a look back, pt. 1 May 23, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : music, the orchestra world, add a commentI thought I’d start off next Monday by taking a retrospective at the 2007-2008 OSO season, both on stage and off. But for now, a list of the works we performed this season on the Classical Subscription and Inside the Score series. I’m always somewhat dumbfounded when I look through a list like this after the season ends. My first thought is, we did all that??!! (more…)
local musician with ties to china earthquake May 23, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : News, add a commentDavid Stabler has a gripping blog entry about trumpeter Jay Chen, whose brother and his family live in the city of Chengdu, about 50 miles from the epicenter of the recent magnitude 7.8 earthquake. I cannot imagine the hell of having to wait for three days to know if my brother and his family were still alive, as Jay did.
Jay has been a frequent substitute/extra with the OSO over the past few years, and I know that all of us with the orchestra and in the musical community at large wish him and his family well.
He’s also producing a benefit concert for the victims of the earthquake, to be held on Sunday, June 1 at 4:00 p.m. at First United Methodist Church (1838 SW Jefferson Street).
All proceeds go to the Red Cross fund for victims of the earthquake.
Ride of Silence May 23, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : cycling, portland, the orchestra world, add a comment
Ride of Silence - Portland-4.jpg | Originally uploaded by BikePortland.org
click photo to enlarge
Thursday evening a Ride of Silence was held in Portland to remember fallen cyclists from the past year. A worthy endeavor in which I wish I’d been able to take part.
For more coverage and info see bikeportland.org.
snobbery for dummies May 23, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : appreciation/criticism, music, the orchestra world, 1 comment so farColumnist Joel Stein of the Los Angeles Times has written a great column on how to become an annoying, insufferable, classical music snob. It’s quite a funny read, and oh so true. My favorite bit is his concert experience with Mahler’s Sixth Symphony:
I downloaded Leonard Bernstein’s version of Mahler’s Sixth and read the Wikipedia entry about the symphony. This turned out to be really smart because I found out the symphony not only requires a triangle, a glockenspiel and, awesomely, cowbells, but, according to Mahler, a hammer that was to be pounded “brief and mighty, but dull in resonance and with a nonmetallic character (like the fall of an ax).” Somewhere, a child-prodigy percussionist is being yelled at for not pounding a wooden hammer dully enough.
That night, I did a lot of staring at the hammer guy, who, to my delight, was also the triangle and cowbell guy. And his hammer was this gigantic, Wile E. Coyote-sized mallet that he slammed maybe five times onto this enormous wood chopping block on wheels. I couldn’t decide if I was more delighted by the notion of Eschenbach, who conducts this symphony all over the world, trying to persuade airport security to let him board with his carry-on giant hammer, or the idea that the Philharmonic keeps a giant hammer and table in storage just for Mahler’s Sixth. Or that, for the rest of my life, I can talk about the sublime dullness of the hammer, which gets lost on recordings, as soon as Mahler’s Sixth comes up in conversation. Which it will. Because I will bring it up.
Read the entire column here.
Via ArtsJournal.com.
a far cry May 23, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : music, the orchestra world, 2comments
a far cry, a conductorless string orchestra from Boston, will be making a Portland stop on their West Coast tour tonight, May 23 at the First Unitarian Church downtown at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $10 and $20. You can order tickets online at Brown Paper Tickets.
My friend LC recommended this group to me, as she knows several of its members, and says that it should be a great show. Sounds interesting, and I plan to be there.
You can view a video of the group in action here, and you can read an article about the group here, and view a slide show here.
On a side note, this reminds me of the excellent group Metamorphosen Chamber Orchestra, also based in Boston, I believe, and I wonder if they still are concertizing as well, and if the two groups share any members. UPDATE: I was not able to find a working website for Metamorphosen, so I suspect they may have disbanded. UPDATE: SMB wrote to say that Metamorphosen suspended operations around 2004.
If anyone knows it they’re still playing concerts, leave a comment as to their status.
