April and May

Negligence, negligence, negligence.   It's been a while but I've been attending musical events regularly here in Boulder.  I'll skip most but acknowledge a few.

First I want to congratulate the Tesla quartet for their success in London. They are wonderful musicians and I wish them luck as they venture back east into the vagaries of New York City.  Their final farewell concert was wonderful and I'm glad they did it.  Good luck and I'll watch for your certain success.

Secondly, the University of Colorado student orchestra premiered a work by the university's Carter Pann.  Apparently Pann spent a month in Maine, hanging out on the river estuaries of Damariscotta leading to the Atlantic.  In a piece entitled "Three Secrets in Maine", Pann musically sculpted scenes of his life on the ocean.  When I lived back east I, too, spent wonderful times off the coast of Maine so here was a piece of "program music" that I was pre-programmed for.  Yep, I was there and I heard it first myself.  The opening movement was about fish.  Pann saw and heard herring dashing up a fish-ladder.  To me it was exactly the sound of the pollock that swarmed round my sail boat one lazy afternoon when I floated into a school.  His sound performed by the Phil was just what I heard that day.  The third movement, "In Silence, Adrift under Venus, Alone", captured something that he did but I didn't.  He kayaked at night.  The sound of Maine at night: black flies, mosquitoes and rippling water was exactly what I heard when I wandered down to the docks, heavily coated in bug spray, waiting for late arrivals.  While perhaps I'll hear it again, Maine now reminds me of black flies, mosquitotes and in-laws. 

Thirdly, the death of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau brought me to YouTube where there were many tributes for this great baritone.  While in college I attended a lieder recital by a traveling nameless singer and I was impressed.  When I commented about it to a friend, the music instructor for the college, he said "You should listen to Dieskau".  Fortunately he hired me to supplement the college music collection with an alumni donation of $5000, a lot for the early '60s.  I hit the catalogs, reviewed the current library and became good friends with Sam Goodies.  We had little of Fischer-Dieskau so I made sure that I fixed that problem.  Records were mailed to my PO box and I reviewed and cataloged them. Remember records? Round and black and often scratchy.  I was lucky enough to hear Fischer-Dieskau at a live concert when I lived in Germany, though I don't remember much other than my young son went along and enjoyed it. 

Now that he's dead, I've found a wealth of his singing on YouTube.  Interestingly I found a sound recording of him singing Wotan's farewell. I've just finished a second immersion into the Metropolitan Opera's HD broadcast of Wagner's Ring. I'm still not certain if I like the monster set or not but I can't complain about the singing.  Now Wotan's farewell to Brunnhilde is, as one music critic wrote, the saddest music written.  Sad but I love it and can't get enough of it.  James Morris is, to me, the ultimate Wotan. Bryn Terfel was almost as good and now there's Dieskau.  What a problem it is ranking art: Morris, then Fischer-Dieskau and then Terfel. 

Lieder led to opera.  Opera lead surprisingly to Mahler.  Fortunately I heard two performances of Mahler's "Resurrection" symphony this weekend.  Robert Olson's pace was right on, in my mind.  I sat up in the balcony for the second performance and positioned myself away from everyone but in good light.  I have a copy of the score and followed it closely.  How do conductors do it?  I got a bit lost towards the end of the third movement but the music jumps off the page and I finished with tears in my eyes.