Silence is golden. Actually here it's been activity and lethargy, running hot and cold, and finally motivation. I haven't written anything since early October and I'm overdue.
It's not that I've been missing concerts. During the fall and early winter I continued to do my thing and listen to the Boulder Philharmonic, the Colorado Symphony, the CU Faculty Tuesdays, the CU Pendulum concerts, the Takacs String Quartet, the Boulder Chamber Orchestra, Metropolitan Opera simulcasts, a few student recitals and an occasional single performance here in Boulder. I just never wrote about any of them because I was busy, busy, busy. At least that's my excuse.
So the new year is here and I'll start afresh. I recently attended the CSO's performance of Rachmaninoff's Second Symphony with Michael Daugherty's “Time Machine”. The later was fun watching 3 separate orchestras respond to 3 different conductors, simultaneously synchronized together. While normally a fan of contemporary compositions, the first movement didn't do much for me, but “Future”, the second movement got me going.
Takacs kicked off 2011 with 2 Haydn quartets and Smetana's “From My Life”. Haydn's “Apponyi” quartets were fairly late (1793) but didn't send me into ecstasy. The Smetana did!
Last night Erika Eckert, Associate Professor of Viola at the University of Colorado's Boulder campus, mesmerized the audience with her “The True Nature of Things” faculty performance. Playing sometimes with others, sometime with electronics and computer synthesis and finally with an overtone singer, the program was extremely entertaining. Kudos to Erika for providing such an entertaining evening.
Two pieces in particular stood out: “At Rome around Jovian Moons” a collaboration between Erika and Paul Rudy and “Down the Stream” another cooperative effort with “throat singer” Paul Fowler. The combination of the viola with Fowler's harmonic singing/whistling, with visual cues and student percussions and rain sticks made for an enjoyable end to a fun concert. Coincidentally I recently bought Shostakovich's “Odna (Alone)” film music which features an overtone singer in one section.
I also want to mention a TV program on Glenn Gould that I saw a few weeks back. Gould, a favorite of mine, was featured in depth with many interviews and a lot of Bach. I was surprised at the program's end that the cover music for the credits wasn't Bach but instead Wagner's “Siegfried's Idyll”. I was curious and tracked down on Amazon two versions of “Idyll” involving Gould: one with him conducting and one playing a transcription. The TV special emphasized that Gould did things “his way” and this carried over into the “Idyll”. His "Idyll" is 24:31 minutes long with orchestra, and a gorgeous 23:35 on piano. As a comparison, Bahman Saless conducted the Boulder Chamber Orchestra in a speedier 20:21, but slow compared to a version by Roger Norrington who zips along at 16:19. a mere 10 seconds slower than Toscanini's 16:09. I've listened to them all repeatedly one afternoon and it's the piano transcription hands down.
Posts
