there was a concert today

it was classical music, it was short, and it was at heaven.  

people came, though the room was by no means full.

the event got off to a rocky start, at least for me, personally, as i found out at about 5:10 (10 minutes after it was supposed to start) that one of the groups, an awesome string jazzish/classicalish string quartet, wasn't going to make it. i was really looking forward to hearing them, and in my head, their different sound/style was going to round out the program quite well.

but, oh well, such is life.

the concert was good...

i played first, Mozart Concerto in G, 1st mvmt. with piano... i felt bad because the piano desk is apparently very upright and it was hard to keep the piano music open.  mabel needed a page turner, but we didn't know this until too late.  besides the piano music struggle though, i think it went well. mabel follows well, and i felt good about certain things about my playing... wished some things went a little better... 

mabel played next, with 2 of Kyle Gann's "Private Dances."  i missed most of the 1st one, sadly, while talking to the next players on the program, but the what i did hear was nice, pleasing to listen to, and mabel did a fantastic job of playing opposing rhythms side by side in a seemingly effortless manner.

next was a piece called "eight" composed by chris dammann, local bad ass bass player/jazzer/composer/classicalist (you cant' say classicaler, can you?)... it was for solo cello (apparently sightread on stage by the cellist, danah boo, who did a really good job) and cymbal hit with a stick, by chris.  i got chills at one point, mostly due to watching performers who were not afraid to be completely unconventional.  chris was singing and yelling at points and the play between the cymbal hits and some crashes onto the floor, and the rhythmic banging on the cello, was wonderfully intense.

last was a man i just met tonight for the first time named leon shernoff.  he sang 3 songs by faure, and talked about each one beforehand with an obvious, natural, and calm affection for each one.  his piano playing was gorgeous and his ability to sing so well over his own playing was inspiring to hear.   i really enjoyed the songs, i want to find myself a recording...

food was eaten afterwards, good vegan treats from the following sources:

http://www.theppk.com/nomicon.html

and

http://www.theppk.com/recipes/dbrecipes/index.php?RecipeID=92

many thanks to everyone who came, and for those who did not, come next month! feb. 24th.  heaven gallery.  wicker park.  5pm. 

atom bombs and lovers...

Hello hello you fine Chicagoans.  Does anyone actually read this blog? I have no idea. But, you should, and you should add to it.  Please!

Here's a link to an up and coming beautiful organization started by the wonderful Joel Masters... keep checking in on it, it's going to be sweet.

http://chicagoisforlovers.net/

I got inspired to write in this tonight because I had the luxury of going to hear the Lyric Opera tonight! It was a crazy experience as that hall is possibly the largest in this city (?) and is gorgeous... it actually feels historical, I think.  

The opera I saw was Dr. Atomic... and though I had every intention of writing about it right now, I think this will have to wait for the morning.

So, be in suspense.  All you people not reading this...

:)

Merrrry Xmas!!!!

Good things about wrapping with newspaper:

you can choose pictures/articles to go along with the person whom the gift is for

you can write directly on the paper

you don't contribute to this strange and wasteful invention of wrapping paper, which is pointless except to make things way too sparkly and festive...

I think we should start an anti wrapping paper movement.

Anyway. Merrrry Xmas to everybody. Much peace and love is being sent from me out into this internet world. :)

Engines

It was a rare treat to see the vastly different sensibilities of the musicians collectively known as The Engines combine in always surprising, and usually incredible ways last night at the Hideout's every-Wednesday Immediate Sound series. What was perhaps most striking was that none of the four members--Dave Rempis on saxes, Jeb Bishop on Trombone, Nate McBride on bass and Tim Daisy on drums--seemed to act as the prevailing influence over the music. The Engines are a band without a frontman. Instead, their compositions and free improv are each collective projects unto their own, and the quartet shows little concern for establishing a "signature sound". Though this leaves you wishing, once in a while, that they'd settle into some sort of groove, it also makes for an astonishing repertoire of hard-hitting and meticulously crafted songs, each full of spontanaeity and surprise, if not always a sense of coherence and flow. In fact, flow seems to be consciously avoided here: a wailing, chaotic, out-of-tempo flurry of improvisation will be truncated by a unison staccato gesture by the whole quartet, from which silence a serene bass drone and sustained note from one of the horns will emerge. Or, as was the case in the opener, what appears to be a straight-ahead 4/4 head played in unison by the horns will soon show itself to be little more than a vamp for an impassioned, madly intervalic bass cadenza. One tune, by Tim Daisy, did hew to a simple in-tempo ballad feel, complete with poignant swishing brushes on the snare and a tender bassline, and a Jeb Bishop tune near the end of the first set took a simple counterpoint between bass and trombone and gradually expanded it into an epic, but never grandiose conversation among all four players, complete with the traditional return of the head and a melancholy coda. But the lasting impression The Engines left was one of visceral free jazz with an underlying integrity of innovative song structures and a wealth of ever-changing tempos and textures that suggested that said "freedom" came at the cost of a lot of meticulous preparation and the excersize of a staggering level of creative intelligence.

makin a show

So as a little follow up to my previous entry that came out of pure disappointment, mostly in myself, I thought I'd write my afterthoughts in this here blog.

I need to start promoting better. The concerts are good, they have a cool idea behind them, and it would all be better if people could come out and actually experience them. All people, not just those I know that are on my mailling list.

So, I suppose this means that I need to start advertising more. And this means that I need to come up with a real something to lure people in, make them intrigued by the concert.
Here are ideals that I'd like the series to be about:

- Classical music in an intimate, laid back environment- enjoyable to performers and audience
- both p and a should want to come again

- Audience members and performers learning a little something from the performances
-performers talk about pieces- and as they are most likely playing something they truly enjoy, the talks usually have interesting tidbits of info

- People hanging out during intermission and after the concert, eating food and talking
-no wall between performers and audience members
-contacts/networking occurring between all those involved

I want to come up with a better title for the series that would kind of make obvious that the concert has a purpose (not just "Heaven Classical Series").

Anyway, if anyone who might read this has ideas for a series title, PLEASE comment! I want a title that will become associated with this thing and make it a regular name in these parts.

Once I got that covered, I will get myself ready to start planning and advertising well in advance of the next show (January 27!) and there WILL be an audience there.

a concert series, and a good one it is

Tonight's concert at Heaven was good. All very strong performances, all good pieces, I thought some nice contrast between works and ensembles. Not too long. Good food was had.

However, maybe 5 people came out for it besides the people who performed.

I know that there was a blizzard this weekend and that made travel, and just being outside difficult; I know there were plenty of other shows to see and things to do- but it made me sad. It's fine to play for ourselves, I mean, we're all musicians, we can all appreciate it. But, part of why we play, especially as young musicians, is because this music is something that is extremely important to each of us. For some reason, us strange young people were drawn to Classical music. But, see, that's the problem right there is that it is STRANGE that we are drawn to it. Unusual, maybe that's a better word for it. What I liked about these Heaven concerts when I first started doing them was that a lot of people came out who wouldn't normally go to hear a Classical concert because it's usually in a different world of its own-Classical music is not at all part of everyday life and it probably never will be ever again, at least not in the US. But, us young Classical musicians were lucky enough to find it and seek it out further and now we want to share it, or I do. I want people to come out and hear what we have to share and learn a little bit about old composers and about old music and just kinda chill with it. I wanted that to happen today at least...

Anyway, I really do understand the various reasons for people not coming out today, but I want to stress 1) that the concert was GOOD and should have been heard by more people and 2)there is somewhat of a personal goal behind these concerts for me and I'd love it if that goal could be reached every month.

Mark Elder with the CSO II

Mark Elder's haphazard program of Delius, Webern, Sibelius and Brahms Tuesday night at Orchestra Hall turned out (through no fault of Elder's, I should add) to be only a partial success. And the succesful moments were indisputably his doing. One suspects that the mammoth Brahms Double Concerto hitched incongruously to the end of a program of short, musically concentrated works was the result more of insistence from CSO higher-ups on including a Romantic masterwork than on Elder's programming sensibilities. The glowing pastoral impressionism of the Delius, the bracing intensity of the Sibelius, and the extreme economy and surprising expressiveness of the Webern were wonderfully complementary. The Brahms seemed to impede on the sense of focus and subtlety achieved by the combination of works preceding it rather than make for a rousing finale.

The disappointing effect of the Brahms, though, went beyond how out of place it was in this program of short 20th century works. This is a work that, because of the modest use of tutti orchestral passages ("modest" at least in relation to Brahms' greatest concertos, which really resemble symphonies as much as works for soloist and orchestra) depends on great chamber music from the violinist and cellist. The cellist this night was Jan Volger, appearing for the first time with the CSO, and his exuberant unpredictability made for some awkward moments (and slippery intonation) when set against the effortless virtuosity and generosity of CSO concertmaster Robert Chen on violin. Still, while Volger's risk-taking made for an incoherent reading of the part, it also yielded some wonderful moments: for one, the full-throated, cellistic sound he brought to bear on the opening movement's second theme, which, presumably because it's introduced delicately by the violin, most cellists play with a sort of affectedly lilting and thin vibrato that doesn't match the instrument's sonority. Another memorable note struck byVolger was the daring rubato with which he played the second movement's main tune when it re-entered at the end of the movement. Here he lingered bravely over tastefully chosen downbeats and Chen seemed obliged to follow his lead.

I was worried that an over-familiarity with favorite recordings of the Sibelius 6th (namely those by Lorin Maazel and Paavo Berglund) would make it hard to appreciate Elder's reading of this little masterpiece. But just the opposite occurred: Elder launched into this taughtly melodic, alternatingly pensive and light-footed, profoundly unusual little masterpiece with a sense of rhythmic drive I've never heard. And Elder wisely let the sinuous, scalar, modal lines, rather than accompanying vamps, establish the work's sense of pace. This is a symphony with such a memorable, other-worldly repertoire of melodies that too many conductors allow themselves to linger with ill-fitting Romanticism over the "landmark" moments. Against this approach, Elder drove what was sadly a sometimes sluggish and unresponsive orchestra through these moments with a sense of beautiful inevitability, rather than heavy significance. This confirmed, for me at least, that he's a musician with an uncanny ability to truly work from within a piece of music, with interpretations that come pretty close to nailing what a composer has to say.