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Tonight's will be the last one we attend until September starts the new season. All of the rest of the summer performances are more popular, family oriented programs which don't interest me.
So tonight, our own Krzysztof Urbański will conduct the following pieces:
1) Krzysztof Penderecki - Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima, a composition for 52 string instruments
2) Brahms - Violin Concerto with guest Joshua Bell
3) Beethoven - Symphony No. 3 "Eroica"
Looking forward to another great program. The only piece I am completely unfamiliar with is the "Victims of Hiroshima".
I'll present my usual comments after the show and promise not to use the word, awesome. I'll have my thesaurus available!
Follow Ups:
I recently helped link my kid to some Joshua Bell videos, and found out he (Bell) is a Gingold student--check out Youtube. Great stuff.Last night ended our youth symphony concert season, with the concerto competition winners and last concert of the full CYMO (mostly seniors and juniors, big kids). Great youth orchestra performance of Berlioz' Roman Carnival, concerto excerpts (Ibert for oboe, Debussy for clarinet), Bernstein West Side Story, break, Howard Hanson's 2nd symphony and this potboiler that was just neat and loud and celebratory Malambo from the “Estancia Suite” by Ginastera (talk about testing your system). Even my wife loved that piece. At the Pomona College venue, she thought it made more impact than @ Walt Disney Hall earlier in the month. I missed the Disney Hall concert.
The concertmaster is this tiny 16 year old Malaysian Chinese kid (see link) who moves his body a lot like Joshua Bell or maybe William Precil of the Cleveland Orchestra. His parents are pretty modest, and they said he is "just imitating his older brother, who plays in the Malaysian Philharmonic."
Weather was great, 70-72 F at start, a nice brisk cool walk to adjoining building at Pomona College in Claremont CA, for their post concert reception (finger food galore).
My kid sat w her friends from school (high school symphony members) and they loved watching their classmates and esp seeing one of their violin section seniors play as principal 2nd in the CYMO (www.cymo.org).
Good education, good music, good friends, what more can one ask for?
Edits: 06/04/12 06/04/12
Sounds like a really enjoyable day and a great way to end the youth season. Looks like Miclen will be around for a while. It will be interesting to see where life takes him.
Thanks for your informative reviews and encouragement as you journey with us through the classics. Checked your gear, good stuff.Your wife is cool. I think my wife is "hot," but she is modest. We had the chance to meet Sarah Chang a couple of yrs ago (link). The kid asked her to autograph the actual Vivaldi Four Seasons CD w Orpheus Chamber Orch.
Here in the LA area, I can listen to KUSC all day long (online for that matter).
I heard part of Symphonycast Saturday with Dutoit conducting La Mer and then, on Sunday afternoon driving to our concert, LA Phil was playing concerts featuring Ralph Kirschbaum, the well known cellist.
Neeme Jarvi, conductor
Ralph Kirschbaum, cello
Program:
Dvorak: Carnival Overture
Dvorak: Cello Concerto
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5We had a lot to do on Sunday, as I was overseeing and facilitating guest presenters to our church. That was before the evening CYMO concert.
Tired, but you guys (Chris from L and you in particular) provided the entertainment at the end of my workday before going home!
Edits: 06/05/12 06/05/12
docw,
Glad I can occasionally provide a little entertainment. Lord knows I can't educate anyone on classical music.
keep on listening, then.
Chris from Lafayette is the best, and if you get a question, Thornhill (young guy) is very educated although he loves Michael Gielen for everything (almost).
Classical, you learned it when? I started age 6 or 7, hanging w my father's hobby. A true vignette he often told is when interviewing for Stanford med school, the German doctor prof who was interviewing him was playing a Beethoven sonata. He waited a few minutes, and after being ushered in, he started to converse about the sonata, and the prof said, "that's fine, you're accepted."
So the place is sold out, packed to the rafters last night. A fellow sits down on the other side of my wife and we exchange brief greetings. He takes out a small pair of binoculars and offers us their use during the show.
My wife's first comment to him was, "I hope you can't see boogers in the musicians noses"! He cracked up and said, "No, I don't think they're that powerful".
Later, on the ride home, I said, "Geez, you know the guy for 30 seconds and you use the word "boogers""??? We started laughing so hard, I almost had to pull over.
She did another one after the show, but I'll save that for later...
Well, on to the show.
The staging was different tonight and stayed that way for all three pieces, except, of course, for the absence of the woodwinds, horns and tympani for the first piece.
Here was the setup.
It was kinda cool seeing the 8 beautiful double basses spread out across the rear platform normally used for the percussion section. I have only seen one other "different" arrangement of the musicians seating, and that was for a Tchaikovsky symphony. I had gotten used to where sounds were "supposed" to come from, so it took a while to re-orient. This probably explains why I get confused listening to some orchestral pieces at home.
The performances:
1)Threnody
It's true, you can make a bunch of ugly noises with beautiful instruments. Sorry, but I don't get this one at all and I did try to put the sounds in the context of the piece's subject. It was just a mess of noise, although it was most fun watching some of the contortions of the musicians doing the most unusual things to their stringed instruments. Slaps, exagerated plucks, bowing below the bridges of the double basses. Even the musicians looked like they were in pain.
I won't ask for recommended recordings of this one, thank you.
2) Brahms Violin Concerto with Joshua Bell
Well played and simply beautiful. Joshua is an Indiana boy and this was a huge homecoming. He played for the crowds and did it extremely well. Full house standing ovation until he came out the 5th time and played a really fun, humorous version of Yankee Doodle Dandee. During his playing of this piece, laughs erupted from the audience several times. I give him 5-Stars.
3) Beethoven's "Eroica"
As well played as anything I've heard on any recording. I have recordings of Beethoven's 3rd with Toscanini, Klemperer, Solti and Van Karajan. Granted, I an a newbie and many, if not most nuances of performance are lost on me. It was still, simply outstanding.
Before the performance we bought two of Joshua Bell's CDs and were told he would be available after the evening's performance for autographs. I was going to buy only one, but another had a great picture of him on the cover and my wife says, "buy this one, too". I looked at her and before I could say anything, she commented on my fascination with violin and piano babes and that she could have her violin "hunk". Sold!
So, at the end of the show, we go downstairs and get in line for the autograph session. Joshua is signing really fast, only pausing really to talk to young kids and ask their name to add to the signing. Otherwise it's sign, next, sign, next, sign...
Well, my wife steps up for her turn and says, "You're playing was wonderful, would you do me a favor and sign it to "a hot babe""?
He looked up quickly with a laughing grin and said, "No way, you have no idea the trouble I can get into. I've seen marriages fail for stuff I've written on a CD."
My wife pleads, to no avail. We laughed our asses off as we left the theater. Jeez, the stuff she come up with. This added to the tear filled laughter we had on the way home.
Overall, another great night!
I have never understood why the Penderecki Threnody is a significant or exceptional work.
Jult,
Funny, I just forund an LP with this piece at the local Half Price Books. It was pristine, I passed.
That is a fantastic program. I saw Josh earlier this year in Chicago, and he really puts on a good show!
I whole-heartedly agree!!!
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