BSO Pops

Concert Roundup: Wednesday Edition

For some reason I keep thinking it’s Thursday; I almost posted a viola joke. Wishful thinking, I guess.

• The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra breaks out the BSO Pops with “Music of the Baby Boomers.” So I’m not the target audience. Apparently Frankie Valli is happening; you mean it’s not spelled “Valley”? Live and learn, I guess. May 17 at Strathmore; May 18 – 20 at the Meyerhoff. [ See it! ]
• The National Symphony Orchestra counters with a very classical program: a Haydn symphony, a Weill symphony, and the Brahms second piano concerto as performed by Nelson Freire. May 17 – 19. [ See it! ]
• This week at Strathmore, we offer two counts of Debussy, a brass ensemble, and a talented soprano. [ See the calendar! ]

One Concert Roundup More

Who cares about your lonely soul? We strive toward a larger goal: awesome music.

• You know what musical theater version of a character really rubs me the wrong way? Marius Pontmercy. What a wishy-washy starry-eyed compound-word-drip. And yet I love Les Miserables (the musical) (the book was okay) just the same. Enjolras gets my seal of approval. And that is why I applaud the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra‘s BSO SuperPops for this week’s concert, which is all Les Miz, all the time! April 19 at Strathmore; April 20 – 22 at the Meyerhoff. [ See it! ]
• If your small child isn’t ready for really sickening declarations of love and French people killing each other, skip Les Miz and stick with Babar. Yes, the elephant! Apparently his life has been scored by Poulenc. Who knew? April 21 at the Meyerhoff. [ See it! ]
• The National Symphony Orchestra, by contrast, remains strictly classical this week, with Rachmaninoff‘s first piano concerto, Elgar‘s first symphony, and a suite by Bridge. [ See it! ]
• This week at Strathmore, William Bolcom and Joan Morris hang together and assortment of pop stars and jazz vocalists swing on by. [ See the calendar! ]

Concert Roundup: Hearts and Flowers Edition

Got a hot date planned for Valentine’s Day? I do! I’m having a threesome with a bottle of chocolate Zin and the Colin Firth/Jennifer Ehle version of Pride and Prejudice. Scandalous! Ah, tradition.

But maybe you haven’t been able to concoct a plan as perfect as mine. Maybe you need an orchestral assist. Alternatively, you could just bake this heart-shaped pizza and call it a day, but I’d select a concert as backup.

• Jack Everly conducts the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra SuperPops in a Valentine-themed concert featuring singer/pianist Tony DeSare belting out shmoopy favorite like “Moon River,” “That Old Black Magic,” “One For My Baby,” etc. etc. For another $20 they’ll give you champagne and a chocolate dessert to share, too. February 9 at Strathmore; February 10 -12 at the Meyerhoff. [ See it! ]
• The National Symphony Orchestra made me love them like Judy Garland loved Clark Gable — Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg!!!!! Playing!!!!! Shostakovich!!!!! Also: Bruckner. Most mostly: Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg!!!!!!! And there’s a free discussion with her after the Thursday concert. Dear NSO: please send me tickets. Or make the tickets you offer cheaper. Either one of those would be a perfect Valentine. February 9 – 11. [ See it! ]
• Or! Ladino singer Yasmin Levy takes the stage at Strathmore on Valentine’s Day proper (Ladino, it seems, is Judeo-Spanish music; learn and grow!). They’ll even serve you dinner beforehand if you like. [ See it and/or eat it! ]

If you’d like me to include your upcoming concert in next week’s roundup, leave a comment or drop me a line.

The hillllllls are aliiiiiiiiive

But I’m not telling you with WHAT.

Alternately: in my own little corner, in my own little chair, I can be whatever I want to be.

Alternately: You’ve got to be taught, before it’s too late, before you are six or seven or eight, to hate all of those who your relatives hate; you’ve got to be carefully taught.

Alternately: OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOklahoma, where the wind comes sweeping down the plaaaaaaaain!

But mostly: High on a hill was a lonely goatherd, LADYODLELADYODLELAY-HEE-HOO!

Not that you could tell or anything, but this week’s BSO concert is a Pops affair entitled “Rodgers and Hammerstein and the Movies,” featuring music and movie clips. I think this largely speaks for itself (not that I let it), but I do want to issue a warning:

There are people out there who harbor an irrational hatred for The Sound of Music. These are mostly boys. Girls, these boys are soulless jerks. Don’t date them.

But maybe they deserve a chance. If you want to give them one, try showing them this:

And when you’re done, see it at Strathmore on Thursday, May 19 at 8 pm, or at the Meyerhoff on Friday, May 20 at 8 pm, Saturday, May 21 at 8 pm, or Sunday, May 22 at 3 pm. And enjoy being a girl.

BSOish Invasion

This week the BSO SuperPops take on a “Tribute to Paul McCartney.” I trust I don’t have to explain this one to you. He was a frickin’ Beatle. I don’t care if you were born yesterday in a cave under a rock, you’ve heard of the Beatles. Thursday, April 7 at 8 pm at Strathmore; Friday, April 8 and Saturday, April 9 at 8 pm and Sunday, April 10 at 3 pm at the Meyerhoff. Enjoy.

You have two supplemental choices: on Saturday at 11 am at the Meyerhoff there’ll be a children’s performance of Britten’s A Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. Britten is a victor; go and pay homage to him. (Plus next week we’ll be talking about children’s concerts, so it’ll be a good primer.)

You may also wish to hit Frederick at 8 pm on Saturday for a smaller BSO ensemble’s performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. I saw Nadja mothereffin’ Salerno-Sonnenberg perform this at the gala in September and, while I’m sure no one can match NSS, this is bound to be an awesome repeat. Have fun with your options!

Somebody up there loves me

The new BSO season came out on March 1. Well send me to Austria and call me Maria von Trapp, because I must have done something good to deserve this — there are a full thirteen concerts I want to attend, AFTER removing a few because the list was getting out of hand. And just WAIT until you see how the season ends!

My ticket wishlist:

• Gala concert – Hilary Hahn. Yes. Plus I am bound and determined to get into the after-party this year. Maybe they do press passes.
• Mozart and Debussy – Yes, I will sit through Mozart for Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune and La Mer.
  
• Rachmaninoff’s 3rd – I have Rach-trumping nostalgic feelings for Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol.
• Essentially American – Gershwin’s An American in Paris? Yes, please.
• Brothers Gershwin – Because you can’t have too much Gershwin.
• Itzhak Perlman – is Itzhak mothereffin’ Perlman (put down that ducky!).
• Tchaikovsky’s 1st piano concerto – Say what you will; I <3 this piece. AND Ravel’s Bolero. AND Zarathrustra.
• Carmen Fantasy – The south of France! His satin pants!
• Tchaikovsky’s 5th – Percussion-tastic.
• Russian Favorites – Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet is meh, but Stravinsky’s Firebird and KHACHATURIAN? Yeeees.
• Beethoven’s Violin Concerto – is magnificent.
• BEETHOVEN’S 9TH SYMPHONY – !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And finally, the piece of resistance, the season closer,

• TCHAIKOVSKY’S VIOLIN CONCERTO – WITH NADJA SALERNO-SONNENBERG AND THEN STRAVINSKY’S RITE OF SPRING!!!!! EEEEEE!!!!111!!!!111! I will be planning my entire life around this, believe.

Uh, yeah. Someone loves me.

Updated to add: This week’s BSO concert is “Music of the Emerald Isle.” Couldn’t really stretch that into a full post; I don’t know much about Celtic music. But go see it and report back.

Go through my pockets and search for loose change

Hi.

I’m sick.

I’ve been sick since I got back from Orlando.

Clearly I need to stop leaving Orlando. It disagrees with me.

Your BSO concerts this week are Big Band Hit Parade and Beethoven: A Musical Hero for the kids.

Okay, back to laying on the couch popping aspirin and watching “Better Off Ted” on Netflix.

Vegas, baby! No, I mean Santa, baby!

It’s time once again for the BSO Holiday Spectacular. This year’s theme: Las Vegas! Look, I don’t know either. Let’s parse this out. Program description, a little help, please?

Liberace soundalike. I see. Showgirls. Yes. Certainly. Dancing dogs? Why the hell not? Chorus line of… Rhinestone… Santas… I wish I still worked there so I could find someone to explain this to me. Here is a list of performance dates; I’ll let you know if I hear about any discounts. And I’m out.

Walk up the avenue till you’re there!

This week’s BSO concert a Pops affair: “A Tribute to Irving Berlin.” I’m sure you’re already familiar with Irving Berlin’s music. This is good, because there’s not much I can tell you about it.

Which is weird, because, as Wednesday’s post will reveal, I’m a major fan of old musicals, the kind that require your early acceptance that what follows will make the world’s prettiest nonsense. So by rights and logic I should know all about Berlin’s work, and yet the “favorite hits” the season brochure mentions – “A Pretty Girl is Like a Melody,” “How Deep is the Ocean,” “Blue Skies”  to name a few – leave me with naught but a sense of “…?” (Except for “God Bless America.” I know that one.)

This didn’t seem right to me, so I went ahead and looked him up on Imdb. Which initially led to more questions (he was from Russia?!). Then I had to sift through all the recent credits when his songs were used in modern movies and TV.

Finally I skipped to the bottom, which I where I found enlightenment. Of a sort. Is it bad that my source of familiarity with “Puttin’ On the Ritz” is that scene where Gene Wilder dances with a monster Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein?  But I finally hit upon something when it came to Easter Parade, some of Annie Get Your Gun (<3 HOWARD KEEL),  and of course we all know “White Christmas.” I can sing along with you now, Mr. Berlin!

All of this is just to say that Irving Berlin is in fact very much worth your time, and if only the copy writers who put together the brochure had mentioned, oh, I don’t know, “A Couple of Swells,” I would’ve KNOWN this already.

Right, so the concerts are Thursday, May 20 at 8 pm at Strathmore, then Friday, May 21 and Saturday, May 22 at 8 pm at the Meyerhoff, and then also Sunday, May 23 at 3 pm at the Meyerhoff. Jack Everly to conduct, Ashley Brown and Tony DeSare to sing (and in the case of the latter, piano…ify). The Van Der Bilts are waiting at the club – you don’t want to disappoint them, do you?

Mo’ music

I feel like the quality of my titles is deteriorating.

No matter! This week’s concert is a BSO SuperPops event, featuring “the cool sounds of Motown presented live and with jive by one of today’s hottest and most talented vocal groups.” I know very little of Motown, but if it’s half as fun as it is to say “live and with jive” I can get on board with it. Also, the hot and talented vocal group is Spectrum. Here they are:

Snazzy, no? Makes me want to put on one of those coats. Then I would add a fedora and some black character heels, and I would dance around while singing “Get Happy” like an extra-glitzy Judy Garland in Summer Stock.

More rational human beings, however, will probably be content with watching Spectrum do their own shiny coat thing. Opportunities abound:

• Thursday, April 22 at 8 pm at Strathmore
• Friday, April 23 at 8 pm at the Meyerhoff
• Saturday, April 24 at 8 pm at the Meyerhoff
• Sunday, April 25 at 3 pm at the Meyerhoff

Oh, and you have small children/an affinity for Saint-Saens and/or puppetry, there’s a Carnival of the Animals family concert on April 24 at 11 am at the Meyerhoff. Spoiler: the swan is dying.