Marin Alsop

The Legend of the Concert Roundup

No, seriously… what’s going on?

• The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is making it short but very sweet this week: the Ravel Piano Concerto for Left Hand and Shostakovich‘s seventh symphony (that’s “Leningrad” to you, bub). Oh, hey, guess who’s dropping in to play the Ravel? Oh, some guy named Leon Fleisher. No biggie. May 3 & 6 at the Meyerhoff. [ See it! ]
• Or if you prefer, the BSO offers its Off the Cuff version of the Shostakovich; in addition to playing the symphony, Marin Alsop will explain its musical form and cultural context. May 4 at Strathmore; May 5 at the Meyerhoff. [ See it! ]
• I said hey-yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah! The National Symphony Orchestra‘s NSO Pops take on a Marvin Gaye program, because why the hell not? With John Legend, no less. Now that’s some competitive booking. May 3 & 4. [ See it! ]
• The NSO also offers a children’s concert this week, focusing on brass instruments with Brass of Peace. Is that a pun? None of the ones I’m coming up with are appropriate for children. May 5. [ See it! ]
• The University of Maryland is performing Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, but for the life of me I can’t find the info. UMD, if you’re out there, ping me the details and I’ll update this post.
• This week at Strathmore, we’ve got jazz singers John Pizzarelli and Kurt Elling, an all-Debussy piano program, country-rock singer Owen Danoff, and the Philadelphia Orchestra. [ See the calendar! ]

Concert Roundup Up and Away

Good morning, campers! Are you ready to find out what you’re doing this weekend?

• Option number one: the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is cheating. No, wait, that’s not true; it’s Sarasate who cheated with his fantasy on Bizet’s Carmen. Next time you write your own fantasy, young man; none of this downloading scores off the internet. Also on the menu: MacMillan‘s The Confession of Isobel Gowdie and Prokofiev’s fifth symphony. February 23 & 26 at the Meyerhoff. [ See it! ]
• Or if you want to hang with the BSO but feel that only Prokofiev is worth your time (that’s a little snobby, sir, but I see where you’re coming from), Marin Alsop will help deconstruct and contextualize the piece in another one of those snappy Off the Cuff concerts. It’s like a music history lecture with a live orchestra, and Alsop’s pretty funny! February 24 at Strathmore and February 25 at the Meyerhoff. [ See it! ]
• Maybe just music isn’t enough for you anymore. Maybe you need acrobatics to catch your interest. If so, the National Symphony Orchestra has you covered with one of those crazy Cirque de la Symphonie performances. The NSO Pops will play as circus performers of all stripes performing feats of daring. Tchaikovsky, Dvorak, and Khachaturian are all promised. February 23 – 25. [ See it! ]
• A smattering of upcoming Strathmore performances: a cello and piano duet, a Bach concert, a jazz vocalist. [ Check out the full schedule! ]

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

Also Sprach Concert Roundup

The people be sprachin’ all over the place.

• Ooh! Ooh! This week at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra it’s Tchaikovsky‘s first piano concerto! Haters gonna hate (HI MOM!), but this piece nestled into my heart like a worm into an eight-year-old apple the moment it opened Tchaikovsky Discovers America. And! Ravel‘s Bolero (won’t he be thrilled?) and Strauss‘s Also Sprach Zarathustra. He certainly did. January 19 & 22 at the Meyerhoff. [ See it! ]
• Did I say Also Sprach Zarathustra? I meant also sprach conductor Marin Alsop, who has much to say on the subject of what is arguably Strauss‘s most famous piece. The BSO presents another concert in the popular Off the Cuff series, which intersperses the music with fun facts from Alsop herself. January 20 at Strathmore and January 21 at the Meyerhoff. [ See it! ]
• Meanwhile, over in National Symphony Orchestraland (which is kind of like Never Neverland only Metro-accessible), Jim Gaffigan conducts. No, wait, that’s not right — James Gaffigan conducts, and as far as I’m aware he’s not a stand-up comic on the side (although that would be AWESOME). Who is he conducting? Why, Ingrid Fliter on the piano, in such works as Mozart‘s Divertimento in D major, Schumann‘s Piano Concerto in a minor, a piece by Glanert I can’t spell, and — wait for it — Mozart‘s symphony no. 41, the “Jupiter” symphony! Holy guacamole, guys, even I like the “Jupiter”! January 19 – 21. [ See it! ]

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!

Don’t hassle the ‘Moff

Haha, whoops!

Today’s post was supposed to be the Composer Cagematch!, but I while writing it yesterday afternoon I accidentally hit “publish” instead of “save draft.” I figured instead of backpedaling I’d just let it roll, so the BSO concert post got to move up a day and on Wednesday I’ll subject you to a brief post about the new store. It kinda ties in; there are Composer Cagematch! t-shirts to discuss.

So this week’s BSO concert is called “Rachmaninoff’s Paganini Rhapsody.” See, they knew I’d be ready to mock Rach, so they decided to sandwich his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini between two Prokofiev symphonies, causing me to melt into a happy daze and forget whatever mean jab I was about to make about the ‘Moff. The Prokofiev peace offerings are his Symphony No. 1, the “Classical,” and his Symphony No. 6, a reaction to WWII. Color me appeased and intrigued.

Alsop conducts, Lukas Vondracek is your solist, and you can see it at the Meyerhoff on Friday, March 4 at 8 pm and Sunday, March 6 at 3 pm. Or head to Strathmore on Saturday, March 5 at 8 pm. Just concentrate on the Prokofiev, breath through the Rachmaninoff, and you’ll be fine. (BURN! Suck it, “they.”)

Updated to add: The next BSO season lineup has been revealed! Check it out — you’ll want to be able to follow along when I do my rundown.

Pa… Pa… Pa…

Tossing LOL Friday again today for a recap of last night’s Die Zauberflote. Regular LOL Friday format to return next week, assuming I don’t have something else I feel like talking about. We’re going to a do this bullet point style, because I had a rough day yesterday. Thank heavens it was a comic opera and not, say, Tristan und Isolde.

• Vienna-style orchestra seating. Interesting!
• Two TVs set up in the orchestra tier that focused on Marin Alsop’s conducting. I assume so that the vocalists could see her instructions while still facing the audience? They were turned off for awhile, so I’m not 100% sure. Opera people, enlighten me.
• Not being so well-versed in opera and having seen little of it live, I found the dichotomy of the listening experience. The BSO itself, usually at the forefront of my attention, becaming a supporting player I scarcely noticed as I focused on the vocalists. Which I suppose is the way opera is supposed to be — you only notice the musicians if they make a mistake — hence their relegation to the pit. But it’s not how I’ve been accustomed to listening to live music, so it was a different experience for me.
• The girls got pretty dresses and veils that fit their roles; Papageno (Daniel Chi, I think? they announced him as a replacement and I’m not sure Daniel Cilli) got a vest and feathers in his hair; the rest of the men got… tuxedos. Yes. Because when I bolt off on heroic quests, I always shake out my tuxedo first.
• I really wanted to swap Tamino (Jonathan Boyd) in for Papageno and vice versa. Both were good in their roles, but Tamino was just too… verklempt in his gestures for my taste. I understand that, what with the fainting and all, Tamino is not supposed to be the perfect protagonist, but still, I think he’s supposed to be more amusing in the ridiculous ideal he represents. I found him inherently silly, and that would’ve done well for Papageno.
• By contrast, Papageno performed his funny business very well, but there was a lanky elegance about him that I think would’ve better suited Tamino.
• All the same, he did a great job when he was trying to find a girl to kiss — both in a hanging scene and the part where he came on to Marin Alsop (bahahaha).
• But forget them — I’m throwing in my lot with the Queen of the Night (Mari Moriya). Did she hit those high notes? Yes she did! Although oddly enough I found her lower notes leading up to it a teensy bit inaccurate; nervous anticipation, perhaps? Her three ladies were also pretty fantastic.
• The Three Spirits were repeatedly referred to as boys. Note to costume designers: throwing cummerbunds and caps on what are clearly girls from an anatomical perspective does not turn them into boys.
• I found Monostatos (Peter Joshua Bourroughs) the weakest of the cast — he had a very nice voice but didn’t project like he needed to. I loved his red Chuck-wearing, jump-roping henchmen, though.
• Sarastro (Morris Robinson) could project his voice ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD.
• Pamina (Emily Albrink) did a good job. That’s all. Next!
• In the immortal words of Tigger: It’s the Narrator! There was an explanatory narrator, since this production was only semi-staged and cut a bit. His name was Tony Tsendeas, and he did a great job with a potentially cheesy role that was essentially made up and included a stint as a hanging tree. Well done, sir.
• “Nein, nein” is funnier than “Ja, ja” when sung. Fact!

So. Yeah. You should go see it at the Meyerhoff this weekend.

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.

Open to interpretation

Found this article on Fast Company and thought it was interesting:

Zenph sound has been working on something that may either offend or amaze musical purists. They’re using artificial intelligence to analyze old recordings that may not be of the best quality, and then build up a model of the exact nuances of the musician’s performance. The model then allows the company to actually recreate the performances as if they were played today, and recorded using today’s high-definition technology.

Essentially, the algorithm captures the individuality in the touch, tempo, and emphasis of the performer, and it’s then delivered to a specially designed robot piano as a high-definition MIDI file. The piano then physically drives the keys in accordance to the MIDI file, creating music almost as if the original artist was at the keyboard. Zenph will be taking the robot pianos on tour which, slightly creepily, will allow audiences to listen to live performances of long-dead performers–Rachmaninov, say, or Thelonious Monk.

Okay. We can easily apply this to composers and musicians (often the same person) and spin off into some hotly-debated concept of, say, creating new works by Bartok. But what this brings to mind for me is the difference between classical music and other genres. To cover my bases, I will say this is not always true, but I think you can leave your pitchforks in the barn if I declare that for the most part classical music is not tied to one performer. It may be commissioned by, premiered by, or even the signature piece of an individual musician or ensemble, but if you want to play some fiendishly hard piano piece by Liszt that he wrote so that he himself could whip it out it to show off, you can do that — and no one’s going to call it a “cover.”

Therefore — if we recreate Candide exactly how Bernstein would have played it himself, is it, in fact, more authentic than if the BSO goes and plays it tomorrow the way Marin Alsop thinks it ought to be interpreted? Why or why not? Don’t forget to show your work!

Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahler, dahling

Hey there faithful readers! Sorry this is going up so late – been a bit of a hectic work day. I’m sneaking this in while I wait for one of the other online producers to proof some donation forms for me. Good times, no?

We’re baaaaack! The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra 2010-2011 season begins officially this weekend, starting with a concert featuring the season’s theme, Gustav Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahler Mahler. (But say it the first way; it’s more fun.) On Friday, September 24 at 8 pm at the Meyerhoff and Saturday, September 25 at 8 pm at Strathmore you can enjoy Ma(aaaaaaaa)hler’s seventh symphony, along with a Bach suite that Ma(aaaaaaaaaaa)hler arranged (okay, I’ll stop now) which includes the famed “Air on a G String.”

No program notes, but there is a webumentary. Here, let Marin Alsop tell you all about it.

I attended the opening gala performance, and it was bloody amazing. You should go to at least one BSO concert this season. Promise?

Life is better with music

So says next season’s tagline, and if you’re reading this, I’m pretty sure you agree.

Which is to say: the much anticipated – nervously anticipated! – BSO 2010-11 season has now been announced, and a Marin Alsop preview available. Once I get my hands on a brochure and can see each program easily I’ll be posting a list of what I perceive to be highlights. In the meantime, feel free to check out the concert calendar and compose your own list of favorites. Midori is coming! Likewise Emmanuel Ax!

Anyway, I’m sure we’re all pleased to see that the metaphorical sun will come out tomorrow.