A busy musical week

Over that last 8 days I've attended 6 concerts -- such is the wealth of music in Boulder and at the University of Colorado.

First was the CU student orchestra under Gary Lewis, with Mozart, the "Three Cornered Hat" and "Til Eulenspiegel". I enjoyed Lewis's quick overview of the themes and settings from "Til", though the violist living with us complained it was like playing the whole thing twice. The concert ended with an interest piece by contemporary composer Arturo Marquez "Danzon No 2".

Next night, Saturday, was a performance by this year's Graduate String Quartet-in-Residence, the Tesla Quartet. They studying with the world famous Takacs Quartet at CU and consist of Ross Snyder, Xian Meng, Kimberly Patterson and Megan Mason. It was a busy two nights for Xian and Megan, who the night before performed the Mozart Symphonia Concertante. This night they did Beethoven's Opus 18, No. 6, Bartok's No. 2 and Smetana's "From My Life". Bartok I can leave or take -- it just doesn't do anything for me. The Smetana was my favorite that night, particularly the sedate second movement.

Sunday night my wife and I went to the Boulder Phil's Spanish Valentines day concert. No Spanish composers, mind you, but a Capriccio, Symphony, and Rhapsody -- all of the "Espagnole" flavor. Music of Rimsky-Korsakov, Lalo and Ravel respectively. The Lalo was wonderfully played by Jennifer Frautschi. Several people commented about the sound she got from her violin, which apparently is a Strad. The conductor, Michael Butterman ended the concert with a 10 -- Ravel's "Bolero". It's a fun piece and the audience responded, but I think that Butterman should have placed the snare drummer in front where the audience could see her (Hiroko Hellyer). I've seen several performances of Bolero and it's been fun watching the performer start with a muffled drum, typically a cloth covering over the head of the drum. As the music progresses, at one point they need to keep cadence but swiftly remove the cloth. It seems hard to do and is easy to miss if you don't know that it's going to happen.

I took a two night break, missing some additional opportunities at CU, but started back up on Wednesday night with the CU Pendulum series of contemporary music. This series has always been a favorite of mine, though it has it's ups and downs. Unfortunately this time was pretty much a down. Perhaps it was the longish jazz piece by Liz Comninellis that got me off on the wrong foot, but nothing that night really appealed to me. During two of the pieces I kept wondering about the distinction between sound and music. The sounds were interesting, but was it music? I'm not sure it was, though the effort was valiant. The new professor of musical entrepreneurism, Jeffry Nytch, performed his own new composition with Michael Dunn on tuba. Nytch is a countertenor, which has always been somewhat off-putting to me. I just couldn't understand the words, so it all went over my head, no pun intended.

The following night I was back at CU at Mackey Auditorium for the Artist Series. Pianist Haochen Zhang absolutely floored the audience. He is not yet 20, but has already won the prestigious Van Cliburn competition. What talent! He tenderly treated Mozart, Brahms, Chopin and Schumann, then savagely attacked Stravinsky's "Petrushka" The orchestral version of "Petrushka" was the very first record I purchased back in the late 50's, with Pierre Monteaux conducting. As a kid I'd stand in the middle of my small bedroom and "conduct" the music, always annoying my mom. I still have the record, but really no way to play it anymore. The piano version just seems to have a lot more notes and Zhang played with a speed and intensity that was amazing. He had to have an extra finger or two on each hand to make that much sound. He's one to watch.

Finally, on Friday night, I attended the Boulder Chamber Orchestra's chamber music mini-concert, the "BCO Musicians and Friends". I was fortunately sitting next to Kelly Dean Hansen, a local music reviewer and PhD student at CU. Kelly had brought the scores for two of the night's pieces, Dvorak's "Five Bagatelles" and the Brahm Piano Quartet No. 3., so I watched both the scores and the performers. What a treat to see the music in all it's complexity and to hear it as happens. I've got several scores at home and I sometime follow a recording of a Beethoven quartet or, choke-choke, one of Wagner's "Ring" operas. If you've never tried it, give it a whirl because you sometime will see something that you hadn't heard before.

I'm really glad all these performances are so easily avaible in Boulder. And they say retirement is boring?