{"id":2522,"date":"2009-05-14T08:23:20","date_gmt":"2009-05-14T15:23:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=2522"},"modified":"2009-05-14T08:29:18","modified_gmt":"2009-05-14T15:29:18","slug":"and-now-for-something-completely-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/05\/14\/and-now-for-something-completely-different\/","title":{"rendered":"and now for something completely different"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"bruckner\"<\/a>
\nAnton Bruckner<\/em><\/p>\n

This week’s classical series concert (the final one of this season, alas) features another major Germanic symphony, but a very different sort of work than that written by last week’s composer, Gustav Mahler.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, this week it’s Anton Bruckner’s turn in the spotlight with his massive Symphony No. 7.\u00c2\u00a0 I have to say that, as a performer, Bruckner is not my favorite (whereas as a listener, I love his symphonies) because (a) his works are long, and (b) they feature a lot of tremolo<\/em> for the strings.\u00c2\u00a0 What is this tremolo<\/em>, you ask?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a way of bowing long, sustained notes that gives an otherworldly, shimmering effect to the sound.\u00c2\u00a0 One moves the bow back and forth very quickly and with a very tiny amount of bow to create this effect.\u00c2\u00a0 What makes it detrimental to the performer?\u00c2\u00a0 It’s very tiring to do for long periods, especially at the extremes of the dynamic range – and guess what Bruckner has us do?\u00c2\u00a0 Yep, either pp<\/em> or ff<\/em> and for minutes at a time, scattered all through the piece, usually right where you most want a break.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s great to listen to, but not so great to actually do.<\/p>\n

Here’s a great video of the master conductor Segiu Celebidache conducting the opening of the Seventh with the Munich Philharmonic in 2000:<\/p>\n

<\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Anton Bruckner This week’s classical series concert (the final one of this season, alas) features another major Germanic symphony, but a very different sort of work than that written by last week’s composer, Gustav Mahler.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, this week it’s Anton Bruckner’s turn in the spotlight with his massive Symphony No. 7.\u00c2\u00a0 I have to say […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[148,115,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-music","category-the-orchestra-world"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-EG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7526,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/04\/23\/on-blogging\/","url_meta":{"origin":2522,"position":0},"title":"on blogging","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 23, 2012","format":"aside","excerpt":"I'm going to be away from the computer for a couple days, but I just read a thoughtful post on the state of classical blogging over at Musical Assumptions, and it inspired a few observations of my own. I'm finding it difficult to find my blogging voice. There is a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2552,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/05\/18\/struggles-with-bruckner\/","url_meta":{"origin":2522,"position":1},"title":"struggles with bruckner","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 18, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"I remember in undergrad, when I shared a house with a bass trombone player, there was a lot of Romantic Germanic music on the CD player.\u00c2\u00a0 Strauss, Mahler, Bruckner, Wagner - these are the bread and butter of a low brass player, and I found myself enjoying many of these\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4678,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/05\/19\/insert-name-here-festival\/","url_meta":{"origin":2522,"position":2},"title":"insert-name-here festival?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"David Stabler has the ticket sales info for last week's Beethoven Festival, which was quite successful, with just over 71 percent capacity audiences.\u00a0 He suggests a few possibilities for future festivals, such as Gershwin, Bernstein, or Latin.\u00a0 That got me to thinking, too. Viennese Festival - works of Mozart, Beethoven,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12479,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/02\/18\/un-complementary\/","url_meta":{"origin":2522,"position":3},"title":"un-complementary","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 18, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I was initially happy to notice this line in a recent New York Times review of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at Carnegie Hall: To a large extent, the power behind these surges comes from the lower string section and the trombones, who in the Bruckner symphony, in particular, seemed to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "labor issues"","block_context":{"text":"labor issues","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/labor-issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4647,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/05\/11\/the-hurt-locker\/","url_meta":{"origin":2522,"position":4},"title":"the hurt locker","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I've decided to keep track of pieces that are excruciating for violists to play. \u00a0There seems to be an evolving canon (a pantheon, if you will)\u00a0of works which violists seem to universally dislike playing. \u00a0Usually this is due to the physical demands of the piece. \u00a0The viola needs a bit\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "the orchestra world"","block_context":{"text":"the orchestra world","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/the-orchestra-world\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1284,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/10\/16\/pesky-string-players\/","url_meta":{"origin":2522,"position":5},"title":"pesky string players","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 16, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Bassist Michael Hovnanian, member of a Major Midwestern Orchestra With a Notably Loud Brass Section, wrote a hilarious description of guest conductor Jaap van Zweeden rehearsing Bruckner's Fifth Symphony: The Dutch violinist turned conductor spent more rehearsal time than normal dealing with the strings; in a work such as the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}