oboeinsight

The Baseball Music Project, started in 2004 by a group of professional musicians united by their love of baseball and music, aims to increase awareness of both. Sunday’s performance by the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra was the first in a nationwide tour of symphony orchestras and concert halls.

I’m not the only musician who loves baseball, you know. And to think I drove near Bakersfield on Sunday, too. (Shortly after listening to the Giants manage to lose a baseball game that, when I tuned in, was 5-0 Giants, and ended 5-6 Padres. Sigh.)

You can read a wee bit more about the specific Bakersfield concert here. (Registration is required … but have you ever heard for bugmenot.com? Handy.) But there is also a Baseball Music Project site. Cool!

In Other News…
My drive home was rather uneventful, and music-wise wasn’t very extensive. Driving through LA and then until it was over, I listened to the game. (When I tuned in, in the fifth inning, I thought, “Oh great! We can’t possibly lose this one!” Sigh.) Then it was some of that romantic Italian music … no, not opera … just songs. (You could sing me the dictionary in Italian and I’d probably swoon. If I really knew how to swoon. But you get the idea.) From there I let Mozart get me nearly home, listening to wind divertimenti, serenades and the oboe quartet. I was planning on listening to Piston’s The Incredible Flutist (suite), because I’ll be coaching that with San Jose Youth Symphony, along with coaching the Ives, but I put it on and immediately decided I was definitely not in the mood!
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After dropping Jameson off at school (at about 7:20 AM) I left for the exciting city of Irvine a fun visit with Kelsey.

Of course a drive of between seven and one thousand (in LA traffic you never know) hours demands music. So here’s the playlist. You may be unimpressed if you like—I can handle it!

Philip Glass: Soundtrack to the movie Secret Agent. This work has a lot of English horn, although I must admit I’m not fond of the EH sound on the recording. A bit too bright for my taste.)

Sibelius: Symphony No. 5. Symphony Silicon Valley is doing this next week, so I thought I’d give it yet another listen while on the road. I wonder why part of the third fourth movement sounds like a pop tune to me. Did someone use it, or is this just my problem?Lots of sound on this piece. Not a lot of notes for me. But darn, Sibelius likes low oboe. :-(

Sibelius: Symphony No. 2. Well, it was on the same CD as #5, so why not?

Beethoven: Egmont Overture. Yeah, Symphony Silicon Valley is doing this too. (The other work on the program is the Grieg Piano Concerto.)

Soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou? Fun listening.

Ives: Symphony No. 2. I’ll be coaching San Jose Youth Symphony’s woodwind section in May, and one work on the program is this symphony, although I’m assuming it won’t be the whole work. I hadn’t heard this in a long time. I wonder if the kids will recognize all the tunes in the work (should we do it all). I think the ending is a cop out. But that might just be me.

Having grown weary of loud symphonic works, I listened to an emusic download: Julie Wilson signs Cole Porter. I’m not sure what I think of her, but Cole Porter sure did write some fun lyrics. I kind of felt like maybe I needed a cigarette and a martini to truly get into the CD for some reason. (I don’t smoke—I’ve not ever lit up even one cigarette!—nor do I drink martinis.)

Then it was radioland for a while. Partly because I was in LA and traveling in LA is a pain; I wanted to know what I was in for. But after a bit of chatter from radiofolk I moved on to KUSC to see what they had to offer. It began with Tchaikovsy’s fifth, which I played sometime last year. Fine. Okay. But Tchaik is Tchaik and I don’t miss him when I don’t hear him. Then a bit of Poulenc (Three Perpetual Movements, to be exact.). By then I was on overload, and I miraculously reached the hotel at just about the same time. Will wonders never cease?

—time lapse—

I’ve met Kelsey for dinner (she made fondue … yum!) and now I’m back at the hotel because RLS (restless leg syndrome) was getting to me.

More than you needed to know … and so I’ll sign off for now.
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Read this:

Website Warnings

Spending a lot of time lately doing phone interviews with prospective interns for the summer. Especially with phone interviews, I tend to google applicants first. A word to the wise: Be careful what you put on the internet.

And know that it was written by Kim Pesinger Witman, who is with Wolf Trap Opera.

You just have to assume that whatever you put on the web is on a billboard in every city of the world. That way you’ll not be surprised when people say, “Oh yes, I know some things about you…” with a peculiar look in their eyes.
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Zachary Lewis, of A Solo Keyboard writes:

Dying stars pulse at an audible frequency equal to F above middle C before becoming supernovae.

Until I reached the last word I thought he was talking about people … you know … like movie stars or famous musicians and whatnot. Sigh.

I’m not sure where my mind is these days, but it’s clearly not working very well. Maybe it’s because I’m still pondering Mr. Teachout’s prediction and desire that we symphony folk be done with. Or at least our careers in live performance of old works be done with (and he says he needs no new recording of works that have been recorded before, so that’s out too), and I’m not sure what else I’d do with the oboe. (From what he wrote I guess I should play at dinner parties and get a “real job”? But perhaps I’m misreading him.) I dunno. Somehow what he wrote hit me harder than I like. I guess it caught me by surprise. In a more recent blog post he writes:

Having said all this, let me close by speaking directly to those readers who get all steamed up whenever I write something with which they disagree: I’m genuinely sorry that my work upsets you. I don’t set out merely to make anyone angry or stir up a fuss. I always mean exactly what I say. Naturally, you’re entitled to your opinion?but so am I. So the next time you write, please do me the favor of giving me the benefit of the doubt. Merely because you happen to disagree with me doesn’t necessarily mean I’m stupid, or even ignorant. Who knows? I might even be right.

I wasn’t angry when I read his post. I wasn’t steamed up. I was just sad and scared. That happens sometimes. It’s a byproduct of this career of mine.

I need a vacation. And just in time I’m going down to visit our daughter, Kelsey, in the not so exciting city of Irvine. The city’s not exactly a vacation spot, but visiting Kelsey, and her boyfriend Mel, will make it worth the drive and time and heck with the city itself! Any place can be HappyVacationLand™ if one is with the right people.
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I like to read. And I like Sibelius. I’m just not sure I want to read The Seven Symphonies. I’m easily scared (yeah, I’m wimpy that way), and this is a murder mystery in which the killer associates each murder to one of Sibelius’s seven symphonies. And he targets musicians.

Yikes.

Of course we double reed players carry very sharp knives, but still ….

Read about it first here.
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