the fabulous philadelphians May 30, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, add a commentUPDATE: Here’s the Seattle Times review by critic Melinda Bargreen. [link may expire after a few days]
Yesterday my wife and I went up to Seattle’s Benaroya Hall to hear the Philadelphia Orchestra perform the last concert of their 2007 US tour. It was a trip that was based upon the important roles that the Philly Orchestra has played in each of our lives. (more…)
…and boy were our arms tired! May 26, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, add a commentLast night we played our last concert in the concert hall until next September. It was a program to thank our many donors who have given of their time and money to help support the symphony. They deserved a hearty thank you from all of us on stage, and I think that our performance gave that to them in spades. The conductor for the evening was Resident Conductor Gregory Vajda.
Conductor Gregory Vajda
The concert opened with Berlioz’s seldom-heard Overture to Beatrice and Benedict. It’s a piece that I’ve never performed before, and not even heard before I downloaded a recording from iTunes the night before our first rehearsal. It’s a delightful piece, full of all the usual Berlioz idiosyncrasies, like off-kilter rhythms, thundering brass, scurrying strings, and soaring melodic lines with quirky rhythmic underpinnings.
Next was our new principal trumpet Jeffrey Work, who played a concerto written expressly for him by friend, fellow trumpeter, and composer James Stephenson. It’s a lovely work, with virtuoso demands on the soloist, which Jeff met with nary a stumble, and gorgeous tone and control evident at all times. It is a piece which places no overt demands on the audience, it sounds great and is easy on the ears, all the while giving new heights of acrobatic daring-do to the trumpet soloist. I polled some colleagues in the orchestra, and they heard echoes of Barber and Walton floating around in the zeitgeist of the piece, which gives you an idea of the harmonic language of the piece.
Last was the venerable war horse, the Second Symphony of Jean Sibelius. We’ve done this piece a lot in the past, including recording it with James DePreist a few years ago. It took a lot of coaxing for Gregory Vajda to get us out of our traditional tempi and copious applications of rallentandi, but it resulted in a less bloated and more lean version of a piece that many of us wouldn’t mind not playing for a while.
If anything stood out about this concert, aside from our general thankfulness that we have so many generous patrons and volunteers, is was how very tired were all were. The concerts of the previous week took a lot out of all of us, and like a horse who has done a long day’s plowing, we could smell the hay and see the barn in the distance, and we were ready to hang up our instruments for the summer!
instrumental decathlon - the trombone May 25, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, 2comments
I was talking with my friend Una from Detroit and we were discussing the OSO’s recent bass trombone auditions to replace our retiring bass trombone player Alan Pierce. The person who was selected (and I can’t name them until they are officially offered employment) had a resume full of impressive wins in various trombone competitions.
This led us to think of what might take place at a bass trombone competition, more specifically, in the decathlon! I have been inspired to make up a decathlon competition for every orchestral instrument. (more…)
gig horror stories May 25, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : Uncategorized, 1 comment so far
Doublebassist Jason Heath has a great blog, and part of what makes it great are his stories from the front lines of freelancing - here is a great story about the demise of his car: (more…)
why be effective today, when… May 23, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : Uncategorized, 4commentsJen has a great list of Seven Habits for Highly Ineffective People - read it now!
old friend in town May 23, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : Uncategorized, 3comments
Over the weekend we had a visit from my old college roommate Tom Joyce, who is the bass trombonist of the Charleston (SC) Symphony. (more…)
an orchestra’s life May 21, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, 2commentsTonight is the last concert of our 2006-2007 classical subscription series (we’ve got two more after this: the Evelyn Nagel donor concert and a runout to George Fox University in Newberg). It’s a fitting culmination to this season in several ways. (more…)
hey eugene! May 17, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : Uncategorized, add a commentThis past Tuesday and Wednesday were spent rehearsing and playing for the CD release party concerts for Pink Martini’s new CD, “Hey Eugene!”
It was fun as usual - it’s good to see the people in the band who I haven’t seen for ages, particularly cellist Pansy Chang and guitarist Dan Faehnle, who used to live in Portland but now make their home in southern Ohio.
The crowd energy was fantastic at both concerts, and hearing the Portland marching band sensation March Fourth was a real treat (and they’re appearing on the OSO pops series next season, don’t miss it!).
rant May 15, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, 3commentsI’m going to get a few pet peeves off my chest - this isn’t a typical blog entry for me, so if you’re looking for pithy prose about arcane aspects of the classical music business, you might want to skip this one. If you’re interested in the petty whining of a professional violist and malcontent, then this is right up your alley. (more…)
orchestral hierarchy May 14, 2007
Posted by Charles Noble in : the orchestra world, 3commentsI’ve was struck today, as we were rehearsing Richard Strauss’ mighty tone poem Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life), at the different breeds of players that there are in the modern symphony orchestra. (more…)
