oboeinsight

We finished up with the Kiddie Concerts today, part of the ArtSPARK program. What a joy it is to see and hear these kids. It’s well worth the early morning start time. Really. You can see some photos if you go to the Mercury News page here.

Our program was entitled “It’s About Time” and we played music in 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 5/4, 6/8 and 7/4. The final work, Dave Brubeck’s “Unsquare Dance” has us and the kids doing a part of stomping and clapping or snapping that goes like this: stomp-clap-stomp-clap-stomp-clap-clap. (Or, when snapping, we do that in place of the clapping.) I went outside between the two shows one day and the kids who had just attended the first show were filing by to go off to the San Jose Taiko performance at the CPA. Two girls were doing the pattern “stomp-clap-stomp-clap-stomp-clap-clap” over and over as they walked. It was so much fun to see that!

Our conductor, Peter Jaffe, knows how to handle these concerts in just the right way … enough humor (for both the kids and us), enough enthusiasm, and loads of fun. I’m already looking forward to next year!

And in case you were wondering — YES I walked. I walked to the performances Tuesday through Friday, and walked home Tuesday through Thursday. I couldn’t walk home today since I needed to lug everything back home. Thankfully a friend drove me back home so I could still walk to work. I wish I could walk to work all the time. It really was fantastic to be able to do that!

I wasn’t sure I could post photos of the kids here where you can clearly see their faces. Several people have implied that might be an issue. So for now those will stay unseen. (If I hear otherwise I’ll put a few up.) This is why you are seeing a few of my “photo experiments” from the past few days.

It’s been announced in an email (which I’ve cut & pasted below), and is up at the website Here you go!

A Season of Stars

Today Symphony Silicon Valley announced plans for our 2012-2013 Classics Season. The season, running from September 2012 through June 2013, features a range of prestigious concert artists joining our orchestra for a sampling of the world’s best music. Distinguished pianist Peter Serkin returns to San Jose after a twenty-year absence to perform Brahms with close friend Maestro George Cleve: Legendary violinist Andrés Cárdenes brings us a lush concerto born somewhere between old Vienna and 1930′s Hollywood. International touring superstar Karen Gomyo, who’s playing reviewers call ‘sumptuous,’ “dazzling,’ and ‘just plain gorgeous,’ joins us for the solo violin in Lalo’s passionate Symphony Espagnole. Broadway diva Lisa Vroman, who dazzled our audiences in Brahms and Broadway concerts, returns to bring Kurt Weill’s theater music irresistibly to life. Classical guitar king Jason Vieaux will work his Flamenco magic on Rodrigo’s haunting Concerto de Aranjuez. Check out each of next season’s seven concerts, below, for more information!

Beethoven’s 5th
Saturday 8:00 pm September 29, 2012
Sunday 2:30 pm September 30, 2012
The most famous four notes in classical music launch our 2012-13 season: Beethoven’s mighty 5th, the keystone of an all-orchestra night. A lively Rossini overture introduces the concert, followed by Berlioz’s favorite of all his works. Romeo and Juliette was colored by the composer’s own love story; and audiences share his affection for its ‘Love Scene,’ from its atmospheric opening to its ecstatic conclusion. In the Rhapsody that follows, Liszt conjures up a carnival in 1840 Budapest, filled with Hungarian folk tunes and musical fireworks.
Conductor: Paul Polivnick
Gioachino Rossini: Torvaldo & Dorliska Overture
Hector Berlioz: ‘Love Scene’ from Romeo & Juliette
Franz Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 9 Carnival in Pest
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor

Symphonie Espagnole
Saturday 8:00 pm October 20, 2012
Sunday 2:30 pm October 21, 2012
Maestro John Nelson is noted worldwide for his mastery of large-scale Romantic music, and this concert is made to order. Lalo’s passionate Symphonie Espagnole is more violin concerto than symphony. Written for the supreme Spanish virtuoso Pablo de Sarasate, it tests the most skilled of violinists, and we have invited the young international sensation, Karen Gomyo, to perform this work for us. The program closes with the first of Dvorak’s great symphonies, packed with color and melody.
Conductor: John Nelson
Soloist: Karen Gomyo, violin
Franz von Suppe: Dichter und Bauer Overture
Edouard Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole
Antonin Dvorak: Symphony No. 6 in D major

Serkin, Brahms & Tchaikovsky
Saturday 8:00 pm December 1, 2012
Sunday 2:30 pm December 2, 2012
Brahms and Tchaikovsky together should be enough for any concert. But to cap this one off, we have engaged master pianist Peter Serkin to perform the D-minor Concerto with his frequent collaborator, Maestro George Cleve. Our December program marks Serkin’s first San Jose appearance in over two decades. Brahms’s concerto is paired with the deeply dramatic symphony that Tchaikovsky himself called “the best thing I ever composed or ever shall compose.”
Conductor: George Cleve
Soloist: Peter Serkin, piano
Johannes Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor
Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 Pathétique

Kurt Weill: Berlin / Paris / New York
Saturday 8:00 pm January 12, 2013
Sunday 2:30 pm January 13, 2013
Great numbers of artists left Europe for America in the 1930s and 40s, and the move transformed both them and their new home. Kurt Weill was one of these, and his music mirrored his journey. In this concert / cabaret, we hear first 1920′s Berlin (Three Penny Opera, with its immortal ‘Mack the Knife’); then Paris (Seven Deadly Sins, part opera, part theater); and finally New York, where Weill helped shape the music of Broadway. Vroman, ‘a musical and theatrical marvel,’ (S.F. Chronicle) joins the orchestra in Weill’s Seven Deadly Sins and in unforgettable Broadway melodies from ‘My Ship’ to ‘Lost in the Stars.’
Conductor: James Holmes
Soloist: Lisa Vroman, soprano
Kurt Weill: Three Penny Opera Suite
Kurt Weill: Seven Deadly Sins
Kurt Weill: Broadway Medley

Verdi’s Requiem
Saturday 8:00 pm March 23, 2013
Sunday 2:30 pm March 24, 2013
To celebrate Verdi’s 200th anniversary, the orchestra and chorale perform his dramatic Requiem in the resonant and resplendent California Theatre. Written for the concert hall rather than the cathedral, the Requiem moves from the awe and majesty of Judgment Day to the tenderness of a prayer for peace. With opera credits that range from Milan to the Met, Maestro Bisanti returns to conduct this moving work by the great Italian master of vocal magic.
Conductor: Giampaolo Bisanti
Soloists: Symphony Silicon Valley Chorale, Elena Sharkova, Director
Daniela Innamorati
Giuseppe Verdi: Requiem

An American In Paris
Saturday 8:00 pm May 11, 2013
Sunday 2:30 pm May 12, 2013
Our American sampler program offers us two city portraits: George Gershwin’s high-spirited visit to busy Paris streets and crowded cafes, and Bernstein’s vision of New York’s excitement, brutality, and hope. They are prefaced by Cárdenes, Cuban-born Tchaikovsky Violin Competition winner, performing Korngold’s concerto. A musical prodigy, Korngold fled pre-war Vienna to the U.S, where he wrote movie scores (The Adventures of Robin Hood, The Sea Hawk) that revolutionized film music. After Hitler’s defeat, he returned to classical composition and wrote this concerto for Jascha Heifitz in 1945. Just as his great film scores are tone poems at heart, themes from his films permeate this richly romantic work.
Conductor: Paul Polivnick
Soloist: Andrés Cárdenes, violin
John Adams: The Chairman Dances
Erich Korngold: Violin Concerto in D major
Leonard Bernstein: On the Waterfront Suite
George Gershwin: An American in Paris

A Hero’s Life
Saturday 8:00 pm June 1, 2013
Sunday 2:30 pm June 2, 2013
Following Debussy’s sprightly dance, Jason Vieaux, hailed as the modern master of his instrument, performs the most popular guitar concerto in the classical repertory. Rodrigo’s dream of Spanish gardens is followed by Ein Heldenleben, or A Hero’s Life, one of Strauss’s last and greatest tone poems. Strauss employs all the resources of a large-scale orchestra to tell the story that he summarized as “a hero fighting his enemies.” A true orchestral showpiece, it concludes our 11th season on a note of triumphant opulence.
Conductor: Gregory Vajda
Soloist: Jason Vieaux, guitar
Claude Debussy: Danse (Tarantelle Styrienne)
Joaquin Rodrigo: Concierto de Aranjuez
Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben

… of course giving this blog entry that title now has planted an ear worm in this old noggin’. Anyone else have that happen? Maybe it’s just me, since it’s not a tune that’s heard any more. Hmm. Maybe I should share a YouTube video of it just to help plant a worm in your ear?!

When one works in a symphony, it really does feel like a family. Very much so. There is the good and the bad, of course — we sometimes can drive each other nuts! But when you make music together you feel a connection you might not have in other sorts of jobs.

And then there are the literal families on stage. At one point Dan worked for San Jose Symphony (RIP) as stage manager, and was sometimes hired to play trombone as well, so I know how it is to have a spouse there on stage with me. (When I was librarian and he was stage manager it was rather frustrating at times; we both had to explain to people that they had to go to the appropriate spouse with problems regarding the music or the stage issues rather than telling the other one.) I’m guessing audience members aren’t aware of some of the couples, as most of the women didn’t change their names when they married. (I did — I was young and very traditional when I married. I did reinsert the “Emerson” a few years later, though. Now I wish I’d legally done “Patricia Emerson Mitchell”, but I’m too darn lazy to go through the legal process of changing it.) Let’s see … I’m thinking we currently have four married couples who are members of the orchestra. I might be miscounting — I’m sure a reader or two could correct that if I’m wrong!

This week in Symphony Silicon Valley our principal violist, who is soloing in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, and guest conductor Mitchell Sardou Klein, are doing the “family affair” thing, and are the focus of attention in this Mercury New article.

It begins:

When violist Patricia Whaley and guest conductor Mitchell Sardou Klein walk onstage this weekend at the California Theatre, the sweetness of the moment won’t be evident to everyone in the crowded concert hall: “From the audience’s perspective, some might know we’re a couple, and some might not,” says Klein. “And our concert manners have to be the usual concert manners — we don’t walk out holding hands!”
Married since 1983, Klein and Whaley have been steady forces on the Bay Area’s classical music scene through the decades. Yet almost never do they get to perform together as they will this weekend, co-starring in two performances with Symphony Silicon Valley.

It’s great fun to be doing the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with Patti (and Robin Mayforth on violin). It’s a wonderful Mozart work, and Patti & Robin sound super. You should come hear it!

Ticketmaster link.

Okay … listen to this at your own risk! It’s certainly not Mozart but, believe me, it can worm it’s way into your ear and drive you nuts! (I’m guessing my walk today is going to be “blessed” by this one.)

You know how you have “if only I had …” things?

No?

Well, I sure do!

My “if only” for today is: If only I had learned to double tongue when my brain was able to learn things like that.

Okay, maybe I can still learn, but so far it’s not clicking in, and I have to warn those of you who, like me, were blessed with a fast tongue that, along with all the other ways in which our bodies slow down as we age, our tongues slow down too!. Pardon me for yelling there, but I’m one frustrated oboist at the moment. And dear Zoltán Kodály was sure a mean old guy to give us those crazy fast passages. Really now.

Listen to 2:07 in to this (below) … the oboes are supposed to tongue that. I’m so thankful that at least one flute is playing there as well. Whew! AND it’s only 2 seconds of fear. Still, I want to play the darn thing. So the metronome and I are incredibly well acquainted, as you might imagine!

For something different, get a load of this group … playing by memory, no less. (But no oboes!)

Yesterday I went to Cinearts at Santana Row to see and hear the LA Phil play Mendelssohn, thanks to Fathom Events, who contacted me and offered me a media pass. Or at least that’s what the email said. I arrived at the theater and the house manager said she knew nothing about a media pass for anyone. This happened to me the last time I went to a Fathom Events broadcast. Hmmm. What’s up with that? Fortunately the house manager let me in anyway, for which I’m quite grateful.

Prior to the start of the event we heard about the value of orchestras in cities, and the short clip encouraged everyone to “support your local orchestra.” That same message was relayed during intermission as well. I approve! We also heard an orchestra warming up, but I’m not sure that was live, as they were playing excerpts from other works, including Beethoven 7th. It was fun to hear the oboes practicing some things together in any case.

When things started up we heard first from Maestro Dudamel. He is one charismatic man! He’s also quite witty. Everyone in the theater (the number was quite small, however) was cracking up at times. We were shown clips from a rehearsal, which was great fun to see and hear … sometimes I’m more interested in those than the actual concert (bad me?).

On the all Mendelssohn program was The Hebrides Overture, Violin Concert in E minor with Janine Jansen, and Symphony No. 3 in A minor “Scottish”.

I don’t do reviews, as you all know, but there are things I noted in this concert.

• The way the trumpets are sitting, the back legs of their chair are short and the front long, due to the risers. I’ve never seen that before. No big deal … just one of my wacky observations!
• When we make a small little bloop we know not to shake our heads or react in a way a live audience can see. But with the big screen, we can even see a musician make a slight face when he or she makes a mistake. In this case it was merely a little squint, but yes, I saw it, and no, I’m not going to tell you who it was that did that.
• The women sure wear a lot of sparkly clothes. At one point in San Jose Symphony we weren’t allowed to. I didn’t find it a distraction at all with the LA Phil.
• Gee, do those folks get professional make up before the concert? They all looked blemish free. Very different than I would look, that’s for sure. (Sigh.)
• You can see when someone fingers are shaking even slightly. Nerves hit everyone, yes?
• The trumpets … were those rotary trumpets? (Yeah, I am an idiot when it comes to brass instruments!)
• During intermission I saw a woman pulling her top away from her to let some air in and commenting to the person next to her. I’m pretty sure she was saying it was very hot. I wonder if it’s warmer when they are doing a live broadcast.
• I love the principal bassoonist‘s glasses. (Yes, I look at those things, being a glasses wearer.) The temples are black and white checkerboard. Very fun.
• I loved that the musicians and Maestro Dudamel turned around to acknowledge the people in the “orchestra view” section behind them at the end of the concert.
• Twice the screen froze and the theater audience reacted with a bit of a gasp. The first was during the violin concerto and the second toward the end of the symphony. Yikes!

I loved Dudamel’s comment to Janine Jansen before they went out, “Maybe we try something crazy today. I play and you conduct!”

Oh … and for you oboists, Marion Arthur Kuszyk played principal on the first half while Ariana Ghez played principal for the Symphony, and Anne Marie Gabriele played second for the entire concert (if I was seeing correctly).

Is going to a movie theater the same as going to a live concert? Not at all. I enjoy it, but it’s not the same. You are “told” what to see. You are even told what to hear, really, both by the camera and by the way it is miked (mic’d?). I used to say the camera should just be in the audience and remain stagnant, but I no longer feel that way; a broadcast in the movie theater is just a different beast than a live concert.

And no, I didn’t take any photos, text or tweet during the performance. I did pull the camera out for bows, though!

… so the bass oboe behaved, and I think I played fine. I suspect that I could learn to love the beast, but after tomorrow I send it back to Forrests and odds are I’ll never play it again. This is only the second time it’s been used in anything I’ve been involved in (last time someone else played it) since I began with San Jose Symphony back in 1975. Seems unlikely that it’ll pop back up before I retire, yes?

The encore tonight made me cry it was so beautiful. I don’t play in that work, so I sit on stage and enjoy. I do believe I have the best seat in the house!

And now off to bed with me. I’m entirely beat. I think I need a week of recovery time, really, but there’s no possibility of that until sometime later. Maybe the week after Christmas, actually. This musician’s life … it’s feast or famine when it comes to work. So I’m attempting to enjoy this feast!