T. Koopman: Nun komm, der Heiden Heiland BWV 659 – J.S.Bach
We attend La Bohème tonight. I know that some opera lovers are tired of this work, but I’m not, and of all the operas I’ve played, this is the one I’ve played the most. I’ve done three versions; I’ve played the reduced orchestra version that I’ve been told Puccini authorized (I don’t believe he did it, though), the Nicholas Kitsopoulos version (which, thankfully, keeps the English horn part which the other nixes), and the complete orchestration. Of course I prefer the full orchestration, but I thought Kitsopoulos did a good job, and I appreciate it when an orchestrator knows that the English horn timbre can’t be replaced!
We don’t hear the “big names” tonight, but I’m okay with that. Maybe we’ll hear a future big name in any case.
After this opera the San Francisco Ballet takes over the opera house for a while. We return in June for three final operas, Tosca, Porgy & Bess (yes, it is an opera … imo, of course), and La Traviata. Definitely operas that some folks out there deem beneath them because of their popularity. I was never popular. Maybe that’s why I like these? Kind of living vicariously or some such thing. 😉
The Symphony’s wonderful English Horn, Kenneth Lawrence, gave me chills in the famous languorous solo in the “Miller’s Dance”of the de Falla suite.
I’ve never thought of that solo as “languorous”. Do other readers see (hear) it that way? I’m just curious.
I think I know why I am lonely.
I miss my English horn, something that can share my loneliness.
I always say English horn is lonely instrument, how true.
This isn’t entirely new news, but I have only now gotten around to blogging it.
We invite musicians from around the world to audition for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. Your video entries will be combined into the first ever collaborative virtual performance, and the world will select the best of you to perform at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in April 2009.
The music one has to play is from Tan Dun’s “Internet Symphony No. 1 “Eroica”.
Here’s the conductor (on a silent video) so you can play while he conducts:
More info:
Audition for the Carnegie Hall performance. Submit your talent video performance of one or two of the recommended pieces on this list for your chance to be selected to go to New York on April 15, 2009.
* List of recommended pieces:
* Mozart Oboe Quartet, K. 370: Mvt. III Rondeau (Allegro)
* Debussy: La Mer: Mvt. I, #6-#7; Mvt. II , #17-#18
* Rossini: Overture to La scala di seta: Beginning to downbeat of #3
And for English horn:
* List of recommended pieces:
* Mozart Oboe Quartet, K. 370: Mvt. III Rondeau (Allegro)
* Debussy: La Mer: Mvt. I, #6-#7; Mvt. II , #17-#18
* Rossini: Overture to La scala di seta: Beginning to downbeat of #3
* Dvorák: Symphony No. 9 in E Minor (“From the New World”): Mvt. II, Largo
Here’s the video with sound:
