{"id":2788,"date":"2009-06-30T22:47:33","date_gmt":"2009-07-01T05:47:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=2788"},"modified":"2009-07-02T07:28:43","modified_gmt":"2009-07-02T14:28:43","slug":"interesting-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/06\/30\/interesting-times\/","title":{"rendered":"interesting times"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"IMG_1284\"<\/a>
\nSunset from our dorm room at Bastyr University
\nPhoto: \u00c2\u00a9 Charles Noble<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s about 10:30 pm on Tuesday night – it’s been about a hour or so since the end of our penultimate faculty concert at the Max Aronoff Viola Institute.\u00c2\u00a0 There was some major restructuring of the program tonight because our pianist, Duane Hulbert, took a fall while jogging and did some damage to his face and had to go to the ER.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s ok, and he’ll be making a heroic effort to rehearse and play tomorrow night, which is amazing in and of itself!<\/p>\n

The program opened with John Scanlon playing the G major cello suite of JS Bach on the viola, using a modern viola at baroque pitch and with a baroque bow.\u00c2\u00a0 He played a sparkling account of the suite, with brisk tempi and lots of interesting and tasteful ornaments.<\/p>\n

I followed with the Cadenza<\/em> by Krysztof Penderecki.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a very atmospheric piece, dark and dangerous, perfect for the cathedral-like acoustics of Bastyr Chapel, and the polar opposite temperament of the Bach.\u00c2\u00a0 I think it went well – no major snafus, and the audience responded well.\u00c2\u00a0 It really is an audience pleaser, which is unusual for a piece that is modern and not super ear-friendly.\u00c2\u00a0 But it has great structure, economy of ideas, and pacing.\u00c2\u00a0 Plus it shows of the viola very well.<\/p>\n

Last on this short program was the String Quartet No. 1 of Dmitri Shostakovich, played by violinists Marcia Ott and Nancy Roth, violist Betty Agent and cellist Richard Treat.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s a delightful work, quite early in his output, and has strong associations both with Tchaikovsky and Prokofiev.\u00c2\u00a0 You really can hear DSCH developing his own voice, and almost succeeding, but it isn’t until the Second Quartet that he really strikes out on his own, much like B\u00c3\u00a9la Bart\u00c3\u00b3k.\u00c2\u00a0 It was given a lively and exciting performance by the foursome, and very much appreciated by the audience in attendance.<\/p>\n

This concert marked my last appearance for this year on the series, and it’s a relief to just look forward to a day and a half more of teaching and listening to concerts.\u00c2\u00a0 As much as I love to play, it is nice to have a day free of the anticipation of an imminent concert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunset from our dorm room at Bastyr University Photo: \u00c2\u00a9 Charles Noble It’s about 10:30 pm on Tuesday night – it’s been about a hour or so since the end of our penultimate faculty concert at the Max Aronoff Viola Institute.\u00c2\u00a0 There was some major restructuring of the program tonight because our pianist, Duane Hulbert, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_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}},"categories":[136,135,138,1057,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chamber-music","category-soloists-recitals","category-summer-festivals","category-teaching-music","category-viola"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-IY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6033,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2011\/03\/23\/learning-lessons\/","url_meta":{"origin":2788,"position":0},"title":"learning lessons","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 23, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"With my performance on Sunday finished, there was one more hurdle in store for me during my trip to Philadelphia. I had scheduled a lesson with my former teacher from Peabody Conservatory, Roberto D\u00edaz. He had been the principal violist of the National Symphony when I'd studied with him in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "teaching"","block_context":{"text":"teaching","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/teaching-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/robertopub-250x375.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5380,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/10\/01\/new-musicians-join-symphony\/","url_meta":{"origin":2788,"position":1},"title":"new musicians join symphony","author":"Charles Noble","date":"October 1, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"We had a spate of auditions at the end of last season, and the results netted us three new musicians who are all now settled in Portland and playing with the orchestra.\u00a0 They are Principal timpanist Jonathan Greeney, oboist and English hornist Kyle Mustain, and violist Silu Fei.\u00a0 Here's a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "auditions"","block_context":{"text":"auditions","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/auditions\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/jonathangreeney.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":13941,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/11\/27\/on-bach\/","url_meta":{"origin":2788,"position":2},"title":"on bach","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This past Saturday afternoon I played on the occasion of a memorial service for a violist friend of mine. His name was Scott Ligocki. He grew up in Seattle, went off to study at Curtis with Michael Tree, and returned to Seattle to begin an enormously successful teaching studio, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ligocki","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Ligocki-300x367.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19044,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2020\/07\/07\/oh-no-a-viola-recital\/","url_meta":{"origin":2788,"position":3},"title":"oh, no! a viola recital!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 7, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"This Thursday (July 9th) at 3pm Pacific Time, I'll be playing a short recital of pieces for solo viola (OK, one of them is for four violas) on AllClassical.org's Thursdays @ Three program. All the pieces were recorded in my home practice space, including the Zoom interview with program producer\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/thursdays-%40-three-promo.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/thursdays-%40-three-promo.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/thursdays-%40-three-promo.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/thursdays-%40-three-promo.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/thursdays-%40-three-promo.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":12981,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2013\/09\/15\/20-years-since-aldeburgh\/","url_meta":{"origin":2788,"position":4},"title":"20 years since Aldeburgh","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 15, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I was looking at my part to Hindemith's Der Schwanendreher (a concerto for viola and orchestra) when I noticed the inscription I'd written at the top of the viola part (I have this habit of writing dates\/places of performances of pieces at the top of the part). It was nearly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "viola"","block_context":{"text":"viola","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/instruments\/viola\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/9765952635_652b003e66_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/9765952635_652b003e66_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/9765952635_652b003e66_o.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/9765952635_652b003e66_o.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/9765952635_652b003e66_o.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/9765952635_652b003e66_o.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21209,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2021\/04\/01\/viola-for-holy-week\/","url_meta":{"origin":2788,"position":5},"title":"viola for holy week","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Last spring, the Oregon Symphony presented a series of video productions that were a brainchild of the OSO's Creative Chair Gabriel Kahane and director Holcombe Waller. My contribution was Nico Muhly's Keep in Touch, for viola and electronics. It's apt that that video is being re-run this week - Holy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "new music"","block_context":{"text":"new music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/new-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/etJ6vVUBA0Y\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788","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=2788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}