sang on her first ap...

I was reading a short response by Joshua Kosman, SF Chronicle, A 'modernist' view of classical music . The reader's husband doesn't like 20th century composers, so the reader was looking for suggestions as to "Modernist CD's" he might like, "rather than the more obvious 'Rite of Spring.'" In Kosman's reply he starts by saying, "Let me start by quibbling a little with your terminology. "Modernist" refers to a particular view that sees music history as a forward march, with each composer extending and building on the innovations of his or her predecessors. It's been an important and influential way of approaching artistic creation, but it's not the only strand in 20th century music..." Hmmm... I beg to differ with your opinion Mr Kosman. According to Wikipedia (for quick reference) Musicologist Carl Dahlhaus restricted his definition of musical modernism to progressive music in the period 1890-1910: Th...