{"id":7853,"date":"2012-09-16T23:21:58","date_gmt":"2012-09-17T06:21:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/?p=7853"},"modified":"2013-02-07T21:12:20","modified_gmt":"2013-02-08T05:12:20","slug":"rocky-can-dance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/09\/16\/rocky-can-dance\/","title":{"rendered":"rocky can dance"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monday morning we start rehearsals for our first classical series concerts. It’s a program that pretty much has something for everyone. It includes a charming suite by the Swedish composer Hugo Alfv\u00e9n, an engaging and colorful work from 2005 by Andrew Norman entitled Drip<\/em> (but formerly called\u00a0Drip, Blip, Sparkle, Spin, Glint, Glide, Glow, Float, Flop, Chop, Pop, Shatter, Splash<\/em>), Portland favorite pianist Jon Kimura Parker plays one of Mozart’s most beloved piano concertos, and concludes with Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I have, as I suppose many veteran orchestral musicians do, a mixed relationship with the music of Rachmaninoff. Most often I experience his music through two of his four piano concertos (Nos. 2 and 3). They are fun to play and feature incredible feats of virtuosity for pianists to conquer, but they just don’t feel terribly deep and meaningful compared to most of the other piano concerto repertoire, especially by the Germanic composers. Rachmaninoff’s orchestral pieces are much less often performed – though we did do the Second Symphony quite often with James DePriest – but they have a bit more depth of expression than the concertos do. The Dances<\/em>, especially, seem to plumb depths that most of his other compositions do not attempt to reach. In particular, the incredibly beautiful coda to the first movement, with the bells and flutes sparkling over the arching lines of the rich, sul-G strings – it to me equals anything written by any other great composer:<\/p>\n\n

\"\"
\nRecording: London Symphony Orchestra\/Valery Gergiev, cond. LSO Live label.
\nPurchase: iTunes<\/a> | Amazon.com<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Monday morning we start rehearsals for our first classical series concerts. It’s a program that pretty much has something for everyone. It includes a charming suite by the Swedish composer Hugo Alfv\u00e9n, an engaging and colorful work from 2005 by Andrew Norman entitled Drip (but formerly called\u00a0Drip, Blip, Sparkle, Spin, Glint, Glide, Glow, Float, Flop, […]<\/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":[2],"tags":[2400,3668,3133,3134],"class_list":["post-7853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-orchestra-world","tag-carlos-kalmar","tag-oregon-symphony","tag-rachmaninov","tag-symphonic-dances"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pa8kC-22F","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":7879,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2012\/09\/24\/last-chance-for-parkeroso-combo\/","url_meta":{"origin":7853,"position":0},"title":"last chance for parker\/oso combo","author":"Charles Noble","date":"September 24, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Want so hear some of the most gorgeous Mozart piano playing ever? Want to hear a cool new piece that will make you laugh with glee? Want to have your senses overloaded with the incredible Symphonic Dances of Rachmaninoff? Your last chance is tonight at the Oregon Symphony. Get your\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":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/Jon_Kimura_Parker_2_orig.jpeg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4658,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2010\/05\/16\/beethoven-festival\/","url_meta":{"origin":7853,"position":1},"title":"beethoven festival","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, we're two-thirds of the way through the Beethoven Festival here at the Oregon Symphony, and it's been quite a ride so far.\u00a0 Normally, when we do a concerto, it's the only one on the program.\u00a0 Usually it's a nice break from the heavy lifting of the symphonic works on\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":13712,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2015\/05\/08\/2014-2105-a-retrospective-part-two\/","url_meta":{"origin":7853,"position":2},"title":"2014-2105: a retrospective, part two","author":"Charles Noble","date":"May 8, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"And now, for the big list - the stuff I played with the Oregon Symphony this past season*. Lots of variety, and some holes in repertoire that I really couldn't believe when I looked at the list - only one work by Brahms, for example? Hm... Barber - Adagio for\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":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/noble-oso-pic-e1408736178252.jpg?fit=451%2C300&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":34,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2006\/04\/03\/busy\/","url_meta":{"origin":7853,"position":3},"title":"busy!","author":"Charles Noble","date":"April 3, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"It's been a busy 10 days - and here's the list of music that's passed over my transom to prove it: Prokofiev - Romeo & Juliet, Suites 1 and 2 Berlioz - Queen Mab Scherzo from Romeo & Juliet Bernstein - Symphonic Dances from West Side Story Strauss - Don\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":13134,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2014\/01\/01\/2013-playlist\/","url_meta":{"origin":7853,"position":4},"title":"2013 playlist","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 1, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"This is as exhaustive as I can make it, but I've certainly missed some things by accident, and omitted others on purpose. It's been that kind of year. Here's to more great music in 2014! * = first time performed by me Chamber Music Bart\u00f3k Quartet No. 1* Britten Quartet\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":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13149,"url":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/2014\/01\/13\/a-tale-of-two-brahms\/","url_meta":{"origin":7853,"position":5},"title":"a tale of two brahms","author":"Charles Noble","date":"January 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Another musician who blogs quite frequently is the pianist Stephen Hough (a favorite soloist here in Portland, with frequent appearances with the Oregon Symphony), and he recently wrote a blog post for the Guardian newspaper (he also has a regular blog at the Telegraph) describing his process of revising his\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\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/WxH50l50dvs\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7853","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=7853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobleviola.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}