If it ain't Baroque…
discounts
We interrupt your regularly scheduled program…
Don’t worry; you’ll get your viola joke later today. I just wanted to put this up first to make sure I didn’t forget.
Remember Benevolent Dictator Jamie, my benevolent dictator while I was interning at the BSO? Well, she’s working for the Smithsonian now, and the other day she sent me some awesome news to share with you: not only does the Smithsonian feature some awesome classical concerts inside the museums, but there is now a student program that nets you tickets for $10. Just wave your student ID around and you’re good to go.
This weekend you can choose between the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra at the Natural History Museum and the Axelrod String Quartet at the Museum of American History. If you don’t live near D.C. maybe you should take a moment to reflect, ponder why not, and move. Learn more and see it!
The BSO Mystery Tour is waiting to take you away
Quoting can be cheating, but I really don’t think I can say it any better than the BSO web site can:
This thrilling Beatles retrospective feature chart-topping tunes by the Fab Four complete with original arrangements. From early Beatles favorites through the solo years, Classical Mystery Tour is an authentic concert experience enhanced by live orchestral accompaniment such as “Penny Lane” with live trumpet section and “Yesterday” with an acoustic guitar and string quartet.
They also mention, per the Los Angeles Times, that “the audience stood and bellowed for more!” Which is a pretty heady claim to make, but I guess it’s the Beatles, and people do get worked up about them. I’ve seen the videos. All I can say with absolute certainty are that my favorite Beatles songs are “Hey Jude” and “Come Together.” Oh, and I loved Eddie Izzard as Mr. Kite (there will be a show tonight!).
A no doubt charming lady named Elizabeth Schulze will conduct (on trampolines?). See it at Strathmore on Thursday, July 15 at 8 pm or at the Meyerhoff on Friday, July 16 at 7:30 pm.
Updated to add: I can has a discount code for you!
Exclusive Offer: $20 Tickets
Login to BSOmusic.org using Promo Code 18262 to purchase your discounted tickets to Classical Mystery Tour. If you do not see the discount from this link, log in using promo code 18262. This offer is for online purchases only.
A beautiful mind? Not according to Ain’t Baroquers…
Or Ain’t Baroquians or Ain’t Barrocos or whatever you want to call yourselves. The point is: irony alert!
There are two separate BSO concerts this week; one is called is called “Robert Schumann: A Romantic Original,” and the other is “Schumann: A Beautiful Mind.” Well, he may have a beautiful mind, but so far everyone thinks Brahms’ brain is prettier; Schumann is getting KILLED in the current Composer Cagematch! (Incidentally, you have until midnight Saturday to vote in that sucker.)
But never mind. Let’s not add insult to salt in the injury. What makes Schumann a Romantic Original? His Manfred Overture and his first two symphonies, plus a lecture from a Johns Hopkins University psychologist about Schumann’s particular nutter butter tendencies beforehand (that goes down an hour before the concert). See it on Thursday, May 12 at 8 pm (Wine Night!) and Sunday, May 15 at 3 pm, both at the Meyerhoff.
Alternatively, if you’d rather explore what makes Schumann’s mind so beautiful, Marin Alsop and Schumann scholar Dr. Richard Kolgan have prepped a presentation all about it, including bits of music and discussion of Schumann’s possible bipolar disorder. Fun! See that at Strathmore on Friday, May 13 at 8:15 pm or at the Meyerhoff on Saturday, May 14 at 7:00 pm.
Either way, I’m glad someone likes Schumann. You guys certainly don’t. Updated to add: In my defense, when I wrote this it was 14-2 in favor of Brahms.
Updated again to add:
12-Hour Sale, $25* Tickets!
The madness begins TONIGHT (Wednesday, May 11) at 6 p.m. and ends TOMORROW (Thursday, May 12) at 6 a.m.
Login to BSOmusic.org using Promo Code 17121 during these 12 hours to purchase your discounted tickets to Schumann’s Beautiful Mind. You must login before adding tickets to your cart to view discounted ticket price. This offer is for online purchases only.
Cinderelly, Cinderelly, night and day it’s Cinderelly
This week’s BSO concert is Off the Cuff, which means that before she conducts her chosen material, Marin Aslop talks to the audience about the history, context, theory, etc. behind it. This may sound dull, but I assure you it’s not — Alsop is actually a pretty entertaining speaker, and she has the orchestra demonstrate little bits of the music as she discusses it before playing the work in full. Besides, music history courses were always my favorite in college; I wish I could’ve taken more of ‘em.
For this particular Off the Cuff, Alsop tackles Prokofiev’s Cinderella Suite with the help of writers from Johns Hopkins University (are they going to rewrite the story? I’m suspicious). Alsop could go anywhere with the history, but from the concert description I suspect she’ll be diving into the motifs for each of the characters from the Cinderella tale. Composer Cagematch! results not withstanding, I harbor much love for Prokofiev; I’m pondering going myself. Performances are Friday, April 1 at 8:15 pm at Strathmore and Saturday, April 2 at 7 pm at the Meyerhoff. And hey, I can offer a discount!
$10 Advance Student Rush Tickets!
Login to BSOmusic.org using Promo Code STUDENT to purchase your discounted tickets to Off the Cuff: Cinderella Suite. You must login before adding tickets to your cart to view discounted ticket price. This offer is for online purchases only.
Updated to add another discount!
12-Hour Sale, $20* Tickets
The madness begins TODAY (Wednesday, March 30) at 6 p.m.
and ends TOMORROW (March 31) at 6 a.m.
Login to BSOmusic.org using Promo Code 16101 during these 12 hours to purchase your discounted tickets to Off the Cuff: Cinderella Suite. You must login before adding tickets to your cart to view discounted ticket price. This offer is for online purchases only.
If you prefer a more traditional orchestral experience… well, you’re SOL this week, but you do have an alternate option. You can hear the Cinderella Suite along with John Corigliano’s The Pied Piper and the world premier of a BSO Commission by David Rimelis called “OrchKids Nation” on Thursday, March 31 at 8 pm (Wine Night!), or on Sunday, April 3 at 3 pm, both at the Meyerhoff. This will be sans explanatory lecture, but OrchKids children will be added, playing the flute and drums on the latter two pieces. I’d go Off the Cuff if I were you, but please yourself.
Oh, and for those of you who listened to last night’s UM Mahler live broadcast, I have been informed that there will be a rebroadcast with cleaned up audio available here. Enjoy!
If it Ain’t Baroque, buy it
You may have noticed a new feature pop up in the sidebar: the Ain’t Baroque store. It’s nothing fancy, but I like to think there’s some fairly clever stuff floating around in there — you can heavily imply without outright saying that violists are idiots, reassure everyone that though you may leave you’re Offenbach, point out that you, too, have tenor, and more.
Medalists of Violar (or pretenders to the crown) may want to emblazon their name on a mug, or declare your allegiance with a Team Igor t-shirt. Question to Composer Cagematch! fans: would you like more of these? For every composer featured? For all the winners? Or just for the composers with particularly hardcore fandoms?
All products have been put together with colors and cut that I think look nifty, but Zazzle gives you the option of going in there and switching things up — you can switch a unisex cut to a ladies cut and vice versa, make a long sleeve tee short, switch to a tank top, swap out the colors, etc. And you can do it all secure in the knowledge that you’re helping fund my concert tickets. I’m going to NEED it — next year’s BSO season looks killer (more on that next week). Take a look!
(Suggestions, critique, general feedback, and ideas for new products welcome.)
Updated (twice) to add discount code from Zazzle:
$5 off ALL T-SHIRTS! Use Code: 5OFFSTPADDYS
Show off your shenanigans! 25% off ALL T-SHIRTS!
We have been, let us say, to hear the latest Pole
… transmit the preludes through his hair and fingertips!
Right then. This week at the BSO, Ingrid Fliter Plays Chopin. In this concert, Ingrid Fliter will play Chopin, so start trying to wrap your head around that now so that you’ll have processed it by the time you get there. It’ll be his second piano concerto, to be precise, and right before it will be the Lone Ranger Rossini’s William Tell Overture; right after it is Tchaikovsky’s second symphony, colloquially known as the “Little Russian,” which is of course a fun piece. You can see it on Friday, February 18 at 8 pm at the Meyerhoff (College Night!), or on Saturday, February 19 at 8 pm at Strathmore.
Discount alert!
$10 Tickets to College Night Concert & After Party!*
FREE food, fabulous prizes, drink specials and a chance to mix & mingle with BSO musicians!
Login to BSOmusic.org using Promo Code STUDENT to purchase your discounted student tickets. You must login before adding tickets to your cart to view discounted ticket price. This offer is for online purchases only.
If you feel like wandering over to Frederick instead, there’s an OrchKids event on Saturday if you happen to be the sort of person who likes to watch children mess around on instruments, and then there’s a small BSO chamber concert on Sunday.
Speaking of mother Russia…
This week the BSO offers you your choice of how you want your Russian music done. Do you prefer it, shall we say, full-fat or light?
If you’d prefer the heavy version, “Robustly Russian” is for you. It features Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise and his first piano concerto and finishes out with Shostakovich’s fifth symphony (obligatory bah! Rachmaninoff! goes here). You can see that on Thursday, January 20 at 8 pm at the Meyerhoff — which makes it a Thursday Wine Night! — or Sunday, January 23 at 3 pm, also at the Meyerhoff.
In the light version, a Rachmaninoffectomy is wisely performed (oh look, I got one in there anyway!) and it’s Shostakovich’s fifth symphony Off the Cuff style — you’ll learn all about what into Shostakovich’s creation of the piece. See it at Strathmore on January 21 at 8:15 pm or at the Meyerhoff on January 22 at 7 pm.
Kirill Gerstein is your pianist, Marin Alsop is your conductor, and this is your student discount:
$10 Advance Student Rush Tickets!
Login to BSOmusic.org using Promo Code STUDENT to purchase your discounted tickets to Off the Cuff: Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. You must login before adding tickets to your cart to view discounted ticket price. This offer is for online purchases only.
Sometimes a sitar is just a sitar
Ravi Shankar is sick and will not be performing at the Meyerhoff this weekend. But you know who will be? Sigmund Freud!
There are two separate BSO concerts this week. Today, Nov 4, at 8 pm at the Meyerhoff, the BSO will be performing some Beethoven and Mahler pieces, including Mahler’s unfinished tenth symphony and Beethoven’s unfinished tenth symphony as completed by some other guy. Everyone knows how I feel about Beethoven; let us therefore pretend I unloaded upon you a spittle-flecked rant about how this is fundamentally wrong and jump straight to the other concert: MAHLER AND [UND?] FREUD.
Inspired by the BSO’s hit CSI: Beethoven program in 2008, this program reenacts the little known meeting in 1910 between Gustav Mahler and famous psychiatrist Dr. Sigmund Freud, where the two grappled with tensions and conflict that affected Mahler’s entire musical output and later led to marital discord. Join Maestra Alsop and “Dr. Freud” on the couch as they psychoanalyze the essence of Mahler’s relationship with his wife Alma, his music and his crippling fear of death.
Hee hee hee hee hee. Hee. Hee. I like it! (Also, CSI: Beethoven? Why wasn’t I informed?)
There are two performances, one on Friday, November 5 at 8:15 pm at Strathmore, and another on Saturday, November 6 at 7 pm at the Meyerhoff. Students, I am told that if you login to bsomusic.org and use the promo code STUDENT you can get $10 advanced student rush tickets. Great for all you psychology majors out there!
Still not in? Have a video. And I’ve done all I can.
Midori! Get your discount Midori here!
Speaking of hooking you up, did you ever think you could get 40% tickets to hear and see friggin’ MIDORI play live with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra? No? I DIDN’T THINK SO. And that is why you have me – to inform you of these things. Read it and weep (tears of joy):
Special Offer: $25 Tickets
Share this event with your friends and instantly get a Promo Code for $25 Tickets to Midori with the BSO. All you have to do is click the share button.
Easy! Magical, even!
Never mind Midori, even; the program is killer by itself. You’ve got your Glinka, you’ve got your Shostakovich (!!!!!!), but most importantly, YOU HAVE STRAVINSKY’S PETROUCHKA. Ack ack ack ack ack! I LOVE Petrouchka. It’s all at once dark and whimsical, clever and comic and brooding. Very Russian, no?
Thursday, October 21 at 8 pm at Strathmore. Friday, October 22 and Saturday, October 23 at 8 pm at the Meyerhoff. That’s three opportunities. Two locations. $25 tickets. No excuses.
The music in Spain stays mainly in the Meyerhoff
Oh, hey! The BSO season is starting up again! It kicks off with a spectacular gala! And there’s a brand new a discount!!!
Backing up the gravy train: the BSO season begins with a gala celebration concert on September 11 at 8:30 at the Meyerhoff. Thanks to a donation by PNC Bank, tickets in the Grand Tier are now $25. We’re getting all kinds of Spanish up in the ‘Hoff , including but not limited to excerpts from Bizet’s Carmen, a Spanish dance from Manuel de Falla, and my personal favorite, Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by the incomporable Astor Piazzolla. Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg is the guest violinist, and oh, there will be flamenco dancers. I mean, obviously.
(Shhh! Here’s a secret: There’s a special season preview concert on Friday, September 10, at 8 pm at the Meyerhoff, and tickets are only $10! Marin Alsop leads the orchestra in a collection of excerpts from the upcoming season, from Prokofiev to Schumann to Mahler. It’s not widely advertised, but there is a concert page here. It’s like a delicious musical sampler!)
Update! Starting at noon on Saturday, anyone with a current student ID can purchase tickets to the gala concert at the Meyerhoff box office for $10. Oh, I am so there.
