What Allan is playing

[toledobass]

Bogey,

Many people left comments but I wasn't one of them.  It did seem like he gave them all thought and some he incorporated and some he just said thanks for the comment but he didn't agree.  Having that dialogue is important to him.

As for any recordings.  I think all of the concerts I post about get recorded for in house archives as well as for radio play.  I usually only end up getting the recordings from Toledo, though.  CityMusic puts out some concert cd's for purchase (I wouldn't mind hearing these)

CityMusic Recordings


Allan

[bhodges]

As for any recordings.  I think all of the concerts I post about get recorded for in house archives as well as for radio play.  I usually only end up getting the recordings from Toledo, though.  CityMusic puts out some concert cd's for purchase (I wouldn't mind hearing these)

CityMusic Recordings


Allan

Thanks for that link to CityMusic.  As a fan of live recordings, I might investigate some of these, too.

--Bruce

[toledobass]

Very taxing day yesterday but the first concert went well.  James was so jet lagged on Tuesday evening that he sent us home after only an hour of rehearsal.  So dress yesterday not only found us running through the program but also working a lot of aspects of it pretty hard.  Intonation work and tempi work,  two things that take a lot of mental effort.  The concert was in one ov the more reverberant of spaces so we found proper adjustments during sound check.  Lower strings added a sharpness to the front of the note while releasing the back of the note much sooner.  No surprise to see how in the faster tempi this helped keep the rhythmic energy alive, but I was also a little surprised how important it can be in very slow things too. 

This venue is one that has a reception afterwards the concert rather than intermission.  I talked to a few patrons during the dinner afterwards and mostly answered the usual questions: where we come from,  how much rehearsal before the concert, do we get the music before hand, do we actually get paid for this or the other variation of that...what do you do for your day job? etc.  The overall comments regarding the Schoenberg were positive.  The audience response during the concert reflected this.  Many were surprised that they enjoyed it so thoroughly and were taken by the story and performance.  One couple said that they thought it was a shame that a lot of people probably stayed away due to the fact that the name alone was on the program. 

One man came up to a few of us and apologized for clapping between movements of the Mozart,  stating that he really enjoyed the concert and that the hardcore ethnic (slovinian) members of that parish don't regularly get to see classical music like that.  We told him that it was not a problem at all as long as he enjoyed the concert.  He smiled walked away and came back a few moments later and said he'd never heard any of that music before except the first part of the Mozart.  He told us upon hearing the first two measures he turned to his nephew and chuckled as he realized they hear that music everyday as his one of his nephew's cell ring tones.


Allan

[karlhenning]

. . . The overall comments regarding the Schoenberg were positive.  The audience response during the concert reflected this.  Many were surprised that they enjoyed it so thoroughly and were taken by the story and performance.  One couple said that they thought it was a shame that a lot of people probably stayed away due to the fact that the name alone was on the program.

First:  congratulations, Allan!

Second:  yes, merely speaking the name Schoenberg still strikes terror deep in the heartland 

[M forever]

James was so jet lagged on Tuesday evening that he sent us home after only an hour of rehearsal.

Who is that unprofessional idiot?

[arkiv]

Who is that unprofessional idiot?

Are you a retard?

[M forever]

No, but I am a former professional musician who never went home early even when I was dead tired or seriously sick. Professional musicians don't just go home early because they are jetlagged. Especially not when dozens of other musicians have come to rehearse with him. That guy should never be re-invited.

[toledobass]

We're half way through the series of concerts and everything is going well.  It's nice to have the change of venue as it makes us play differently in each one according to the acoustic.  Everything comes into consideration again:  Tempi,  note lengths, attacks, vibrato.  It keeps me from going on auto pilot and that's a really good thing for a program being performed 6 times.

Still getting more of the same response about Verklarte Nacht.  Positive comments about the piece as well as the performance.  I'm really enjoying the Schreker too,  and the Mozart is a perfect palate cleanser after the richness of rest of the program.



Allan

[toledobass]

Here's a few things.  First a Rosenberg review and then a few pics of tonight's performance space.

Shrine Church of St Stanislaus:


Some of the audience at intermission:


The shrine behind us:


Allan

[Bogey]

Very beautiful setting Allan.

[toledobass]

This past month or so has been making me, once again, realize how vital and alive this art can be.  Talking to concert goers over this past week has been interesting and informative and stirs up lots of thoughts about what this music means to people.  Some of the people I talk to have attended their first classical music concert through CityMusic.  The look on their faces and lack of being able to express what has just happened to them is really something that stays with me.  There are some who end up returning to another concert later in the week to experience the whole thing again, with a different companion who, too, has never been. 

A friend of mine from Pittsburgh came to the Mahler concert at Severence.  Although he'd been to ballet and opera performances,  he'd never been to a symphony performance.  Afterwards, over dinner, as we talked about the performance he was speechless for a while but eventually got his thoughts together. Completely overwhelmed by the power of a sound he'd never really experienced before, he couldn't believe that classical music could be like that.  He now wants me to suggest a bunch of classical CD's and pieces that he'd enjoy.

Lastly here is something from Toledo.  When I first saw the chairs set up where they were,  I thought to myself,  OK what rocket surgeon put the donors in front of the brass.  Little did I know what was really going on.  It's a fun little story.

While I work at refining my craft for what amounts to peanuts,  I am nourished by what people take away from their experiences.  It makes me realize all the hard work and dealing with the difficulties of never living up to my ever increasing standards of playing worth something.   My big hope through all of this is that, somehow, what they get through these first experiences stays with them and fuels their own motivation to return to the hall.     

Allan         
           

[bhodges]

This past month or so has been making me, once again, realize how vital and alive this art can be.  Talking to concert goers over this past week has been interesting and informative and stirs up lots of thoughts about what this music means to people.  Some of the people I talk to have attended their first classical music concert through CityMusic.  The look on their faces and lack of being able to express what has just happened to them is really something that stays with me.  There are some who end up returning to another concert later in the week to experience the whole thing again, with a different companion who, too, has never been. 

A friend of mine from Pittsburgh came to the Mahler concert at Severence.  Although he'd been to ballet and opera performances,  he'd never been to a symphony performance.  Afterwards, over dinner, as we talked about the performance he was speechless for a while but eventually got his thoughts together. Completely overwhelmed by the power of a sound he'd never really experienced before, he couldn't believe that classical music could be like that.  He now wants me to suggest a bunch of classical CD's and pieces that he'd enjoy.

Lastly here is something from Toledo.  When I first saw the chairs set up where they were,  I thought to myself,  OK what rocket surgeon put the donors in front of the brass.  Little did I know what was really going on.  It's a fun little story.

While I work at refining my craft for what amounts to peanuts,  I am nourished by what people take away from their experiences.  It makes me realize all the hard work and dealing with the difficulties of never living up to my ever increasing standards of playing worth something.   My big hope through all of this is that, somehow, what they get through these first experiences stays with them and fuels their own motivation to return to the hall.     

Allan         
           

Great post, Allan, and among other things, a very good reminder of why we all like this music so much (and what it means for someone new to be turned on to it). 

Great story from the Toledo Free Press, too.  I do think that getting people into the concert hall is the trick: live music is very persuasive.  Just the other night, I met a woman who was experiencing her very first classical concert: David Robertson and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra in Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie.  She was waxing pretty ecstatic, so I think the "trial run" was a success.

--Bruce

[karlhenning]

Just Experience It

[toledobass]

Howdy Folks,

After leaving California on Friday night, somehow I finally made it home to Cleveland yesterday evening.  It's too bad my luggage didn't.  I'm basically gonna be hurting this week as I gotta get this weekends program under my fingers quickly:

Barber                       The School for Scandal: Overture   

Rouse                        Concerto for Trombone and Orchestra   
                                        Movement I
                                        Movement II
                                        Movement III

Intermission

Strauss                      Also sprach Zarathustra   


I've got the Strauss going, but I only laid eyes on the Rouse for the first time last night and it has a lot of challenges. A week and a half off and my fingers feel like sausages.

Our Principal trombone Garth Simmons is playing the concerto and we have a guest conductor, Giordano Bellincampi.  He currently is the General Music Director of the Royal Danish National Opera.  He came to Toledo for his first US concerts 2 years ago and it was a great pleasure to have him lead the orchestra.  Berlioz Te Deum was the major piece on that program and I remember really enjoying his musicianship.  I'm sure we'll have another great week with him.

I also heard a rumor that Schoenberg's Incidental Music to a Motion Picture Scene will be added but I'm not sure what's going on with that as I haven't seen music for it or heard anything else about it. I'd love to play,  It'd be a nice cap to all the Schoenberg in my life recently..(hearing Pelleas at the Cleveland O and playing Verklarte with CityMusic.)

And this for Bogey,  I know it's over and you prolly couldn't make it anyway, but thought you'd enjoy seeing the program of the Cleveland group Red. 

Allan

[Bogey]

And this for Bogey,  I know it's over and you prolly couldn't make it anyway, but thought you'd enjoy seeing the program of the Cleveland group Red. 

Allan

(Goes Doby the House Elf on self) *bangs head on the table* *wife finds tucked in a fetal position in a dark corner of the basement mumbling, "No, no, no, no ,no, no,....."

[M forever]

Strauss                      Also sprach Zarathustra   

Man, it's so sad you have to play that with the French bow! Especially those stormy complicated upward runs in "Freuden und Leidenschaften"... Sad, sad...  Do you at least have 5-string basses?

[karlhenning]

5-string banjos?

[toledobass]

Man, it's so sad you have to play that with the French bow! Especially those stormy complicated upward runs in "Freuden und Leidenschaften"... Sad, sad...  Do you at least have 5-string basses?

In the shape I'm in right now, it's sad I have to play it at all.  No one has a five string but almost all of us have an extensions or machine of some sort, including one with a low B.


How is Boston treating you?
Allan 

[toledobass]

5-string banjos?

Toledobanjo?

Allan

[karlhenning]

Allan, when are you going to break it to M that your bass has a whammy bar?