Prokofiev

Whose opinion is more valued than mine?

RHETORICAL QUESTION. But as a loyal reader, you totally want to know all about my picks from the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra’s upcoming season, right? Especially since I, personally, found that you have to wade through an unexciting beginning. Don’t be put off – there’s a gold streak running all the way from January to June!

• Alexander Nevsky (January 11 – 13) – Um, full Prokofiev score live, set to the film? Yes please.
• Hairspray (January 24 – 27) GOOD MORNING BALTIMORE! A concert opera version narrated by – wait for it – none other than John Waters himself.
• Pictures at an Exhibition (January 31 – February 2) – I said PICTURES AT AN EXHIBITION. Why aren’t you buying your tickets right now?
• Mozart’s Requiem (February 28; March 2 & 3) – Everyone knows I’m not Mozart’s greatest fan, but no one can deny theRequiem.
• Mahler’s Titan (March 7 – 9) – Oh, Mahler, I love your “Titan” so. Nothing can take that away from us.
• Saint-Saen’s Thundering Organ Symphony (March 14 & 17) – A friend recently informed me that this was the theme from Babe. My understanding of pop culture is weak; my love for this piece is strong.
• Wagner: A Composer Fit for a King (April 19 & 20) – Neuschwannstein! Mad King Ludwig! Obsession! Insanity! Fun!
• Time for Three (May 2 & 4) – I saw them premiere Jennifer Higdon’s Concerto Four-Three, and it was awesome. Let’s do it again.
• Romeo and Juliet (May 23 – 25) – PROKOFIEV version. Tchaikovsky, Berlioz, I’m terribly sorry, but you’re going to have to clear out.
• West Side Story (June 13 – 16) – Um, full Bernstein score live, set to the film? Yes please.

So those are my picks. Check out the concert calendar – anything striking your fancy?

таракан

All we need is a Dali rendering of a cockroach and we’ve got ourselves one heck of a multimedia presentation.

The Best

Two weeks ago I made a list of composers I considered to be the greatest, in terms of talent, innovation, and output. I tried to make this as objective as possible while still noting that my own preferences and the limits of my knowledge base must unavoidably come into play.

This week? IT’S SUBJECTIVE TIME. Which, indeed, is kind of like Miller Time — alcohol free, yes, but with just as much opportunity to shout your opinions while gesticulating wildly and possibly falling out of your chair.

All of this is just to say that here I would like to present my list not of the greatest composers of all time but the ones I like BEST. Basically the idea here is a collection of the composers that, when the radio deejay says, “next is a piece by ________”, make me say “YAY!!!” Here goes:

1. BEETHOVEN (duh)
2. Bach
3. Khachaturian (and I stand by my decision)
4. Stravinsky
5. Schubert
6. Holst
7. Prokofiev
8. Shostakovich
9. Ravel
10. Tchaikovsky

There is of course a fair amount of overlap, but I bet some of them surprise you. Before you pull out your extra-sharp pitchfork, rest assured — I’m not suggesting Khachaturian ranks above Stravinsky in… well, in ANY category, really. Stravinsky is definitely the better composer. But Khachaturian makes me super happy! So high up the list he stays. Ya get me?

The nice thing about this list is, it’s even more changeable than a best-of list, undulating and evolving with your changing moods and interests; I expect Handel could sneak on to mine any moment now.

Now about you — who are you feeling right now?

The Greatest

Note: By the end of this post I will ask you to create your own list of the top ten composers. I’m ruining the ending for you because I think it might be neat if you do it now, before you’re corrupted by my list or the NYT list or your grocery list or what have you. Just a thought. Thank you; good morning!

Hey, remember how I said the lynchpin of the Composer Cagematch! is not who you feel is the better composer but rather who you love more? Well, put a pin in it. We’re playing a new game now.

A couple weeks ago while at my grandmother’s house my family got into a discussion about who the greatest composers of all time were — greatest, not our favorites. (Yeah, my family has random chats about classical composers — just wait until I tell you about the great Dvorak’s Origins Argument of Thanksgiving 2011. That one still resurfaces from time to time.) My mom pulled up a list from The New York Times music critic to get his top 10. Take a gander here.

His list began with the traditional top three but then had me ducking a few curveballs — Brahms? Really? Then he said in his article he would expect such skepticism — and it got me thinking as to what MY top ten would be. Naturally I don’t mean to say I’m a completely impartial judge (I’d say the immediately preceding sentence already knocked me out of contention for that title), but in making such a list I think one would have to look at quality over blind adoration. You’ll see what I mean.*

So… for now, here’s my top ten. I betcha my list could change as early as tomorrow, but in this moment, here are what I call The Greatest:

1. Bach
2. Beethoven
3. Mozart
4. Stravinsky
5. Schubert
6. Bartok
7. Shostakovich
8. Handel
9. Haydn
10. Prokofiev

What I find most interesting about this exercise is less about who made it but who didn’t — or rather, which sorts of composers didn’t. I didn’t name a single composer outside the Austro-Hungarian or Soviet area; nary an opera composer to be found. This is the hole in my classical understanding; this teaches me where I need to go next to expand my repertoire — and maybe revise my list once I have.

Well? How do you feel about my list? I expect some fightin’ words as opinions must always create. And what about you? For bonus points, how has your list evolved? If I can remember, I want to make this list up again next year and see if it’s changed. Someone remind me in 11.5 months, okay?

* Do you SEE that? Do you SEE how I put Mozart at number 3, even though he makes me want to sic a fictionalized Salieri on him? He’s there because he was a genius, and even if I don’t dig most of his works, I can recognize that. Incidentally, this is also how I feel about Faulkner.

ff you

Let’s talk about v, ff, and w.

Specifically, let’s talk about the Russians. So they’ve got their Cyrillic alphabet, and when we translate their names there’s a bit of room for interpretation. In English you’ve got your vuh sound, your ffuh sound, and your wuh sound. If translators are to be believed, the Russians somehow have a sound that combines all three.

Which is why you sometimes see Prokofiev but other times you see Prokofieff. However, I, for one, almost always see Prokofiev (spell check won’t even accept Prokofieff, if you need a further argument). By contrast, I almost always see Rachmaninoff, rarely Rachmaninov. But I do see some swappage. Between v and ff I accept some mixing.

This story, however, is about w.

The scene: eleventh grade. That all-county orchestra with the conductor who was essentially a blonde manifestation of evil. Her favorite piece was Scheherazade. Okay, fair enough. One night at the beginning of the second semester she gave us the Kalendar Prince movement. I looked at the top of the first page and there it was: Rimsky-Korsakow.

Korsakow? Who you callin’ fat, Mr. Sheet Music Publisher?

I pointed this out to my friend Paul, who was for some unfathomable reason my stand partner in the second violins even though he’s like 12,000 times better on his worst day than I am on my best.

“That is weird,” he said, all deceptive innocence, although Paul speaks Russian and might have known. “You should ask Mrs. C.”

“You think so?” I said, doubtful, because conductor C was without a doubt the devil incarnate (someday I’ll tell you about the Mozart Incident. It is not what you think).

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “She’ll love it.”

I am an idiot. I know this because I raised my hand and asked why Rimsky-Korsakov was spelled with a w.

She looked at me. There was enough of a lengthy pause to make the whole orchestra start to giggle.

“I don’t know,” she said. “Why would you ask?”

“I — “

“Don’t worry about it. We need to get started.”

Later on, at the concert, the whole movement almost dissolved into chaos, prompting one audience member to turn to his friend and say, “It sounds like it’s falling apart, but I think it’s supposed to be that way.” Coincidence? I don’t think so.

What have we learned here? Well, we learned that you should never ask questions because teachers secretly hate the spirit of inquiry. We learned that it is really hard to tell if Paul is actually trying to mess with you. What we did not learn is who decides how to spell the names of Russian composers and why. Where are my Russian scholars?

For your anticipation

The BSO summer season is over, but before we let them fly free on their weeks of hiatus, here are some upcoming season facts and events so that you can be prepared:

• Tickets for the 2011-2012 season go on sale at 10 am on August 8. That’s this Monday. Be ready!
• Need to know more before you commit to ticket purchases? There will be two preseason preview concerts on September 8 and 9, featuring snippets of Copland, Debussy, Prokofiev, Wagner, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, and more. Every seat is $10!
• Oh, and when the season does kick off on September 10, it does so with a gala concert featuring Hilary. Hahn. You can get a press pass for those after-concert gala receptions, right? I need to get in. I need to get in and live tweet for the peoples!

So there you have it — everything you need to ready yourself in the coming weeks. If you want to know more about the upcoming season but don’t feel like messing around with the BSO web site, here’s the post I did with a rundown of all this season’s concerts. Wait, scratch that. All this season’s concerts that I think look interesting.

Now that there are no BSO concerts for me to hype for a few weeks, you can all look forward to a bunch of posts featuring My Thoughts And Opinions. It’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Composer Cagematch!: Interlude

Hi! I know we’re due for a match this week, but I’ve pushed it to next week; let’s talk shop, shall we?

Let’s talk Composer Cagematch! Philosophy. What is a Composer Cagematch!, exactly? Is it a fight between equals in popularity? In style? In country and time period? Is it a fight between equals at all?

I ask — and hope to elicit some healthy discussion and maybe even dig up a shred of clarity — because of this excellent comment from Classical Music Broadcast on the most recent match:

Jenn, I know you think all I do is whine about bad matchmaking…

This is like putting a middleweight in a super heavyweight match, where Gustav is wearing 4 oz, and Rick-ard is wearing eights.

Wagner wrote operas, so that automatically gives him a weight and reach advantage.

RW wrote the Ring cycle – so Mahler loses points on his ground game, but gains on his standup (6th Symphony and a BIG freaking hammer, anyone?)

Cara Fleck – great point regarding the harps – Wagner buried his and Gustav let his shimmer elegantly.

From round one, this match will go to the cards. Gustav got my vote, because I think Wagner should go mano-a-mano against another opera composer.

I would have liked to see a Mahler/Beethoven matchup.

Jenn, I don’t think Beethoven/Wolfie is a solid, because early Beethoven *is* a lot of Mozart recycled. The 1st & 2nd are flat-out tributes. Even the 4th has a lot of Mozart in it.

and I love both of those guys, so thats no insult to Ludwig.

Points well taken (except of course that Beethoven is clearly > Mozart, natch). Perhaps I have not always been the finest matchmaker. My own mother was horrified by my Dvorak-Copland fight — and even more dismayed when Copland took it by a point. But isn’t that interesting? That Copland bested Dvorak? They aren’t from the same time period or even the same country. So why did I match them? Because Dvorak tried to tell Americans how to compose, and Copland was an American who composed. To me it was a good hook. How did the voters choose between them, then?

Well, what sort of contest are we running here? Is it a question of popularity? Is Copland more popular than Dvorak? Is Mahler more popular than Wagner? Have you all been choosing based on artistic merit? One person commented that he had voted for Prokofiev over Stravinsky ultimately because the former appeared more often on his iPod. The reason I think Beethoven/Mozart is a valid match has less to do with music and more to do with musicology  — as a general rule, the top 3 composers on virtually every ranking list ever come down to Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart — but the order changes. I want to know less “Who’s the better composer?” and more “Who do you love?” I don’t believe the one necessarily implies the other.

So that’s how I’ve been approaching it. Now I want to open the forum up to you, the voters. Tell me about your voting philosophies. What works for you about the Cagematch!es? What doesn’t? Who should fight next? And can someone please start Claymationing these for me?

“Live and constantly changing, like a concert or ballet”

Hey! Remember when I said I wanted to talk about Fantasia periodically? Like, a year and a half ago or something? Let’s do it! Take it away, David Koenig, in your awesome, I-once-read-this-instead-of-playing-in-an-arcade book, Mouse Under Glass: Secrets of Disney Animation and Theme Parks.

As his excitement for the project grew, Walt [Disney] wanted to issue a partially new Fantasia each year, every few months replacing an old number with a newly animated one. That way, people would look at it not so much as music frozen on film, but as live and constantly changing, like a concert or ballet. They would have to ask not only where and when Fantasia was playing, but what Fantasia was playing.

Disney got as far as animating one whole sequence for inclusion in a future Fantasia, set to the tranquil “Clair de Lune.” Six years later, the animation was set to “Blue Bayou” and inserted in Make Mine Music, along with another previously scrapped idea, “Peter and the Wolf.” “Flight of the Bumble Bee” was finally used as a swing version, “Bumble Boogie,” in Melody Time.

I already gave you Peter, and I’m saving “Bumble Boogie” for a rainy day. Here’s “Clair de Lune.” Enjoy your Memorial Day!

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!

Where do which instruments feature? Just listen to teacher

You could argue that it’s because I’m going back to Walt Disney World in June (yes I’m an addict; no, I don’t want to get better), but I’ve actually had this topic percolating in my brain for quite some time, and for the precise reason I’m about to give you. I want to talk about orchestration, and I want to talk about it because of The Lion King.

I have a bunch of The Lion King songs on my iPod, because I am eight forever. My favorite is “Be Prepared,” as Scar is awesome, plus the hyena’s line “Why, is he sick?” makes me laugh hysterically for some reason. But what most impresses me about it from the musical standpoint is, weirdly enough, the use of the bassoon (contrabassoon? I don’t know my woodwinds so well). The bassoon has a running commentary under the melody that I find utterly perfect, a case of brilliant instrument selection. The depth is menacing, befitting Scar’s sinister evil, but the tone has a comic edge that’s just right for the hyenas. I love it.

And to balance it out with some actual classical music, can I mention Prokofiev’s use of the flute? Because I’m not a flute fan. Sorry to flutists, but it doesn’t do much for me. Except when Prokofiev busts it out — in Lieutenant Kije and Romeo and Juliet especially. In Prokofiev’s hands, the flute becomes a vehicle of fantasy and purity, yet… almost an underlying darkness. Prokofiev makes an instrument that usually bores me intriguing.

So I ask you: which instrument in which piece is, to you, inspired casting? Which composer knows how to do it right? And which composer could’ve done with a refresher course?