Viola Camp 2008 July 6, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : summer festivals, viola, add a commentHere is a slide show of images from the rehearsals, concerts, and classes of the 2008 Max Aronoff Viola Institute (along with some non-musical sights from the campus and our friends’ homes). It’s hard to believe that Joyce and I started this thing 18 years ago - almost two decades! Ok, now I feel old… (more…)
sentencing in oquist/svendsen case June 25, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : crime, the orchestra world, viola, violin, add a commentI was forwarded this information from Janet George:
Fivea Sharipoff was sentenced June 24, 2008 in a 3 hour hearing. Family members of Kjersten and Angela read statements, Kelly Gronli read her own statement and one from her parents, and members of Fivea’s family read statements as well. In the end, the judge sentenced Fivea to a total of 16 years and 8 months in prison with no chance of early release. Upon her release, her driver’s license will be suspended for 8 years, and she will also be required to be under post-prison supervision for 3 years.
Here is a link to the Eugene Register-Guard’s article.
tidbits for monday morning June 2, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : appreciation/criticism, bloggers, cello, chamber music, music, soloists & recitals, the orchestra world, viola, violin, 2comments• I just caught Robert Levine’s latest blog entry about the Milwaukee Symphony’s recent concerts with Hilary Hahn. Robert is one of the smartest guys out there, I’m coming to appreciate, and reading this post had me scratching my head and wondering “why couldn’t I have said that?”. I like the way he clearly expresses what’s on his mind, and gets to the crux of the matter with minimal equivocation. Hahn was in Milwaukee playing the Tchaikovsky concerto, and Levine really hits the nail on the head about this piece (which is one of my favorite guilty pleasures, by the way):
But I found myself not really convinced by her version of the piece, which surprised me, as I hadn’t felt that way about the previous times she’d played with us. I spent all week trying to figure out why. The best I could come up with was that she was trying to find more in the piece than was actually there. She was making wonderful and interesting phrases all over the place. But it’s not that kind of piece. In a funny way, her great strengths as a musician – her intelligence and imagination – were not really relevant to the piece, and even got in the way. One doesn’t think of semplice and Tchaikowsky as ever being coupled – but I think that’s what it needs. Perhaps that’s why the last movement consistently worked the best, because all it needs – all there’s time for, really – is technique and a kind of inexorable rhythmic stability, which of course she has in spades.
• In other news, my joint recital with Heather Blackburn went pretty well - I’ll have more thoughts on it when I have a little more distance from it. For now, my alarm clock is off until further notice, however!
• Last Friday evening I went to hear a chamber concert organized by cellist Justin Kagan, and it featured some top local players in works of Shostakovich (his Piano Quintet), Gerald Cohen (a trio for viola, cello and piano), and Schoenberg (his sextet Verklärte Nacht). Every work was played with conviction and assurance, with kudos going out to everyone involved, as to single out one or several would be unfair to them all.
I hope that concerts such as this become more of a regular event in Portland. We have plenty of high-powered out-of-towners that come in and play chamber music on the various series in town, but little opportunity to hear our high-powered locals play the same.
shostakovich and his viola sonata May 29, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : appreciation/criticism, music, viola, 6comments
I’m playing the Shostakovich Viola Sonata Op. 147 on Sunday afternoon, and I’ve been searching various printed volumes and the internet for more information about its genesis and about Shostakovich’s life in general.
I stumbled upon the following, a letter written by the then president of the Soviet Composers’ Union, Boris Tischenko. It was found amongst the pages of the manuscript of the Viola Sonata, and I think it’s quite interesting.
It’s also hard to come by on the internet, since the site seemed to be down, but thanks to the miracle of Google’s site caching, I was able to recover it. It was translated by Sergei V. Korschmin, who I believe is on the faculty of the University of Queensland, Australia. (more…)
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!
my rosenkavalier moment April 12, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : audio, music, opera, the orchestra world, viola, 2commentsI’ve loved Der Rosenkavalier since I first became acquainted with it during my undergraduate music history courses. What’s not to love? Great melodies, a classic love triangle, and the Vienna Philharmonic!
My favorite moment comes from the mind-blowing trio that concludes the opera (but not the cobble together suite that we’re playing this weekend) - where each of the three main characters express their differing kinds of love for each other, and engage in simultaneous soliloquies about their innermost thoughts and feelings about those forms of love. It’s a tour de force moment in opera composition, and it has few parallels, except perhaps the sextet from Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro.
So, the trio features as the high point of the entire opera, and the suite which we are playing this weekend at the OSO concerts. Solo strings double the vocal parts (since there are no vocalists in the suite) and there is a suspension that just happens to occur in the second viola solo part (which happens to be played by me) that I (humbly) suggest just might be the most painfully sublime note in the entire suite (except perhaps the high D that principal trumpeter Jeffrey Work is so gorgeously playing at the final climax of the trio) - you be the judge: the note happens right about 51 seconds into this minute-long clip.
Since we don’t have the advantage of voices in the suite version of the opera, I thought it might be fun to give the actual excerpt that you just heard in the form in which it’s heard in the actual opera:
To give credit where credit is due:
The first excerpt is from a performance of the suite by the Vienna Philharmonic under the direction of Andre Previn.
The second excerpt is also the Vienna Philharmonic, this time conducted by Herbert von Karajan. The singers are Anna Tomowa-Sintow, Agnes Baltsa and Janet Perry.
weekend sound sample February 16, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : audio, music, viola, add a commentI talk a lot about what the orchestra plays, what other orchestras sound like, and what I think of other musicians. It dawned on me that I haven’t really put myself out there - if I’m going to throw stones, I might as well be in the line of fire myself.
Here’s a brief sample of Max Bruch’s Romance for viola and piano, Op. 85. It’s from a performance I gave with pianist Lisa Bergman at the Max Aronoff Viola Institute (where I serve on the faculty towards the end of each June). I don’t think that it stinks too horribly - enjoy!
click to play
If you liked what you heard, you can go to my personal website and take a listen to the complete Bruch and two other selections at your leisure. [Note: the two other selections do require that you have Quicktime player installed on your computer - it's free and there are links to instructions on how to install and use Quicktime.]
functional beauty January 27, 2008
Posted by Charles Noble in : instruments, music, viola, add a comment
It’s not often that one takes the time, as a professional musician, to just sit and take a look at one’s instrument. I don’t mean actually looking at the instrument - that happens all the time. Inspecting for damage, polishing the varnish, making sure the bridge is straight, etc. What I mean is looking at it as an object of aesthetic beauty. I think that in these terms, we string players are pretty fortunate. (more…)
