More Pendulum swings.

I went again to a Pendulum concert the other night at the University of Colorado. The Pendulum series is one of my favorites: all contemporary music that I'm hearing for the first time.

The featured composer this time as Alan Fletcher, the president of the Aspen Music Festival. Milton Babbit, one of his teachers, told him that he was "French" (as opposed to "German") and his music lived up to that designation. A short, Messiaen-like piece "Green" was beautifully played by Hsing-ay Hsu who then with violinist Lina Bahn performed a delightful "Study: Woman Holding a Balance", a musical impression of Vermeer's painting. While in college I had a print of Vermeer's "Milkmaid", so this piece reminded me of college. Fletcher's music is tonal and accessible and fairly short. Since he's a "local" composer for Colorado, you might expect that the so-called classical music station for Colorado, KVOD, would have broadcast something of his. Nope. I then went to my favorite Internet station, http://contemporary-classical.com and looked there for Fletcher. Unfortunately nothing is available there either.

A student composition, Jökulhlaup, by Paul Hembree was another interesting piano piece at this concert. A Jökulhlaup is Icelandic for a catastrophic flood caused by a volcanic eruption under a glacier -- shades of the cartoon move "Ice Age".

The final piece at this Pendulum concert was an violin octet "Gran Turismo" by Andrew Norman. I'm not into video games, the inspiration for the piece, but I could sense the agitation and speed. Another fun composition well played.

Brand of Shame

Beethoven famously scribbled out Bonaparte's name on his third symphony and changed it to "Eroica".   Historians suggest this was out of disgust.  I normally don't comment politically, but after watching Obama's speech to congress, I realized the network was labeling some in the audience with a similar  brand of shame and disgust.  Open parenthesis, capital R, close parenthesis.  (R).   

It's that time of the year

Each year about this time the classical music scene in Boulder explodes with opportunities. The Boulder Chamber Orchestra performed nationalistic pieces by the Greek composer Nikos, Skalkottas, Ralph Vaughan Williams and Josef Suk on Saturday February 7Th. Then last Monday night, February 8Th, I listened to the Takacs String Quartet play Haydn's "Emperor" quarter and Schubert's Quintet, D956 with Judith Glyde. A wonderful evening. I skipped the next night's performance by the CU (University of Colorado) Wind Band due to lethargy, but heard the CU Orchestra perform on Thursday night. I'm always amazed at the quality that this student orchestra demonstrates under the leadership of Gary Lewis. The highlight for me was Ilya Goldberg's performance in the Sibelius Violin Concerto. Ilya lived with us for a short time and I've followed his performances ever since. He did a wonderful job and interestingly, just as he got into an early extra fast passage the shoulder support on his violin slipped. He slightly grimaced but didn't appear to miss a note. Bravo

The next night, Friday February 13th, I went to a performance of the Tasman Quartet. They are the quartet currently studying with the Takacs at CU and are now in their second year. They again performed the Schubert Quartet D810 with strong dynamics and a wonderful tone. The next night my wife and I had friends over for dinner and then attended the Boulder Philharmonic. Butterman. Misha and Cipa Dichter performed Mozart's Concerto for Two Pianos, K365 smoothly, then Michael Butterman lead the orchestra in a rousing performance of Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony.

I rested for two nights then I heard Bizet's "Pearl Fishers" at Opera Colorado. I had prepared for it a bit by listening to the complete opera a few times. Clearly the highlight was the tenor-baritone duo "Au fond du" but I was very pleased with the entire opera. Listening ahead of time helped and I enjoyed the whole thing, contrary to my impression that I'd be bored after the duet.

The next night I went back to CU for the finals of the Bruce Ekstrand Graduate Student Performance Competition. The judges had to choose between a pianist, a soprano, a harpist, a flutist, a violinist (my friend Ilya Goldberg), and a piano duo. It was a very difficult choice as they were all excellent. Judging such diverse instruments must have been very tough. We in the audience were given a ballot for a separate survey. Try as I did, it was nearly impossible for me to rank one over the other, particularly as a non-musician but devoted listener. I finally selected the harpist but the judges selected the flutist, Melissa Lotspeich, followed by the piano duo of Miroslava Mintcheva and David McArthur. The rest of the audience selected the piano duo. I'm certain that was based on their rousing performance of Bolcom's "The Serpent's Kiss".

Last night, February 19th, I again went to CU for Julia Fischer and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields. The two Bach violin concertos and Walton's "Sonata for Strings" were okay, but I enjoyed Britten's "Variations on a Theme by Frank Bridge". It's another piece I had recently listened to, so perhaps listening to a piece ahead of time increases my enjoyment, though I've heard both Bach pieces many times.

Tonight we might go to the Boulder Chorale's performance of Haydn's "Lord Nelson Mass", but maybe not. The Upstart Crow's performance of the little known Shakespeare play "The Two Noble Kinsmen" might just beat out the Haydn.

I'm lucky to live in Boulder and have so many musical opportunities open to me. I need to rest my ears a bit so we'll head to the mountains for some skiing. The CU Pendulum series is up again next week.

Les Nuits D'Été

The song cycle "Les Nuits D'Été" by Berlioz was sung last night by Julie Simpson as part of the University of Colorado's Music Faculty Series. What a treat! Some people have commented to me about their negative reaction to Berlioz. Some of his works might be a bit over-blown, but not this song cycle. He only has 28 works with opus numbers, so for someone who lived to be 65, his output wasn't prodigious. Simpson has a silky voice and she hit a home run with her deliverance. She also sang "Arianna a Naxos" by Haydn and the witch's scene from Humperdinck's "Hansel and Gretel", assisted by Kara Guggenmos and Jennifer DeDominic. It was a wonderful concert.

"Les Nuits D'Été"has only been broadcast on my local , now non-reachable, classical station, KVOD, 11 times since the beginning of 2004. 6 broadcasts were between 8 PM and midnight, and 5 between in the 1 AM and 4 AM. What a shame that listeners in the Denver area don't get much chance to hear this wonderful cycle.