They Couldn’t Even Leave Their Hats On

01. March 2010 · Comments Off on They Couldn’t Even Leave Their Hats On · Categories: Huh?

There were all shapes and sizes – the large and the small, the young and the old, and even a heavily pregnant woman who had re-scheduled the birth of her twins so she could take part.

But the one thing the 5,200-odd people who posed for the American artist Spencer Tunick at the Sydney Opera House earlier today had in common was that they were all totally naked.

I read it here.

Whoa … rescheduling the birth of twins?

No way would I be there. I’d just use the excuse, “Gotta make reeds.” Yeah. That’d work.

More on SF Symphony

01. March 2010 · 6 comments · Categories: MTT, Ramble, San Francisco Symphony

So … now that I’ve sort of recovered from the socializing and from teaching my two students (the third canceled and these two forgot to pay … hmmm. Not the most stellar teaching day!), I’ll blog more a bit about what I heard this morning.

Three woodwind soloists from the orchestra will be playing. I already mentioned Russ deLuna will be playing in Copland’s Quiet City. Bassoonist Stephen Paulson will be playing Ciranda des sete notas by Villa-Lobos. Should I bravely mention I don’t know this work at all? No. I think I’ll not tell you that. I would probably be embarrassed if I did. Carey Bell will be soloing on Debussy’s Première Rapsoide for clarinet. All three of these works are ones I’d be very interested in hearing. From one bassoonist’s reaction (Hi, Imani!), the Villa-Lobos is a must hear for bassoonists. MTT mentioned that they want to feature more orchestra members in solo roles in the coming years.

They are doing two new commissions. One is by Avner Dorman (Who? Geesh … I’m feeling like an idiot here! But I’m not going to tell you I don’t know his name. Nope.), called Uriah. David Robertson will be conducting that concert (it also includes some Dukas and Prokofiev). We were told that it was originally going to have “The man the king wanted dead” as the title (or was it attached to the the title?) but that has been nixed. The other commission is Rufus Wainwright’s Five Shakespeare Sonnets which, if I’m understanding correctly, was originally to be done this year. Jeffrey Kahane will conduct the Wainwright set, and the concert also includes the Ravel G major piano concerto (best English horn solo ever) and Weill’s second symphony (which again I will not admit that I don’t know. At all.). By the way, I do know who Wainwright is. So there.

The Mahler recording project that they started in 2001 will be completed this year. Songs for Orchestra will feature my absolute favorite, Rückert Lieder (another best English horn solo ever), with Susan Graham and Thomas Hampson on Songs of a Wayfarer. We were told that 2011 is the 100th anniversary of Mahler’s death. MTT wittily mentioned something like (and pardon me if I’m slightly off with the quote) “it’s the 137th anniversary of his Bar Mitzvah. News you can use. 😉

But what’s next? Since they are finishing up with Mahler, is there something else in store? Sounds like that’s a big “yes”. But we weren’t told just what, yet. Hmmm. Should we guess? Maybe. Maybe not. I might guess American. I might guess Ives. But I might be wrong. So I probably won’t guess. Yet.

Oh … and speaking of Mahler … the third season of Keeping Score will be about him, and I’ll definitely want that! We saw a small portion of it. It wouldn’t have even taken that to sell me on it, but it looked wonderful.

Okay. Enough of me rambling on and on.

Season Highlights
SF Symphony’s 2010-11 season (pdf)

Far Too Much To Write

01. March 2010 · 4 comments · Categories: MTT, San Francisco Symphony

… so I won’t put it all here right now. Stay tuned!

I’m sitting at Arlequin Café, having a wonderful, “comfort bowl” of oatmeal, with warm milk and apricots. I need it. I loved being a the press conference for San Francisco Symphony’s 2010-2011 season announcement, but now I need to decompress. I’m ridiculously hermit-like. I love meeting other bloggers (Hi Opera Tattler and Not For Fun Only!), but going outside of my little comfort zone tends to make me a bit fried after. How incredibly silly IS that, anyway? And why is someone who can sit on stage in front of an audience be such a basket case like I am? Hmmm. Maybe it’s just double reed neurosis? Or maybe it’s merely yours (in her private little cave) truly. 😉

Soooo … it was a blast being at the announcement. I was sort of like a giddy little girl, feeling like I was pretending to be an adult. Or maybe like I was an unknown oboist, sitting in the midst of people of importance. Yeah. Kind of both.

The season looks pretty darn exciting. For the Project San Francisco (composer & artist in residency program) we’ll be seeing and hearing from John Adams and Yuja Wang. El Niño is on the schedule (concert version: December 2-4), as is Harmonielehre (December 8-11), along with a December 12 chamber music series featuring Adams music. Yuja Wang will be part of the chamber music series on June 14, and perform the Bartók second piano concerto (June 16-19) as well as present what looks to be a solo recital (June 21).

MTT was very fun to listen to. He’s quite personable and I really enjoyed him. I’d seen him, of course, on video, and I’ve heard him speak from the stage. This just felt more … well … comfortable. Like my oatmeal or something. (Uh-oh … did I just compare MTT to a bowl of oatmeal. How naughty of me!) I took notes (with a bright pink highlighter pen because I forgot anything else, which was about as unprofessional as I could look, don’t you think?). Sadly I didn’t take pictures because of course I was charging my camera battery and it’s all sitting at home, ready for me to put in my bag. (Grrr.) Yes. I’m not a real journalist, and I’ve proved it in nearly every way I could. (But can a real journalist make an oboe read? Huh?)

I’d write more, but I need to enjoy this oatmeal, and my body is having a bit of a bad “DizzyDay™” so I’d better step away from the computer for a while.

Read Online

01. March 2010 · Comments Off on Read Online · Categories: Read Online

I am developing a classical music section on my iTunes and i am looking for some unique classical music such as “one mans dream”, and “Enchantment” by Yanni and i was hopeing to find some similar to this.

TQOD

01. March 2010 · Comments Off on TQOD · Categories: TQOD

Ugh. I hate being in symphonic band. I hate having a crappy oboe that my band director wont fix. I hate pretty much everything today. Yay.

San Francisco Symphony

01. March 2010 · 2 comments · Categories: Symphony

Today San Francisco Symphony makes their announcement about the 2010-2011 season. And I’ll be there for that! Yep. They sent me an invitation. So I’ll be there. Come back here later and I’ll fill you in!

I’ve neglected to mention that Michael Tilson Thomas was awarded the National Medal of Arts. You can see pictures here, and there’s even a video if you want to watch that.

Do you think a double reed player has ever been given one of these. I’m quite doubtful. But then we have to carry knives so we’d never be allowed in the White House. I’m sure that’s the only reason there’s not an oboe player in the House! 😉

We’ll Always Have Figure Skating

01. March 2010 · Comments Off on We’ll Always Have Figure Skating · Categories: Olympics

… if classical music fails, well, there’s always that, eh? 😉

Rimsky-Korsakov:

Mahler:

Let’s see, we also heard Stravinsky, Gershwin, Saint Saens, Rota, Rodrigo, Albinoni, Bizet, and of course many more. Not that the snips and cuts and massive amputations always made for great music. But still … at least it’s something, eh? (That “eh” was in honor of all those Canadians out there, fer sure.)