I wish that I were blogging anonymously sometimes.  I could unburden myself of whatever was vexing me from a day’s worth of rehearsals, private practicing, or teaching, and say whatever I wanted.

That would be great.

But…

It also would not be terribly ethical.  It’s easy to say whatever you want when you remain a faceless, shadowy figure.  When you put a name and face to your words, however, you’ve got to be responsible for what you write.

There are quite a few music bloggers who have information that would be very likely incindiary if it were launched out into the public realm, but they don’t divulge it, regardless of the fact that everyone else inside the business knows what’s going on and talking about it on an almost daily basis.

So, anyway, I’m just going to say that the last couple days have been trying for me personally in regards to the viola, but I’m fine and soon it will be over and there will be something new to learn and enjoy.  If you know what I’m talking about, then you get it, and if you don’t, then just settle for knowing that even musicians have “one of those days” every once and a while, too.

On a completely different note, here’s a cool video from a blog in Minnesota that has some interviews with MSO players as they return to the hall for the new concert season.  One of those featured is Mike Gast, principal horn, who is a member of the Sunriver Festival Orchestra, and a heck of a great horn player and all around nice dude:

new season

It is, or at least should be, a roller coaster ride when you go to an orchestral concert (and I think that the OSO has been pretty successful at making these kinds of concerts happen on a regular basis), and the folks over at the Zürich Chamber Orchestra used this element as the basis for a remarkable advertising campaign. See the video after the break…

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As part of our partnership with different communities each year, our education department includes what is called the instrument petting zoo.  No, it’s not a bunch of instruments in a fenced in area, with children walking around them petting them with timid hands.  

What it is in actuality is a chance for kids to get their hands on an instrument and be taught or guided in how to make some sort of elementary sound on it.  The theory is, if they get a small taste of creating new sounds on an instrument they’ve never seen or heard, they’ll want more, and might even want to take up an instrument in school or at home.

Here’s a YouTube movie I found of a youngster named Soren getting his first taste of the violin, with OSO violist Stephen Price giving him a hand with fingering the notes:

Here’s another video of OSO music director Carlos Kalmar giving the Portland Metropolitan Youth Symphony a workout in Beethoven’s Egmont Overture.

For those of you who missed it, Gustavo Dudamel (music director-designate of the LA Philharmonic) was featured on 60 Minutes on Sunday evening.  You can go here to see the video of the segment.

Last night, after his brilliant performance of the Beethoven Second Piano Concerto, Kirill Gerstein played an encore that I’d never heard before, at least on piano alone. It was Erlkönig - originally a song by Schubert, transcribed for solo piano by Liszt. I had heard a similar transcription, by the violinist Max Ernst, for solo violin - and that is even more impressive.

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Carrie Dennis, the phenomenal violist who has (by the anything but grizzled age of 30!) already been Assistant principal violist of the Philadelphia Orchestra, Principal violist of the Berlin Philharmonic, and was just named as Principal violist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic has a couple videos up on youtube. See and hear her for yourself - viola ain’t second fiddle no more! [Read more →]

Oregon Public Broadcasting will present Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic in their performance of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony (from a performance at Carnegie Hall this past fall) along with bits of performances by Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra.

Check out the OPB website for broadcast times (it will also be presented in high-definition, too). Click here for a teaser video and here for details.
PBS affiliates nationwide will also be broadcasting this concert as part of the Great Performances series.

His name is Greg Patillo - he’s a classically trained flutist from Seattle who studied at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and who developed some, shall we say, novel playing techniques while busking in the subways of New York City. He’s now better known as The Beatboxing Flutist. After the jump, some YouTube videos for your viewing and listening pleasure: [Read more →]

A clip of perhaps my favorite living pianist, Martha Argerich, performing the last movement of the Tchaikovsky 1st Concerto.  Hair-raisingly good and exciting!  I must hear her live sometime…

Last night, finally, the regular season was underway! It was a typical gala opening night affair - sold out house (thank goodness!), well-to-do patrons dressed to the nines, the women of the orchestra bedecked in extra spangles and bling (allowed in the dress code specially for the occasion) and a program guaranteed to please most everyone, and disappoint no-one, with a household name soloist and a blockbuster concerto favorite. [Read more →]