Somewhere Between Late and Never (Concerts from August-November 2011)
Posted: January 9, 2012 Filed under: Chamber music, Concert reviews, Concerts noted, Rennolds Series | Tags: Aaron jay Kernis, Auerbach, Brooklyn Rider, CMSCVA, Diana Cohen, Gellman Room, JACK Quartet, Rennolds Series, Richmond Symphony, Zach Brock and The Magic Number Leave a comment »I started teaching last July as a part- to full-time adjunct, which devastated my already lousy record as a blogger, but at least I did make it to some concerts. Let me pull out a stack of programs and try be snappy before the semester flexes its muscles.
Julien Quentin
August 19. Julien Quentin, piano, at Bargemusic. Lera Auerbach, “10 Dreams”; Beethoven, “Pathetique”; Liszt, “Mephisto Waltz”; and Quentin, Improvisations and “DetroitRemix.”
I’m not naturally a piano fan, so it takes a lot to impress me, and this concert didn’t. The second half of the program wrapped Quentin’s work around “Für Alina” by Arvo Pärt and then slipped into the Liszt, which might have worked if his initial Improvisation had been a little more distinctive and his remix piece presented with more confidence and less twiddling with computer controls (and less cheesy electronic percussion). It also would have been nice to have heard from Quentin himself about his plan for the second half, for two reasons: (1) The Barge is an intimate space. It’s kind of weird for a solo musician to not talk to the audience. (2) People like it when they know what to expect. Yes, I speak for myself, but I am confident that this is true for others.
Bela Bartok
September 17. Richmond Symphony with Elena Urioste, violin; Steven Smith conducting. Beethoven, “Leonore Overture”; Brahms’ Concerto in D; Stucky, “Dreamwaltzes”; Bartok “Miraculous Mandarin” Suite.
The Bartok was great: tantalizing and abrasive with soloists who played in character. Judging by the strength of the applause, however, most in the audience tolerated it rather than enjoyed it. Urioste got resounding applause for her performance, which was very good but sometimes not as full-bodied as it should have been. I liked “Dreamwaltzes.”
September 25. Richmond Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at Randolph-Macon College; Erin Freeman conducting. Kernis, “Musica Celestis”; Bach, “Mass in F”; Mendelssohn, “Italian” Symphony
This was my first time in this space, which is smaller than I thought it would be, and not acoustically exciting, but certainly functional. It was also my first time hearing the chamber chorus of the RS Chorus. (I understand that it has been several seasons since a chamber chorus was used.) It was satisfying to hear this beautiful music performed by a smaller choir.
Aaron jay Kernis
The program began with “Musica Celestis,” a gorgeous piece for string orchestra that invites comparisons with Barber’s “Adagio for Strings,” because we humans are hardwired to compare the unfamiliar to the familiar. Well, okay–they’re both written for string orchestra and are both slow-ish.
Barber’s work, though, is so much more body-oriented than the Kernis. The “Adagio” is driven forward by quarter notes that you can walk or breathe to, but “Musica Celestis” is very celestial, out-of-body music, with phrases that don’t fit into natural breath or heartbeat rhythms. The RSO strings gave a lovely shimmery impression. Later in the piece, there’s more movement, I suppose like the flashing of meteors. I closed my eyes to listen to the changing textures passed among the sections of the orchestra. The Mendelssohn, last on the program, was an emphatically in-body experience.
(l-r) Brock, Kennedy, Wigton
October 4. Zach Brock and The Magic Number at The Camel.
A fortunate tip from a Baltimore friend sent me at the last minute to this show, and now I owe her. One could be reasonably apprehensive that a program of jazz violin would turn into interminable minutes of aimless indistinguishable peaks and troughs of sound, but not from these musicians. Brock is clearly a talented violinist and composer, but I was at least as impressed by the work of bassist Matt Wigton and drummer Fred Kennedy. Together, the three handled tonal and rhythmic changes like a Houdini. You could get their album if you like this sort of music, but if you don’t, I still think you’d like their live show. It was too bad that pretty much the entire audience for the opening act (a local band) cleared out before The Magic Number came on. Their penalty for being rude was missing a great show.
Brooklyn Rider
October 8. Brooklyn Rider, string quartet, at VCU. Mozart, “Quartet no. 8″; Brooklyn Rider, “Seven Steps”‘ Glass, “Quartet No. 3″; Zorn, “Kol Nidre”; Beethoven, “Quartet No. 14″
Brooklyn Rider has a sound that I’d like to describe as shivering with sonic excitement, but you have to promise me you won’t misunderstand that to mean they have a cold sound or they only play well fast. This was an outstanding concert that got better as it went along, ending with a totally alive performance of the Beethoven. I think “Seven Steps,” a collaborative composition that included extensive improvisatory sections, will also get better with time; there were some moments in the music when forward momentum seemed to be thwarted without much concurrent payoff in reflective depth. Oh, yes: From now on I want all string quartets to perform standing up, except for the cello, whose chair was on a conductor’s platform.
October 23. Richmond Symphony Orchestra with Diana Cohen, violin at Randolph-Macon College. This concert was on the same day as the Richmond Philharmonic’s fall concert (in which I played), so I didn’t go, but here’s my article about new RSO concertmaster Diana Cohen, who performed Mozart’s Concerto no. 3.
October 29. Aeolus Quartet, string quartet, at Richmond Main Public Library. Dvorak, “American” quartet; Theofanidis, “Ariel Ascending”
I’m embarrassed to say that I remember almost nothing about this short, free concert presented by the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia. I arrived late, rushing Child2 from tap dance class, and sat in the back with her on my lap. I couldn’t see past her ponytails, but since she wasn’t restless, I think it was a good concert.
JACK Quartet (Photo Stephen Poff)
A fascinating program by a masterful quartet. I was impressed by the personality they gave the Glass. The friend I sat next to loved “Dig Deep.” I thought it was about 80% boring. “Contritus” manipulated my emotions, and I loved it. The Ives quartet, which is maybe music’s most intellectual flipping of the bird, was played with clear-eyed love.
Brooklyn Rider: The desirability of imperfection in the fallen-angel sense, not the can’t-play-presto sense
Posted: October 7, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »
Violinists should never be trusted to do the laundry.
My article about the string quartet Brooklyn Rider appears in this week’s Style Weekly. Cellist Eric Jacobsen, whom I interviewed by phone, said much more about honesty and truth and the exchange between performers and audience, but it was unfit for print. That is, I can only put so much abstraction and unverifiable theory into one article before my head starts floating away (after the heads of most readers).
Brooklyn Rider's name is a reference to the German artists' group Der Blaue Reiter. From Wikipedia: "Within the group, artistic approaches and aims varied from artist to artist; however, the artists shared a common desire to express spiritual truths through their art."
The thing is, when he says that people in the audience can tell when musicians are not being “honest,” I think I know what he means on a gut level, but I feel required to analyze what “honest” means in this context. When he says that musicians shouldn’t try to be perfect, I also think I know what he means, even before he interrupts himself to explain that he’s not talking about technical imperfection. I guess the problem is that when I write for publication, I have to write with my head, not with my gut.
In any case, based on my own experience, I think musicians are more often “honest” than not. And if your standard for honesty is reality TV, well then, you’ll be fine.
Possibly, audience members are less likely to be honest. Are you going to the Richmond Symphony because you want to, or because you think you should? Did you get your ticket for Esperanza Spaulding at the Modlin Center because you like her music or because she’s being marketed at just the right level of hipness you can handle? Are you at this NoBS Brass Band show because you love dirty jazz or because you want to be pressed on all sides by dirty and/or groovy and/or cute guys and/or girls? (Both reasons and more, you say? Oh, okay. Anything’s better than staying home and watching TV.)
Visit www.brooklynrider.com for streaming full works, not just samples. That’s the truth. I dare you.
Cello a la carte
Posted: September 28, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »So I have to admit I was disappointed to find out that Matt Haimovitz’s free flash concert is scheduled for 11:30, Monday, Oct. 3, in the University of Richmond dining hall. If UR is paying for this extra appearance, I guess they can put him wherever they want, but Haimovitz has the reputation of playing in nontraditional places. I was hoping for Carytown or somewhere more interesting than a college campus.
Haimovitz and Christopher O’Riley present a full concert at 7:30 p.m. that evening in UR’s Modlin Center. More here.
Rennolds Concerts add valet parking
Posted: September 21, 2011 Filed under: Rennolds Series 2 Comments »I consider myself visionary to have been able to afford to buy a house 13 years ago in a neighborhood celebrated for its on-street car repair . Housing prices have gone way up because after we moved in, partly because the location is so awesome.
I love being able to walk to concerts at VCU, because parking around there is a real aggravation. (I suppose people can use the VCU parking decks–for how much $, I don’t know–but the very uncertainty of whether or not they’re open to the public, and whether you’ll be able to get your car out when a concert’s over at 10 p.m., is off-putting.)
So it was nice to notice that the Rennolds series is now offering valet parking. Because there’s no mention of cost, I presume it’s free–although tip! your valet–but you do have to reserve in advance to use this service.
P.S. I have not been paid by the Fan District parking squad to promote this news.
What’s in the cards for the new Atlantic Chamber Ensemble?
Posted: September 21, 2011 Filed under: Chamber music | Tags: Atlantic Chamber Ensemble Leave a comment »
Will Richmond dig the new Atlantic Chamber Ensemble?
When I got the press release announcing the formation of the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble (read my article in Style Weekly), my first thought was, “It’s about flippin’ time!” Beyond the locked-to-format Summer Interlude players, the low-profile Oberon Quartet and some even lower-profile ensembles that mostly play private gigs, Richmond’s professional classical musicians have been surprisingly inert when it comes to chamber music.
Sure, they have plenty of good excuses–most are already stitching together a crazy-quilt of multiple orchestra jobs, university jobs, and private studios; the younger musicians don’t want to commit to Richmond, and the older ones have time-consuming kids; audiences are limited, aren’t they?
(We’ll see about that one. Should the Rennolds Series and the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia be worried? I don’t think so, unless the idea of having to work slightly harder and more imaginatively to attract audiences is worrisome.)
The Atlantic Chamber Ensemble will not get rich.
In any case, it makes me feel good to think that the 11 members of ACE decided to just go for it. During our interview, I asked Susanna Klein and Ross Monroe Winter if ACE was sustainable, particularly given that they’re all quite busy otherwise and aren’t earning any money from this endeavor. Klein acknowledged they are still discussing some of the structural questions–as a self-governing body, how are decisions made?–but both agreed that sharing the performance and administrative burdens among 11 members will make life manageable.
“It’s sustainable artistically because this is something you’re hungry for…. something you want to do, you’re playing what you want to play,” said Klein, comparing chamber music to working in an orchestra. “I think that hunger is innate.”
“We’ve all played chamber music at summer festivals, where the infrastructure is already in place,” said Winter. “This is more rewarding because we have to build it ourselves.”
ACE’s first concert is in VCU’s Singleton Center this coming Monday and features all dead composers. At least one acquaintance of mine has expressed the feeling that this isn’t much of a splash from an ensemble that wants to be seen as “going against the grain”–a line from its press release. I’m willing to wait and see. (Winter was very pleased with the fact that the group’s acronym can be used in a tagline about nobody knowing what’s up their sleeve for the next event.)
Their emphasis, at least this time, seems to be on presenting a new experience, rather than new music in new places. (New for Richmond, at least.) Ultimately, I think this is a far more effective way of changing people’s attitudes toward “classical music” than playing a 21st-century composer in a walk in-bow-play-bow-walk out kind of way. But it’s true–if you’re not getting new people in the door of a stodgy concert hall, you can’t change their attitudes.
Here’s what I have to say to ACE:
- Espresso machines ruin, RUE-IN music. Don’t play in coffee shops unless they have a separate area for music.
The Atlantic Chamber Ensemble may play in places that serve alcohol.
- Try Balliceaux. They have a good room set-up for classical music and good audiences.
- Maymont. All over. A progressive music concert: a trio in the goat pen, a duet in the herb garden, the Trout Quintet, duh, in the Nature Center. I wonder if it would work to put a quartet on the tram. Klein did say that you’re calling yourselves a “musical mobile artists’ colony.”
- Do something with the Podium Foundation. Small: play at an issue launch party that combines words and music. Large: a residency that gets the students involved in creating and performing music themselves.
- I haven’t been to Dogtown Dance Studios yet, but if you played there, I’d try to go.
- Oh yeah, don’t play all your concerts on Monday nights. Several amateur music ensembles have rehearsals on Mondays. We want to see you, but we can’t skip rehearsal, ’cause we’re musicians.
- If you’re trying to appeal to new audiences, hour-long concerts are good, but I think the more important point is to not play pieces that are longer than about 10 minutes each, especially if you’re playing in non-traditional venues. More than that, it’s a lot of new music to absorb. Sucks for Brahms, but I think that’s the way it is.
If the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble plays in a hospital, you would be close to help if you go into cardiac arrest during the concert.
Strange and midnight noises
Posted: May 16, 2011 Filed under: Chamber music, Concerts noted | Tags: CMSCVA, Swift Creek Mill Leave a comment »
This weekend I subbed in the band for the last 4 performances of ”Quilters” at Swift Creek Mill Theatre. The cello part seemed like more or less an afterthought, and actually was written to be played by a violinist who would switch between instruments. But it was a fun time, and on Friday night I also got to play the woodblocks, spoons, rainstick and freaka. What is a freaka? If you were a 7-year-old boy building a robot, it’s the part the pee would come out of.
The down side of playing the shows was missing the “White Nights” concert series from the Chamber Music Society of Central Virginia. I wrote a little calendar bit for Style, but the program lineups were/are so incredible for Richmond that I could’ve written much more. Look at this!
Friday: Arensky- String Quartet in A
Pärt- Da Pacem Domine for string quartet
Prokofieff- Sonata for Flute in D major
Halvorsen- Norwegian Songs and Dances for violin and piano
Nielsen- String Quartet in G minor
Saturday: Roman- Trio sonata in G minor and flute sonata in G minor
Silvestrov- “Juli 1750″
Johan Agrell- Violin sonata
Buxtehude- Trio sonata in D major
Schnittke- Madrigal
Today, which I can attend: Sibelius– Valse Triste
Grieg- Morning Mood from Peer Gynt for piano four hands
Sibelius– Drops of Rain for violin and cello
Gubaidulina- Forest Sounds for flute and piano
Rachmaninoff- Elegiac Trio in G minor
Saariaho- NoaNoa for flute and electronics
Grieg- Violin Sonata in C minor
And let it be noted that the overwritten intro I indulged in for Style was not sheer hogwash. I was born in Alaska, and I spent 3 months there the summer I was 14, in villages along the Kuskokwim River, where we picked blueberries and salmonberries, played basketball among the mosquitoes, watched “The Scarlet Pimpernel” on TV during the 2 daily hours of generator power, threw the innards of salmon to the gulls, and ate lots of fish. Somehow, my mother got my brother and me to bed at reasonable times throughout the summer, but I do remember reading “I, Robot” in the crazy golden light and lying in a state of half-sleep, listening to the dogs and imagining robot-humans walking over the hills.
Lei Liang on Chinese Music
Posted: April 15, 2011 Filed under: About music, Modlin Center | Tags: Liang, Shanghai Quartet, Wu Man Leave a comment »“The Role of Music in a Global Society” would have been a fascinating topic, I’m sure. In fact, that’s the reason I attended the Neumann Lecture on Music on February 26 at the University of Richmond, featuring composer Lei Liang along with pipa player Wu Man and the members of the Shanghai Quartet.
On the other hand, maybe the topic would have been too ambitious, too general. We’ll never know, because Liang actually talked about his own experience immersing himself in the study of Chinese classical music and incorporating its elements into his own work, and about the distinguishing characteristics of Chinese music. Fortunately, it was fascinating.
We also got to hear the full concert recording of his “Verge,” (hear a clip here) performed at the NYPhil’s inaugural Contact! concert in 2009. According to Liang, the work was inspired by the propagandistic Mongolian music he heard as a child on state radio in Communist China– that is, he was inspired to repudiate its artificial cheeriness. (A lasting effect of the Cultural Revolution: “I think I might have a problem with happy music in general.”)
I know I’m disposed to like music for string orchestra, but “Verge” was outstanding–so cognizant of what strings do well texturally, with sensible, unforced changes in mood, rhythm and timbre.
The title comes from the concepts of convergence and divergence, especially as they relate to the heterophony of traditional Mongolian music — how the primary and secondary lines relate to each other and sometimes change roles.
Liang said he set out to answer the question: “What is that material that defines Chinese music?” –other than the pentatonic scale? He identified two primary characteristics. Here are very rough summaries from my notes:
1. All sounds have the potential to be musical. This is very different than Western music’s focus on pitch. Sounds have always been used in expressive ways to tell stories. For instance, there are more than 100 types of coughing in Peking opera. But “this is not John Cage” (i.e. the random sounds that occur during 4’33″ ) Sound is used contextually. A pipa can be a full ensemble because its music-making is not tied to melody. Wu Man demonstrated.
2. Silence is an active kind of engagement, animated and vital. Liang is mostly talking about the space between notes, rather than absolute pauses. He showed sonograms of notes plucked in different ways on a pipa. The way a note decays– the various subtle differences in sound after the attack — is just as important as the attack. (This is related to #1 in that Western music’s pitch-orientation is less concerned with what happens after a pitch is achieved.)
Liang also discussed differences in music notation and showed some fascinating examples of old Chinese notation for pipa. Traditionally, very little information about pitch was given, and rhythm was implied through the notations about the type of plucking to be used. The point of notation was to communicate a sound intention, not merely pitch intention. He described it as choreographic, “dancing with strings.”
Liang: “I feel Chinese music is closer to breathing than to clockworks. I call it agricultural time… it’s so elastic [similar to] how we physically function.” On growing up musically in 1970s China: “I thought Mozart was Chinese until I was 9.”
Unfortunately, I couldn’t get to the Shanghai Quartet concert with Wu Man the following day, when they performed a new work by Liang.
Oberon plays Brahms (and some other dudes)
Posted: March 4, 2011 Filed under: Chamber music, Concerts noted | Tags: Brahms, Oberon Quartet Leave a comment »First, free advice.
Last week, Child2 and I attended the Oberon Quartet concert on the campus of St. Catherine’s School, where they’re quartet-in-residence. This was my first time hearing the Oberon, whose members also all play in the RSO. It was also my first time at the school, and as we neared, I told Child2 I didn’t know which building to go to, but we’d just find some people and ask them.
Right after we pulled into the drive, we were flagged down by two older women who asked us where to go for the concert. They hadn’t even come together; they probably each thought they would follow the other and then realized both were foundering. The four of us drifted around the dim campus until we found the building.
Advice Number One: St. Catherine’s, please make a few of those little directional signs you can stick in the ground and then pull out and store until the next concert.
Advice Number Two: Readers, you should go hear the Oberon whenever you can. (I can give you directions.) Concerts are always free, which is almost like being paid to go hear music, they’re so good. I am confident in saying this on the basis of this concert.
Next, thoughts.
Brahms probably never suspected he would be considered child-friendly one day.
The program was Piazzolla’s Tango Ballet for string quartet, Corigliano’s Snapshot: Circa 1909, and Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet in B minor. When we first sat down, Child2 looked idly at the program, then when she saw the name “Brahms,” she perked up in recognition. Now, she doesn’t know a thing about Brahms except that he wrote a piece in the Suzuki Violin Book 2, which she hasn’t even played yet because she is currently in delinquency on her practicing.
During the Piazzolla and the Corigliano–both attractive pieces performed beautifully–she listened now and then but mostly read her book. After intermission when the musicians took the stage, she sat up and whispered, “Is this Brahms?”
She listened attentively –not through all four movements, to be sure, but for longer than she paid attention to the other two works, which surprised me, because those struck me as being simpler for a 7-year-old to take in. Such is the power of name recognition.
That tiny experience deepened my appreciation for the dilemma that orchestras (and chamber ensembles) find themselves in with regard to balancing new or less familiar works with the so-called warhorses throughout a concert season.
And…
The Oberon Quartet is Alana Carithers and Susy Yim, violins; Molly Sharp, viola; and William Comita, cello. Ralph Skiano was guest clarinetist. I keep saying I don’t like the clarinet, and it’s true that I’ll always prefer the oboe, but Skiano’s performance of the second movement seriously eroded my resistance.
Rhymes with “Ligeti”
Posted: March 2, 2011 Filed under: Concerts noted | Tags: Gellman Room, Ligeti, Vlahcevic Leave a comment »The Gellman Room Concerts series at the downtown library has always been on the fringes of my consciousness.
I’ve been to a handful of concerts there– piano trios or string quartets– and have been vaguely aware that a few early- or Baroque-music groups appear regularly; the Richmond Boys’ Choir sings annually. The roster has always seemed to favor highly qualified amateur groups performing Beethoven (“Beethoven” in the sense of “the 50 most-performed chamber music works from any period”) in a rendition that may or may not be rewarding enough for me to give up my Saturday afternoon family and soccer time.
Gyorgi Ligeti
But some time around November last year I picked up the flyer for the 2010-2011 season and was metaphorically knocked off my feet when I realized that Ligeti’s “Musica Ricercata” was on the program in February. In Richmond? In the library?
That’s when it struck me how oddly, how fascinatingly diverse the offerings are. Where else in town–where else in the state?–can you hear, for free, in the same room, though for better or for worse not on the same day, ”a variety of musicians, including pianists, vocalists and instrumentalists” [what else is there?] from the Richmond Music Teachers Association, a lecture-recital on Gyorgi Ligeti, The G-Sharp Saxophone Quartet, and as a season finale, a children’s choir with a band called The Diggity Dudes?
The Diggity Dudes
(Yes, part of my fascination comes from the rhyming coincidence of Ligeti and Diggity.)
Sonia Vlahcevic, professor of music at VCU, gave the Ligeti program, which was attended by maybe 50 to 60 people. She is an engaging speaker–not at all a lecturer–and thoughtfully provided handouts for everyone that showed several representative measures of each of the 11 sections.
I wasn’t familiar with the piece and thought, in fact, that I wouldn’t like it much. Wouldn’t it seem mechanical to have the first movement use only 2 notes, the second only 3, and so on? But my mistake was in thinking that a mechanical following of rules necessarily results in a mechanical product. (In my defense, a rigid adherence to a prescribed meter almost always makes a poem feel a little off, or a little inhuman.)
Well, rhythmic and melodic concerns are not the same, I am happy to report, and I liked “Musica Ricercata.” Vlahcevic’s performance was expressive, very human. I look forward to hearing it performed live again some time.
Unfortunately, the Gellman Room series doesn’t have its own page on the library website, so you have to look up concerts on the irritating calendar, or pick up a flyer the next time you’re at the library. This Saturday, it’s Nathan Mills playing music for classical guitar from Spain, Latin America and Baroque Germany.
By the way, several weeks ago, I called the library and spoke to Lynn Vandenesse about the concert series. She and a volunteer committee choose performers from qualified applicants. They look for variety, she said. When I asked how many applications she typically got, she said, ”about a dozen.” There are a dozen concerts this season. She would love to have more applicants: July 1 every year is the deadline. Her number is 646-4740.
