Ah Yes …

27. March 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Links, Ramble

You know how advertisers like to use music as a simile or metaphor, right? Well, ACB had just blogged about her comfie shoes, so I visited the BeautiFeel® site. What do I find but this (complete with their odd line breaks):

BeautiFeel®
is Harmony
like an orchestra that
blends many instruments to
create a singular piece of
music, BeautiFeel® footwear
consist of many elements
(instruments) that
harmoniously master both
style and function.

(And I really want “consists” instead of “consist”, but what do I know? I don’t like putting punctuation inside my quotes either, so maybe I’m wrong on the consist thing as well.)

Bury that Bass

27. March 2008 · 5 comments · Categories: Links, You Gotta Be Kidding

Could it be true? Was there a Hungarian custom of burying a bass?

“Every year for the past 100 years, Hungarians in the city of Roma would bury a double bass to signal the end of the wedding season and also would confess their sins that were committed against the instrument. Then they followed up with an all night party. A strange custom to be sure, but a custom nonetheless. Well 2008 saw that custom nixed from Hungary’s event calender. The bureaucrats in Hungary basically forgot to put it on the list of festivals that has been held every year on the first Thursday of every February.”

Oh Jason … what think ye? (Maybe you just know some bass players you’d rather bury?)

Read here.

I Wonder …

27. March 2008 · 2 comments · Categories: Links, Other People's Words, Ramble

I just ran across this quote:

Battle’s handful of defenders agree she can be difficult but argue that her artistry makes her worth the trouble, and obliquely criticize the Met for not defusing the situation diplomatically. “Many great artists are difficult in their search for perfection in their craft,” says Peter Gelb, president of Sony Classical Film and Video and Wilford’s former deputy at Columbia Artists. Gelb has made nine TV programs with Battle. “The role of the Met is to support great talents. Nothing a producer does comes close to the challenge and difficulty great artists face when they go onstage.”

So now that Mr. Gelb is with the Met shouldn’t he be bringing Battle back? To show how he believes what he said? Hmmm.

I read the quote here, dated February 21, 1994.

San Jose Symphony did work with Ms. Battle once. My lips are sealed, my fingers still. I know better that to blog publicly about certain things. At least for now. ;-)

Iraq National Symphony Orchestra

27. March 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Links

“I vary my route to work — which I think may be more dangerous. In ’06 I had to leave town and disappear for six months for my safety, but we still kept going — I organized two concerts from afar. . . . At one point, I had to tactfully get a formal religious proclamation from a top cleric that music was not profane. That took care of one group only. Still, these days, it’s certainly better than it was — I’m trying to up the concerts to twice a month, but that includes a lot of chamber performances which I initiated some months ago,” he says.

Read it all.

Hmmm. Spelling!

26. March 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Links

This is what I’m playing this week, but someone needs to learn how to spell Maestro Mechetti’s name!

Black Cab Sessions

26. March 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Fun, Links, Videos, Watch

Because who needs a lot of room to make music? And who says you have to stay in one place? You can be transported in more ways than one!

I found this via The Omniscient Mussel. And yes, the Jonathan Byers video is very cool.

“It’s the weirdest thing I’ve ever done. And normally stages don’t move.”

The Black Cab Sessions. (With no seat belts.)

Yet Again

26. March 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Ramble

There are weeks when I’m feel entirely blessed in this job I have. Getting to sit in the hall to listen to Schicksalslied last night, this time with the chorus, and then getting to sit on stage for the Beethoven, surrounded by fine musicians, makes this one of those weeks. I realize the word “glorious” can become a word that, after a while, becomes sort of powerless or meaningless or something. But, truly, the music is glorious. I am loving enjoying it and basking in it. And I have the best seat in the house during the Beethoven!

Not having anything to get nervous about helps, too.

Today is a double service day: two rehearsals with a dinner in between. (No, we aren’t provided with dinner, but most everyone eats somewhere nearby since our break is 1 1/2 hours long. Dan frequently meets me for dinner so we get to squeeze a date in!) We’ll finally get to the rest of the Beethoven this afternoon, having only worked on the first and fourth movements so far, and then the dress rehearsal is tonight. We have four concerts for this set, which is quite rare. Turns out, though, that we’ll have the same thing for the Gershwin set (you have to scroll down to the second concert) that occurs in May. Work. It’s a good thing.

MQOD

26. March 2008 · 1 comment · Categories: Quotes

Last week I had my first real opera experience. (I have seen Copland’s The Tender Land and the 2007 opera Wakonda’s Dream but they were short and American.)

-Ryan (found here

Happy Birthday

25. March 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Birthdays!, Links, Listen, Videos, Watch

to Bela Bartok. Thanks for this, among other works.

And happy birthday, too, to Toscanini. My high school band director adored you. Maybe because of your fiery reputation. But also, I’m sure, because you conducted so much of what he loved. (We played a ton of opera transcriptions.) Here’s La Forza del Destino for your enjoyment.

Now what would have been fun would have been to find Toscanini conducting Bartok. Hmm. I read one little blurb that said Toscanini couldn’t stomach Bartok. Strong words.

Why Blog?

25. March 2008 · 2 comments · Categories: Links, Ramble

Robert Hugill was criticized harshly for blogging. Wow. If I’d received that I would have been rather shaken, since I’m so darn wimpy and take harsh words badly. But he simply posted the hostile email for us and then responded.

But what I want to know is why the heck is that angry person bothering to read a blog if he thinks blogs are horrible? I don’t like tomatoes so I don’t eat them. I don’t care for country western music so I don’t listen to it. I don’t like horror movies so I don’t watch them.

What is it about the people who hate something immensely yet indulge in it, mock it, or otherwise treat it with hostility? Maybe that’s what Robert should have asked? :-)

(And now I suppose I’ll get a harsh email myself. I’m bracing for it! I’ll be brave. I’ll be strong. I’ll go have some chocolate.)

Ah, the Wealthy

25. March 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Links

… and their very expensive toys.

What can one say? I’m glad oboes aren’t that costly and don’t get hidden away. (It’s weird not to really read any quote by Zuckerman about the violin. The owner quotes him but, to me anyway, that doesn’t quite count.)

Pondering

25. March 2008 · 2 comments · Categories: Links

Must music have a point? And what does it mean to have a point, anyway? I’m really just not sure … I’m not trying to be annoying (even though I am usually annoying).

Vaughan Williams’ composition [The Lark Ascending] is Classic FM listeners’ favourite piece of classical music. Like the station, it’s blameless but pointless

Read here.

Thoughts?

Here’s another article on the people’s choice. (McCartney? Really? Guess I’ll have to listen to that piece sometime; I hadn’t heard much good about it, but I shouldn’t judge it without hearing it … um … or should I?)

Update
It appears that Maestro Beecham didn’t care much for Vaughan Williams. Read about it here.

Last Night

25. March 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Ramble

We had our first rehearsal for the Symphony Silicon Valley Brahms/Beethoven set. I arrived slightly after the orchestra began rehearsing Schicksalslied. What wonderful music! Then we worked on the fourth movement of the Beethoven.

Sometimes it’s just an honor to be a musician. Playing the Beethoven certainly made me feel that way.

What a great program!

MQOD

25. March 2008 · Comments Off · Categories: Quotes

Everything will pass, and the world will perish but the Ninth Symphony will remain.

-Michael Bakunin, quoted in Edmund Wilson, To the Finland Station (1940)

Dear Law & Order,

24. March 2008 · 2 comments · Categories: Links, Ramble

Next time you do an episode that is using classical musicians, please check with actual musicians to see how things really work, okay? We orchestra musicians don’t call our individual parts “scores” … just parts. Or music. And that one rehearsal we were subjected to … well … yeah, some conductors scream like that, but not all that often any more. The whole thing just made me laugh.

Oh. So never mind. Thanks for the entertainment! :-)

(Dissonance was the episode I was watching.)

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