Nirvana Boulder

It's wonderful to live in Boulder and have so much access to classical music. Lots and lots and lots of live classical music. Granted, two performances were live broadcasts of the Metropolitan opera, live classical music is alive and well in Boulder, Colorado. In the past two weeks I've seen 3 operas, one requiem, a Beethoven symphony and chamber music galore, 11 performances in all, and, yes, I'm a glutton when it comes to classical music.

Starting out on a Sunday afternoon, the University of Colorado's School of Music put on a very solid "Marriage of Figaro". Two singers stood out: Wei Wu as Figaro and Meagan Mahlberg as the countess. Each opera performance demonstrates the rising quality of the singers being attracted to Boulder.

Leon Fleischer played Prokofiev's 4th piano concerto with the Irish Chamber Orchestra. This is the first time I've heard that concerto live and never understood that it was for the left hand only. I never realized how many left-hand only piano pieces there were. Wikipedia lists 41, including compositions by Strauss, Hindemith, Martinů, Britten and a raft of others. For reasons known only to pianists, there don't appear to be any written for the right hand. I wonder why?

The university's Pendulum series was up next. A monthly concert of music written by faculty and graduate students, it's always appealed to me. The music is varied, some accessible, some not, but always worth the short trip to the music school. One particular piece, a piano quintet by Steve Sachse, was the best of the lot.

I went from Mozart's "Marriage" on Sunday to the Met's "Don Giovanni" on Saturday. While it's not fair to compare a university performance to the Met, there's something about a live performance that's hard to beat. Musically and vocally the Met is hard to beat. The Met had just been forced to replace the ailing Gary Lehman in their upcoming "Siegfried" with a young Jay Hunter Morris from Paris, Texas. He was interviewed by Rene Fleming at the "Don Giovanni" intermission and had a wonderful observation. When asked if he was wary or star-struck by a role at the Met, particularly one as difficult as that of Siegfried, he replied with something like "When the lights go down and I get into character, I don't know if it's the Met or a high school gym". Great response. The next Saturday he sang his heart out and was a Siegfried to remember.

More Mozart was on the agenda that Saturday. After listening to "Don Giovanni", my wife and I went with friends to a performance of the Boulder Chamber Orchestra's Mozart "Requiem". The Ars Nova Singers and soloists provided the vocals for a packed house. It was a solid performance and got a rousing ovation. Interestingly, after we left the church we saw a flash mob dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" on the Pearl Street Mall. From the religiosity of Mozart to strangely dressed dancers and zombies in a short block's walk. Only in Boulder.

Next up was a performance by the Takács String Quartet. Janacek's "Kreutzer" and Ravel's only quartet preceded a Dvorak String Quintet with Paul Erhard on String Bass. I particularly like the quintet. Erhard's instrument looked larger than any I had seen before, probably an illusion.

The next night I attended one of the Tuesday Colorado faculty performances, this time featuring music written by Carter Pann, composition and theory professor. It's hard to select a favorite here. Janet Harriman played a delightful harp piece "Emerald's on Artemis" and Joel Hastings, coming to Boulder from Florida State University, played 8 selections from Pann's "The Piano's 12 Sides ... for Joe Hastings". I had a great view and found it interesting to watch Hasting's facial expressions as he played. Back in high school I had a good friend who went to Julliard for keyboard studies. My friend and Joel both showed the same concentration and intensity and passion. It's a piano thing that I'll never understand. The graduate student quartet studying with the Takács this year, the Tesla Quartet, played Pann's 1st String Quartet. This was my favorite for the evening. I liked the quartet so much that I came back and ordered a recording the next day. I hope this recording is as good as the Tesla's performance though a live performance always wins out.

After attending a graduate student viola recital on Wednesday, we went to the Cantabile Singers performance later that night. The featured work was Ralph Vaughan Williams's "Flos Campi". The violist was Gerry Walther from the Takács String Quartet. This was a first for me, both for the piece and for the soloist stopping shortly into the work with a technical problem on her viola. With the problem fixed, Gerry finished the work flawlessly and got a standing ovation.

Following the endurance test of Wagner's "Siegfried" on Saturday, my wife and I attended a performance of a new group of 13 string musicians, Sphere. Founded this past spring, this time they granted me an earlier wish: another performance of Jeffrey Nytch's "Epilogue". I had heard it performed in September by the Tesla Quartet and now a performance by a small string ensemble. While the composer said he favors the ensemble version, I'm a bit partial to the string quartet version. The Sphere's performance of the young Shostakovitch's "Prelude and Scherzo" was dazzling.

Finally, yesterday afternoon I heard the Clavier Trio (Arkady Fomin, Jesus Castro-Balbi and David Korevaar) perform works by Haydn, Paul Schoenfeld and Brahms. I had convinced myself that I would recognize the Brahms Opus 8 Trio in D Major, but I was very wrong. This was completely new to me and I really responded as they played the scherzo.

Enough for now. Classical music is abundantly available here in Nirvana, a.k.a Boulder, Colorado.

Students

The other night I attended the opening concert of the University of Colorado's Symphony Orchestra. Gary Lewis again enthusiastically leads the orchestra and programmed three works: Beethoven's Leonore No 3, Strauss's Don Juan and Brahm's Violin Concerto.

First an observation. It appears that some students are now required to attend a number of concerts as part of their class work. The students click-in and click-out with their cell phones and their 'clickers'. They do this to confirm attendance and convince their professors of their participation. I believe this was started last year and it seems to have a positive effect on students. Or at least I've convinced myself of that based on their reactions.

Gary Lewis's opening for the Beethoven was spot on -- bright and clear and very professional. The students sitting in front of me commented at the end something to the effect "Hey, they are really good! Surprisingly good!"

But what really got me was the young violinist Ross Snyder's Brahms. Snyder, the first violin with the Tesla Quartet, the student quartet studying directly under CU's famous Takács Quartet, was outstanding. Here for all the students was a different representative of CU. Not an athlete, not someone hyped on the sports page, but a quiet skilled musician. Classical music probably does not top most student's preferences, but that night the audience, again mostly students, erupted with genuine enthusiam to Ross's talent and to the orchestra's performance.

I suspect that the kids at CU that heard that performance will remember it for a long time, and perhaps classical music gained some converts.

Resuming in the fall

Restarting after a long absense is always tough. I'm lazy when writing about music, but active in trying to avail myself as much as possible to music.

The summer saw some concerts at the Music Festival. Michael Christie's programming was again not much to my liking, but I attended several concerts. As usual, the orchestra was in top form, but it seemed that something wasn't quite there. The Mahler 6th seemed lackluster and long; Schubert's "Unfinished" should remain incomplete, and the ending Berlioz was mismatched with a jazzy string trio. Enough said.

With the University of Colorado back in session, the school of music has begun to offer the standard fare:faculty performances, student recitals and the school orchestra. The school of music, under dean Dan Scher, continues to improve and the students certainly show it. The Tesla Quartet (Ross Snyder, Michelle Lie, Megan Mason and Kimberly Patterson) played crisp and certain Haydn, (G Major, Op 76 No 1) following the lead of their mentors, the Takács String Quartet. Takács also opened their season with Haydn (D Major No 53 "The Lark"). Clearly the students are learning well from their teachers. Takács also did Benjamin Britten's Quartet No 1 in D Major, the highlight of the evening for me: new and calm and clearly very British -- wish dashes and sprinkles of "Peter Grimes".

The faculty concerts got off with a bang with Elizabeth Farr doing double duty. In early September she performed on harpsichord some Bach's preludes and fugues from from the Well-tempered Clavier. Then nearing the end of September she played on organ Bach's Leipzig Chorale Preludes. As a non-musician, I find her stamina and attention to detail amazing. She writes her own program notes which I find very technical, but she also provides supplementary observations on the individual pieces that helped the listening. Keep it up.

CU celebrated the 10th anniversary of September 11th with a memorial concert that was packed. Gerry Walther, violist with the Takács, performed a very appropriate and somber excerpt from Shostakovich's last work, the Sonata for Viola and Piano. A young Canadian violist lived with us for two years and performed the whole sonata for her degree requirements -- it's a lovely piece with quotations from Beethoven's "Moonlight". For me, the highlight of this concert was a performance by 10 string players of Jeffrey Nytch's "Epilogue". Nytch, who is Director of the Entrepreneurship Center for Music at CU, pointed me to his web site (jeffreynytch.com) where
I was able to access a orchestral version of "Epilogue". I really like this piece and hope others will get a chance to hear it.

I can't forget the Boulder Phil and Michael Butterman. The season opened with Hsing-ay Hsu playing the Bach Keyboard Concerto No 1 in D minor. The program notes omitted that this was a transcription by Busoni, so Hsing-ay worked her magic on the audience hearing slightly different Bach. The Phil's Mahler's First symphony was quite as successful, but Mahler is always good.

A fun swing of the Pendulum

It was another interesting Pendulum series concert last night at the University of Colorado. This series is a venue for student composers to show their works, along with tried and true works from known composers.

This is the second (or third?) time that I've heard music by Elisabeth Anne Comninellis. Last night's "flight" for 8 performers was quite nice. She explained who the movements were named for, introducing me to someone I'd never hear of, Sir William Cayley. As it turns out, after a few blind alleys on Google, it was Sir GEORGE Cayley she was composing about. Regardless, the music was fine and ended with the performers disappearing ala Haydn's "Farewell" Symphony with the solo trumpet, Greg Simon, serenading the audience. If my memory serves correctly, at an earlier Pendulum series she had string quartet members move to different locations on the stage and exit individually. Must be her thing, I guess.

Hunter Ewan, a very frequent contributing composer for Pendulum, premiered his "Red River Folk Tales", a choral piece set to his own poem about growing up. Ewan has done some nice electronic music before and had an interesting "live" electronic piece done at the CU Black Box Theater with Terry Sawchuck on "processed trumpet". Here in "Tales" Ewan displayed a nice touch for choral composing. The University Choir, under Jeffrey Gemmell, sang and enunciated well, though reading along helped. I enjoyed it and thought it reminded me of the current choral superstar, Eric Whitacre. Perhaps it would have sounded better without the electronics in the background, completely a capella.

A piece by Steve Reich for 4 violins, "Violin Phase", illustrated sound shifting. The ending was amusing with the violinists ending simultaneously, as planned, and then looking at the audience with a strong sense of relief.

The concert ended with Warren Benson's "Passing Bell" with the CU Wind Symphony. It was, to say the least, loud, almost overwhelming the auditorium. I enjoyed it but was amused watching some in the audience hold their ears during the crescendos. I felt sorry for the poor harpist, plucking away for all she was worth and still being completely drowned out by the winds. For some reason I never considered the harp a wind instrument -- live and learn.

Oh Susannah

Since someone wondered if I was going to Susannah, I'll make some comments.

No, Susannah was not a Stephen Foster retrospective. Don't go expecting to hear "Camptown Races", "Old Black Joe" or "Beautiful Dreamer". This is one of America's most performed operas, written in 1955 by Carlisle Floyd. It was done several years ago at Central City, but this is the first time it was done at the University of Colorado. The setting is the evangelical hills of Tennessee and it's pretty bleak.

My wife and I went last night and we both had similar reactions. I don't like to knock the home team, but I want to be honest about all this. It was less than sterling entertainment. That doesn't mean the singers were bad, they weren't. The music was accessible and pleasant and the staging well done. What was missing was comprehension. I kept asking my wife if she could understand what was just sung and the answer was always no. The orchestra, some 44 musicians, sounded fine but too often covered the singers. Some of the cast, particularly Wei Wu and Emily Martin, had the volume, but the diction in most cases just wasn't clear. I could hear some sung words, but too often they were muffled or insufficiently loud enough. Clearly this was an opera that begs for super-titles. We are used to reading the words for operas sung in other languages, but it seems to me that sung English can often be even more unintelligible than French, Italian or German. Without comprehension the art suffers.

Should Susannah have been done in Macky Auditorium? With over 2000 seats, it was disappointing to see so many empty seats, though I've been told there were more upstairs than I would have guessed. Performing it in the Music Theatre might have been a better choice, though the large orchestra might not have fit in the pit. My gut tells me that this opera would be more accessible with smaller orchestration and a smaller venue.

Was Susannah a good opera for CU? I think not. I suspect the decision of what to perform is a function of the current crop of singers, the budget and the artistic vision of Leigh Holman. Susannah might have been a good opera for CU in concept, but compared to some other recent ones, "Dead Man Walking" comes to mind, it wasn't so hot.

A friend's question

A good friend, after a concert, posed a question to me: "How is it that you do not listen to other types: (jazz- there are all varieties, oldies - 40's through the 70s, modern contemporary, new age, religious, country and blues, etc. etc.)? It seems to me that these various genres include many selections that overlap parts of the classical music spectrum." In a nutshell, why classical above all else?

Like all things, we start somewhere and live on through it -- such was the case with music. In recalling my early musical experiences, I'm reminded of three things: symphonic music shorts at the movies; accordion lessons and my teacher Mr. Williams. When I went alone to movies for the first time, way back in the 50's, theaters showed short clips other than ads for popcorn and coming attractions. There were cartoons, news reels, and sometimes concert performances. They weren't long, but I distinctly remember watching the magnificence of a conductor in front of a large orchestra and the final amazing clash of the cymbals. I really liked that. My parents cleverly decided that the cymbals weren't the way to go, so off to Keyboard Studios where I took accordion lessons for many years. I learned to read music, perform it poorly, and develop a sense of what went where. Fast music was more fun, slow was sad, loud didn't go with slow and the right hand needed to cooperate with left. Then along came Mr. Williams, our music teacher in high school. A somewhat strange looking fellow that some kids teased, he exposed us to the classics, choral music, "musicals" and band. Since playing the accordion in the band was frowned on, I skipped that part now wishing I hadn't. He was dedicated and with a passion for what was "art" and what was "right" -- not just classical music, but singing on key and acting the role properly - no messing around. He was devoted, as best I can remember, to the 3 B's, and that became my first real exposure to the giants. I've always held Grieg and Khachaturian close because I played "In the hall of the Mountain King" and "Sabre Dance" fairly well, but fast, on the accordion.

So my youthful experience lead to me thinking more about music. I grew up in the 50 and 60's, so I heard Elvis, Rickie Nelson, Fats Domino and the Beatles. I listened and danced to folk and rock 'n roll stations like other normal kids. But one night, on a date, a rock announcer completely mispronounced Wagner's name and "Siegfried's Idyll". I knew better, so why ever trust them again? Rock's credibility was blown. I made money delivering papers and saved enough to buy a used component stereo system, so next the challenge was to buy records. My first purchase was Stravinsky's "Petrouchka", though I can't now imagine why. I would stand in the middle of my small narrow bedroom and blare it out and pretend to conduct it. That was, I believe, the start of my continuing kinetic reaction to music -- absorb it but play it and conduct it and feel it. Over time I collected many records, mostly "classical", but a sprinkling of the Kingston Trio, Joni Mitchell, the Modern Jazz Quartet, Dave Brubeck, the Beatles, Ahmad Jamal, Harry Belafonte, Ramsey Lewis and many others, some known and some not. This small writing exercise somehow makes me want to listen again to some, but old scratchy LP's are all I've got. When I google some I find them, but it's not satisfying. I found Ahmad Jamal's Trio performing "Poinciana", but it's definitely not what I remember. It is why I don't appreciate about jazz -- the lack of repeatability and dependence. To me much of what I tend of ignore in music is improvisational and not repeatable. Composers composed. They wrote down what they wanted to say and offered the performers guidelines. For me the art and the emotion and the reaction is in the performance of well composed music. That's not to say that jazz and rock and folk and country isn't well-done, to me it's just not what I like.

In remembering Mr Williams, it occurs to me that I can be influenced by other's suggestions. My college music instructor, Larry McIlvain, introduced me to a lot of new music: German lied, Benjamin Britten, Olivier Messiaen and string quartets. I've enjoyed books by the current critic for The New Yorker, Alex Ross. His latest, "Listen to This" had some interesting chapters on musicians that I ignored. He writes about Radiohead and about Björk. Okay, I said, if he found them interesting I'll try them. Our resident violist, Rachael Gibson, shared some Radiohead and also recommended Sigur Rós. YouTube had some Björk. I guess I can see why some people (make that many of people) like them, but they really don't appeal to me. Listen once or twice, then forget. Listen once to Mahler or Beethoven or "The Ring" or even Arvo Pärt and you don't want to forget. You want to hear it again and again and again.

I'm not sure that fully answers the question, but it's a start.

Restarting in 2011

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.