oboeinsight

At least one person absolutely hated the concert last night. (Email me if you want to read more.) I can say here that it’s certainly good we are all hardened musicians who never take anything personally!* 😉

I’m guessing reviews might say much of what this blogger said. And seriously, I actually expected the majority of the audience to be very unhappy with the concert. We seem to get primarily the over 50 crowd (of which I am soon to become a member … yikes!), and I’m guessing most come to hear the three Bs with a bit of M thrown in. (And I’m not talking Mahler.) Some might say jazz is inappropriate for a symphony. Some, like the blogger mentioned above, don’t care for jazz. My dad wouldn’t want anything with saxophone, and he’s not alone; many think that saxophone doesn’t belong on a symphony stage.

I still say trying something new is a good thing, even if some new things don’t manage to satisfy the entire audience. I just hope we don’t get trashed too harshly. I wonder if we need thicker skin than critics, who seem to have very thick skins indeed.

*There is only one sentence from one review that refers to me that I have by memory, and I’ve been doing this stuff since 1975. It is, of course, a BAD sentence: “The overture was marred only by the bland English horn solo.” Naw … I don’t take anything to heart. Not I!

So someone (a Julliard grad, Nico Muhly), wrote a song cycle using the ever-so-exquisite book The Elements of Style. Read about it here.

Gee, that’s a book I’ve not really read. I know exactly what it looks (or looked, anyway, since this was a while ago) like; we had it at our house (maybe Dan used it?) and I sold plenty of copies when I worked in a bookstore way-back-when.

It’s gotta be a good work; it includes banjo.
—–

I enjoyed playing last night, and was actually fairly happy with all but one thing I did. Being satisfied is a good and bad thing; I like being content with my playing, but I do have another performance so I want to have it be even better. The “good patty” says “You’ll make it even better!” and the “bad patty” says “Well, now you’ll most surely blow it.”

Aren’t voices inside our heads a wonderful thing?

The audience seemed receptive, but not enough to stand at the end. I wonder if the jazz night is too much for many. I wonder if they feel that the music of the “old dead white guys” are the only works who deserve a standing O because, after all, they are dead but still being played and, well, the work must be good then, right? I don’t know if that’s really the case … I’m just wondering aloud.

But standing Os are often a puzzlement. Sometimes when an audience stands I want to scold them and explain that they were cheated—that we didn’t play well. Or that the work isn’t as good as they think (But who am I to make that judgment/judgement*?). Sometimes I want to yell “Stand up, for heaven’s sake!” because I know the performance deserved it. Sometimes it’s the work that demands an O, I think.

But of course that’s just my opinion. And I have silly opinions sometimes.

I’m not saying they should have stood last night, by the way. I’ve wandered away from last night’s concert.

Don’t worry … I’ll wander back at 2:30 today! 🙂

*Have you noticed that the word judgment – or judgement (you choose!) – is a very odd looking word, no matter how you decide to spell it?