Some past concerts

This is just a quick comment on some concerts past, including one last night.

I only went to 2 performances by the Colorado Music Festival. Their programming hasn't appealed to me since they switched focus to world music. Their Wagner evening, essentially "The Ring without Words" with some Tristan, featured Jane Eaglen. It was fine though the audience was surprisingly small for such a great singer. I heard her sing Brunnhilde at the Seattle Opera's Ring in 2000 and 2005. The CMF season ended with Mahler's 5th, well played but strangely paired with a piece of aboriginal chant, electric guitar and didgeridoo. World music, indeed.

The University of Colorado has cut back on it's summer music offerings this year, probably for budgetary reasons. However, that didn't prevent them from two operatic offerings, one of which I missed. The one I did attend though, "The Autumn Orchard" by Dan Kellogg with words by Michael Martinez, was very good. This is apparently Kellogg's first venture into opera. I've heard a bunch of his vocal music including "Arise my love" and some selections from Ben, but I wasn't sure how he would handle the solo voice. He did fine. It's a chamber opera, with 5 singers accompanied by piano, in this case Robert Spillman. It's nicely packaged and was well sung. One thing did strike me as odd. When the lovers are physically together, they didn't sing together -- they sing to each other. However, when they are separated, he in jail and she at home, they sing a duet. A spiritual thing, I guess.

When the university resumed the fall session, I started back into my weekly trips to the newly renovated Grusin Hall in the Imig music building for the Faculty Tuesdays. My first exposure to the changes was a concert of bassoon and piano. I thought the sound was a bit harsh to my ears, but later concerts, have changed my mind. While the cover for this year's programs features the new stage with drapes across the back, it's always been barren, so I've nothing to compare it with. Other listeners that I've talked to are quite satisfied, so I'm not going to worry.

Over the past few weeks I've heard the Boulder Philharmonic do an okay Beethoven's 3rd Symphony; heard the University of Colorado's Symphony Orchestra also do Beethoven's 3rd; and heard the Boulder Chamber Orchestra with Andrew Cooperstock perform Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto. Lot's of Thirds. Attendance at the CU student performances is up this year now that music appreciation students must attend a certain number of concerts and proving their attendance electronically with a "clicker". With the exception of one rude student texting through a whole symphony, the young audience was well behaved, and, hopefully, appreciated the performance.

The Takács quartet started their season with the welcome return of Karoly Schranz, just recovered from shoulder surgery. Their performance of Shostakovich's 2nd Quartet sent shivers through the audience. Ed Dusinberre's violin sang plaintively against the other's drone-like lament. I had prepared for this concert with a cursory listening to the Shostakovich, but nothing prepared me for the real thing. This has been my musical highlight of the fall thus far.

Margaret McDonald is Assistant Professor of Collaborative Piano at CU. So we had a collaborative pianist collaborating with a collaborative pianist from UC-Santa Barbara, Natasha Kislenko. Piano 6 hands, piano 4 hands and two pianos -- such great fun, particularly the Poulenc Sonata for Two Pianos.

The night after McDonald's concert the Stockhausen 2010 series started the CU Pendulum New Music program. I wrote about it earlier and I'm still scratching my head over it.

Last night a young and attractive Chinese pianist Di Wu re-introduced me to the French Impressionists: Debussy and Ravel. Each year the Takács programming introduces other artists, mostly other young string quartets. This year it was Di Wu, a pianist with amazing technique. I was seated forward and on the far left and had a great view of her hands flying over the keyboard. She performed Debussy's Preludes, Book 2 and, for comparison, Ravel's "Miroirs". I've always favored DeBussy's piano composition versus Ravel's piano music, though Ravel's is the better orchestrator. Now I'm not sure. Wu's "Le vale de cloches" ending the Ravel was phenomenal. Her fingers flew so quickly and surely it amazed me. Great concert.