eastern exposure May 9, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : bloggers, music, the orchestra world, add a commentI’m here in La Grande, Oregon with the Oregon Symphony, in case you’re wondering. And it’s been a busy first day. Yesterday my wife (a freelance cellist who plays often with the orchestra) and I arrived here at around 9:00 p.m., enjoying the great change of scenery and ecosystems that we continually marvel at when we venture across the Cascade Range along the way.
I got some great sunset shots from the top of the huge hill that I-84 climbs before you descend through the Blue Mountains into La Grande, but no way to post them at this time - I’ll be sure to share photos from the trip with you when I’m back home on Sunday.
This morning at 9:30 and 11:00 we played youth concerts for elementary, middle, and high school students from La Grande and several surrounding communities, including Baker City, Cove, and Union. (more…)
conductors, redux May 7, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : conducting, music, the orchestra world, 2commentsTowards the end of any orchestra’s season, you tend to hear a lot (make that a LOT) of armchair quarterbacking by the rank and file about the leadership of any conductor within rock throwing range. Some even make the entire organization’s woes solely the responsibility of the stick waver. I’m sure that’s gratifying to the most egotistical of conductors (most of whom range pretty high on the ego scale anyway, otherwise they wouldn’t have taken up conducting), but for those who are music directors and are busting their butts doing all manner of fundraising, it would be something that they’d take offense to. (more…)
trial date set for oquist/svendsen case May 5, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : crime, add a commentFor those of you who were friends, colleagues, or acquaintances of Angela Svendsen and Kjersten Oquist, who were killed by a drunk driver driving the wrong way on I-5 on February 12, 2007, you may be interested to know that the trial dates have been set for the defendant, Fivea Sharipoff, who has one prior DUII conviction.
I received this information via Janet George and Kelly Gronli today:
Trial for the accident is set and looks like the date is going to stick. The trial is scheduled for the first week of June. The dates are June 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10. The trial will start each day at 9 AM. The Linn County Courthouse is located at
300 Fourth Ave SW
Albany, Oregon 97321
I don’t know which court room the trial will be in but people will be able to find out if they just look on the sheet at the top of the stairs. This is a small courthouse and the listing will include the defendant’s name, Sharipoff. Parking is on the street and there are many spots a couple of blocks away that you don’t have to pay for. Any support would be greatly appreciated. -this via Kelli Gronli
Note: as many court dates have been in the past have been rescheduled multiple times, every attempt will be made to post any changes here to this current trial schedule as soon as possible.
more brilliance from A-ross May 2, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : appreciation/criticism, chamber music, composition, add a comment
Alex Ross, music writer for the New Yorker, who was Pulitzer shortlisted for his music history page-turner The Rest Is Noise, and blogger at the site of the same name, just wrote a review of the series presented at Carnegie Hall by the Brentano Quartet, which concerned the late works of a variety of composers.
How many classical music critics (or any other journalists for that matter) do you know who can regularly turn out such prose as this in the course of their beat?
Whatever it is that allows artists to maintain their powers of invention as they grow older, composers possess it more richly than most. Musical figures from Monteverdi to Messiaen have had careers that can be plotted as steadily rising curves. In old age, certain composers reach a state of terminal grace, in which even throwaway ideas give off a glow of inevitability, like wisps of cloud illumined at dusk
That’s seriously good stuff. Read the rest here.
as the season turns… May 2, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, add a commentAs of today (May 2, 2008) we have 33 days until the end of the 2007-2008 season of the Oregon Symphony. I can’t believe that it’s almost over! That sentence can be read either with a sense of relief or a tinge of regret - or maybe both at the same time. Truly, the end of season craziness is in the air. (more…)
brilliant criticism April 30, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : appreciation/criticism, music, add a commentThroughout history, the great works of literature (whether well-received or not) have sparked equally great works of literary criticism. Alex Ross’ brilliant history of music in the twentieth century has sparked criticism of the highest order - most lately by the great British tenor Ian Bostridge, writing in the Times Literary Supplement (think the English equivalent of The New York Times Review of Books).
Thanks to E. for the tip.
Here’s a taste:
Alex Ross’s The Rest is Noise tells the story of what happened to Western classical music in the twentieth century. We all know that the invention of recorded sound around 1900 made possible an extraordinary dissemination of the riches of the classical repertoire - largely composed for the rich and powerful - to the mass of ordinary people. On the gramophone, the radio, television and, subliminally and hence more powerfully, through the movies, the classical sound in all its variants (even the supposedly rebarbative confections of the Second Viennese School) has insinuated itself into the culture at large. Never before have so many people listened to, or liked, so-called classical music. Yet this extraordinary triumph has culminated in a malaise, a feeling, widespread in the musical profession and elsewhere, that classical music is in crisis and that things have never been so bad. Classical music feels abandoned, left behind as history has moved on, sulking in its tent as the real cultural action happens somewhere else.
new concert space debuts in KBPS benefit April 30, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : chamber music, fundraising, add a commentThe Museum of Contemporary Craft, at 724 NW Davis (the DeSoto building, on the North Park blocks), will make its debut as one of Portland’s newest concert venues in a benefit for KBPS’ “Permanent Home on Your Dial” campaign to secure its broadcast license in perpetuity.
The concert will feature Portland chamber music fixtures violist Joël Belgique, violinist Inés Voglar, pianist Cary Lewis, and cellist Dorothy Lewis.
They’ll present a very interesting concert of chamber music rarities, including a world premiere by composer and classical radio announcer Robert McBride of a new work for violin and piano. An arrangement of Borodin’s Polovetsian Dances for piano quartet will also be featured, as well as Enoch Arden, a melodrama by Richard Strauss, with KBPS announcer Edmund Stone narrating.
Tickets are $20 and are available in advance at Classical Millennium at 3144 E. Burnside, or at the door the evening of the performance.
To learn more about the Craft museum, take a look at this video:
oso carmina burana - going fast! April 29, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : music, the orchestra world, add a commentIf you’re interested in attending the last OSO classical series concerts of the season - Messiaen’s Ascension and Orff’s Carmina Burana - on May 17-19, you might wish to get your tickets sooner than later (as in NOW).
Sales are going briskly, and there will be no musician comp tickets for these concerts (a relatively rare event lately).
Get your tickets either here online or by calling the OSO box office at (503) 228-1353 or (800) 228-7343.
columbus symphony: cadillac or chevrolet? April 29, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, add a commentA very well-written and impassioned posting by CSO principal clarinetist David H. Thomas is well-worth a read. He makes the case for arts organizations building a strong sense of self and where that ’self’ fits in the greater community - and that sometimes it just means believing the the worth of the organization to make the organization’s presence in the community something that the community will demand, not just enjoy.
A relatively new grassroots website has done a great deal for the Columbus Symphony. Symphony Strong has helped the musicians feel the support of all of Columbus. We need all the help we can get since, tragically, little or no support has come from our local newspaper, the Dispatch. (One has to wonder what they are thinking.)
However, Symphony Strong and others like it, formed to garner support, have struggled to break through deeper issues preventing a real blossoming of solutions. The bigger picture looks like this. The face of Columbus is not one or a few people, but a culture of all of us, our self-perception and how others outside the city see us.
Let’s say that I, David Thomas, see myself as a dashing, statuesque model, while others (unwilling to pop my bubble) see me as a craggy, half century old man. Who is right? I need to look closely at myself and find a positive overlap between those two views. I may not be a young model, but I can certainly enhance my image by spending some money on a good suit and a fine haircut and a fresh attitude. Then I can really like myself without self-deception.
He gets to the crux of the issue when he talks about how the orchestra relates to and benefits the community.
If you make a persuasive case for the benefits of having a world-class orchestra in your community, the support will no doubt come.
Read the entire post here.
orchestral theory of relativity April 27, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : music, the orchestra world, viola, 1 comment so farWhenever we do a major, difficult work, even if it’s core repertoire, I’m surprised by my own individual performance and how it changes night to night. I don’t know why I’m surprised - it seems to follow the same pattern every time - it’s like catching a cold every year: the buildup is always the same, and you never realize you’re coming down with the bug until it’s upon you.
Saturday
Saturday night is nervous night. I’m never sure if the rough patches that I’ve been struggling with will come off, and if I’ll be a good, supportive stand partner to our excellent principal, Joël Belgique. Every sense is on edge, and there is often a bit of pulling of punches, so to speak, and second-guessing. Usually I do ok on the first night - it doesn’t feel great, but usually the job gets done and I can go home without a bag over my head. Generally speaking, the whole orchestra is in the same boat for the opening night.
Sunday
Sundays I always think that it’s going to be much easier, and I can just play, and everything will be gravy. Yeah, right! I’ve gone over the rough spots again, warmed up thoroughly (always a bigger project on Sundays since we haven’t had a morning rehearsal that day) and am feeling good. Then the concert comes, I’m loose and ready to go, the bow goes to the string, and I cannot play my instrument. Literally - anything above a mezzo-forte turns into horrible crunching, I’m mis-reading whole lines of triple-stops, and life just sucks really, really bad. I should learn to bring my paper sack with me on Sunday nights - if I don’t feel like putting it over my head, I can at least fill it with what’s left of my dignity and self-respect and skulk on home. It’s too bad, since it’s often the night that the orchestra sounds its best.
Monday
Monday nights are often the best for me, but often not so for the entire orchestra. People are getting tired, most often we’ve started rehearsing some other program that same morning, and some of the focus is gone. A bit of squirreliness and mannered playing can begin to creep its way in, too. It’s strange, because I find that for me, it’s often my best night since it combines the focus of Saturday night with the looseness of Sunday night.
It’s frustrating on so many levels, because I cannot seemingly practice enough hours to make the focus problem go away (though I could get more sleep and exercise - hm…) and that when I sound my best the orchestra sounds at its worst, and vice versa. At least I’m not a solo wind player, I would last about 10 minutes in that hell hole of Prozac and stomach acid!
