{"id":4187,"date":"2010-03-12T22:42:01","date_gmt":"2010-03-13T06:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=4187"},"modified":"2010-03-12T22:42:18","modified_gmt":"2010-03-13T06:42:18","slug":"tough-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/12\/tough-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"tough stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"

This weekend is a bit of a strange classical week for us, with this program being played only once in Portland, on a Sunday matinee.\u00a0 On Saturday evening, we bring the show on the road (down Route 99W, to be exact) to Newberg, to the excellent auditorium at George Fox University.\u00a0 We usually alternate classical and pops in Newberg each time we go, and so this is a classical year.\u00a0 It’s always usually really hard stuff to play.\u00a0 Two years ago it was Bart\u00f3k Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta<\/em> and the Strauss Suite from Der Rosenkavalier<\/em>.\u00a0 This year it’s Ralph Vaughan Williams’ harrowing Sixth Symphony and Strauss’ Bourgeois Gentilhomme<\/em>, with actor David Ogden Stiers narrating the essentials of Moli\u00e8re’s farce (in the guise of several different characters, no less) between movements.\u00a0 This is a very difficult concert, with two very different pieces.<\/p>\n

The Vaughan Williams symphony is a take-you-by-the-throat piece that doesn’t let you go at all – even the slow sections are fraught with tension.\u00a0 It’s really a reaction to the aftermath of the Second World War, even though RVW protested loudly (methinks too loudly) that it was all about Prospero and the nature of life as a realm of dreams: \u201cWe are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded by a sleep\u201d.\u00a0 I think everyone who heard the work in post-war England was not conviced: this was clearly a symphony affected by the aftermath of the horrors of warfare visited upon the innocents of the world.<\/p>\n

Aside from being technically very dense and difficult to play, our jobs are made more difficult by the fact that these RVW symphonies are all old hand-written parts – not the beautifully precise engravings of German publishers – but literally pen and ink hand copies that are then transferred to plates for printing.\u00a0 No matter how well you know the parts, there will always be quirks of the copying that will make you think twice on the fly, and that is often enough to derail even the most studious performer.\u00a0 Here’s an example page from the first movement viola part:<\/p>\n

\"click<\/a><\/p>\n

It’s not really that diffcult, but it’s pretty easy to mistake one of those quarters or eighths for each other on the second line, and there is one of the worst clef changes ever in the history of music in the middle of the fourth line down – it’s criminal to do that!\u00a0 It seriously messes with your head – it took me about 15 minutes just to get that straight in my head – valuable preparation time wasted!<\/p>\n

Then there’s the Strauss. Great parts, very easy to read.\u00a0 But… there is a passage in the last section of the piece which is the highest sustained passage I’ve ever encountered in a standard repertoire piece.\u00a0 It even goes a whole step above the highest note in the Bart\u00f3k Viola Concerto!\u00a0 Here it is (and no, this is NOT a violin part!).\u00a0 I’m thinking about strapping an E string extension onto my viola for this weekend’s concerts…<\/p>\n

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

This weekend is a bit of a strange classical week for us, with this program being played only once in Portland, on a Sunday matinee.\u00a0 On Saturday evening, we bring the show on the road (down Route 99W, to be exact) to Newberg, to the excellent auditorium at George Fox University.\u00a0 We usually alternate classical […]<\/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":[148,167,2,22],"tags":[2172,2173,3668,1268],"class_list":["post-4187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-appreciations","category-composition","category-the-orchestra-world","category-viola","tag-bourgeois-gentilhomme","tag-david-ogden-stiers","tag-oregon-symphony","tag-richard-strauss"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-15x","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4202,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/03\/15\/a-tale-of-two-pieces\/","url_meta":{"origin":4187,"position":0},"title":"a tale of two pieces","author":"Charles Noble","date":"March 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"This Sunday the Oregon Symphony performed a concert consisting of three pieces which it had never before in its history performed. (My apologies for that seemingly Google-translated-to-English-from-German sentence).\u00a0 The Delius Irmelin Prelude was pleasant fare, and having a couple nice section viola melodic moments (and one big, exposed viola solo\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":1890,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2009\/02\/10\/looking-forward\/","url_meta":{"origin":4187,"position":1},"title":"looking forward","author":"Charles Noble","date":"February 10, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"If you're an OSO subscriber, you either got your 2009-2010 season brochure yesterday or will be getting it sometime today.\u00c2\u00a0 There's a lot to look forward to!\u00c2\u00a0 Here are the concerts that I'm most looking forward to. There are several specials that would have me standing in line for tickets\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "bloggers"","block_context":{"text":"bloggers","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/bloggers\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"brochure-sh","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/02\/brochure-sh-400x311.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":5571,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/11\/13\/oregon-symphony-in-tacoma\/","url_meta":{"origin":4187,"position":2},"title":"oregon symphony in tacoma","author":"Charles Noble","date":"November 13, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"After a long absence, the Oregon Symphony will be returning to the Pantages Theater in downtown Tacoma for a matinee concert presented by the Tacoma Philharmonic. \u00a0The main work on the program will be Elgar's Falstaff, with actor David Ogden Stiers as Falstaff. Click here for tickets and further information.","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":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/OregonSymphonyHomepagepic-e1289700932387.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/OregonSymphonyHomepagepic-e1289700932387.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/OregonSymphonyHomepagepic-e1289700932387.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":21400,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2021\/05\/19\/oregon-symphony-strauss-crawford-seeger-video-now-online\/","url_meta":{"origin":4187,"position":3},"title":"Oregon Symphony strauss & crawford-seeger video now online","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 19, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"As part of the Classical Sessions series (found at the Oregon Symphony's new Studio 125 site) is a new video recording of the sublime Sextet from Richard Strauss' 1942 opera Capriccio, paired with Ruth Crawford-Seeger's atmospheric slow movement to her monumental String Quartet of 1931. They're both wonderful performances (in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "chamber music"","block_context":{"text":"chamber music","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/category\/music\/chamber-music\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/fQ6550Bla-4\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":329,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2007\/05\/21\/an-orchestras-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":4187,"position":4},"title":"an orchestra’s life","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 21, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Tonight is the last concert of our 2006-2007 classical subscription series (we've got two more after this: the Evelyn Nagel donor concert and a runout to George Fox University in Newberg). It's a fitting culmination to this season in several ways. First, we play Schubert's \"Unfinished\" Symphony. This is a\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":989,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2008\/05\/23\/a-look-back-pt-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":4187,"position":5},"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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187","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=4187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}