{"id":3274,"date":"2009-10-19T10:13:20","date_gmt":"2009-10-19T17:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/?p=3274"},"modified":"2009-11-06T12:59:53","modified_gmt":"2009-11-06T20:59:53","slug":"thoughts-on-three-bs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/10\/19\/thoughts-on-three-bs\/","title":{"rendered":"thoughts on three B’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Kirill<\/a>
\nKiril Gerstein, pianist<\/span><\/p>\n

Tonight is the last of the three concerts making up the first of Classical Series B at the Oregon Symphony.\u00a0 The program is a variation upon the famous “Three B’s” concert format – usually Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.\u00a0 This time it’s Bach, Bernstein and Beethoven.\u00a0 It pits two pieces by very well-known composers that are not performed as often as their other works against the mighty Seventh Symphony of Beethoven.<\/p>\n

The Bach (the Orchestral Suite No. 4) is a conundrum.\u00a0 It looks so simple on the page – nothing technically demanding, everything looks just so (at least for the strings, for the winds, it’s another story).\u00a0 Then you get into rehearsals and performances, and it is a minefield of things that can go wrong in a hurry.\u00a0 Bowing Baroque works is such a personal thing, and what works well for one player might not work so well for another, and it’s easy to slip into what you wish the bowing was instead of what it actually is.\u00a0 That’s just about the time when Bach decides to modulate into another key and the accidentals start creeping in, leading to an altogether unplanned series of accidents.\u00a0 Plus the ensemble demands of playing with a large body of strings instead of a much smaller Baroque sized complement.\u00a0 Ugh.\u00a0 It’s exhilarating, really, but also hair-raising.<\/p>\n

The Bernstein Symphony No 2 (The Age of Anxiety<\/em>) for piano and orchestra is one of his most underrated pieces, I think.\u00a0 It’s been a revelation to perform it this weekend.\u00a0 I’m beginning to find Bernstein more and more nostalgic as I grow older.\u00a0 What seemed hokey and cloying when I was younger now seems more sincere and earnest and honestly theatrical.\u00a0 Perhaps the subject matter of Auden’s epic poem is much more meaningful to me at this stage of my life?\u00a0 In any case, Bernstein’s mastery of writing for the orchestra (not to mention the solo piano), his ingenious morphing of the materials from one variation to the other, and his masterful handling of the programmatic elements of the Auden poem in the musical form are very impressive, and the music has been making a major impression on me each time we perform it.\u00a0 And lest I forget, soloist Kiril Gerstein is absolutely owning this piece.\u00a0 Playing the absolute crap out of it.\u00a0 Inspiring!<\/p>\n

Finally, Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony.\u00a0 Not much to say that hasn’t been said before, except that we’re doing it the way I’ve always wanted it to be.\u00a0 It is lean, fleet, steely, flexible, fierce, and tender.\u00a0 It’s been a joy to play each night.<\/p>\n

Some other observations: we have the best woodwind section ever.\u00a0 Period.\u00a0 The trumpets sounded amazing all night.\u00a0 The strings were rocking it, especially in the Beethoven, and there is such a great sound developing – it feels good.\u00a0 Can’t wait for tonight – got your tickets yet?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kiril Gerstein, pianist Tonight is the last of the three concerts making up the first of Classical Series B at the Oregon Symphony.\u00a0 The program is a variation upon the famous “Three B’s” concert format – usually Bach, Beethoven and Brahms.\u00a0 This time it’s Bach, Bernstein and Beethoven.\u00a0 It pits two pieces by very well-known […]<\/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_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":[501,3668],"class_list":["post-3274","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-music","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-beethoven","tag-oregon-symphony"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-QO","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3020,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/08\/26\/pre-season-highlights\/","url_meta":{"origin":3274,"position":0},"title":"pre-season highlights","author":"Charles Noble","date":"August 26, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"As the beginning of the 2009-2010 Oregon Symphony season comes quickly upon us, it has become time to look at what some of my personal highlights might be.\u00a0 I say might, because sometimes the concerts that I most look forward to fall flat, and those which I think might be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "soloists & recitals"","block_context":{"text":"soloists & recitals","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/soloists-recitals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sept08CarlosKalmar","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/08\/Sept08CarlosKalmar.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":989,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/23\/a-look-back-pt-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":3274,"position":1},"title":"a look back, pt. 1","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 23, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I 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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13142,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2014\/01\/08\/beethoven-the-humorist-or-humorless\/","url_meta":{"origin":3274,"position":2},"title":"beethoven the humorist, or humorless?","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 8, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"You'll get to decide for yourself into which camp Beethoven falls at our upcoming Oregon Symphony concerts this weekend. The concerts are billed as Emanuel Ax Plays Bach & Strauss, but they could have just as easily been entitled Beethoven: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Well, actually, since\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "concert preview"","block_context":{"text":"concert preview","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/concert-preview\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Beethoven Op. 134 manuscript","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7377\/11897500235_924a41c696_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7377\/11897500235_924a41c696_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7377\/11897500235_924a41c696_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4969,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/07\/07\/interesting-oso-recording\/","url_meta":{"origin":3274,"position":3},"title":"interesting oso recording…","author":"Charles Noble","date":"July 7, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I just got my hands on a copy of an over-the-air recording of the Oregon Symphony giving its inaugural performance in the newly renovated Civic Auditorium.\u00a0 The year: 1968.\u00a0 I was born that year.\u00a0 Jacques Singer was the music director.\u00a0 The portion of the program I'm in possession of starts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "appreciation"","block_context":{"text":"appreciation","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/appreciations\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/Figure-8.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14429,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2016\/12\/31\/my-2016-in-music\/","url_meta":{"origin":3274,"position":4},"title":"My 2016 in music.","author":"Charles Noble","date":"December 31, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I enjoy reading the end-of- year performance lists. It reminds me of what I haven't yet done, what I wish I hadn't done, and what I really enjoyed having done. So, in that spirit, I present my far from exhaustive list of major musical events in my life from 2016.\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":"DSC_2372","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_2372.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_2372.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_2372.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_2372.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_2372.jpg?resize=1050%2C600 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/DSC_2372.jpg?resize=1400%2C800 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":869,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/03\/21\/10-tix-to-classical-elegance-oso\/","url_meta":{"origin":3274,"position":5},"title":"$10 tix to classical elegance @ OSO","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 21, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"a Special Ticket offer from Oregon Symphony: Below please find a special $10 ticket offer for Classical Elegance with the Oregon Symphony. Please feel free to circulate this offer to family, friends and other contacts who may be interested. There are some great seats on the orchestra level that are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "music"","block_context":{"text":"music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3274","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=3274"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3274\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3274"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3274"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3274"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}