You decide.
Oops … meant to credit this earlier and didn’t. I was alerted to the ad by Alecia Batson. (Fun blog, hers!)
This looks nothing like an oboe, and yet they are calling it an “oboe dress”.
Found here.
And please, an oboe dress should look so much better!
I had forgotten … they share the date … so here they are, singing a tribute to Sir Cameron Mackintosh:
I just received this press release:
JAMES LEVINE WITHDRAWS FROM NEXT THREE WEEKS OF BSO PROGRAMS DUE TO ONGOING BACK PROBLEMS
JAYCE OGREN TO CONDUCT BSO IN WORLD PREMIERE OF PETER LIEBERSON’S SONGS OF LOVE AND SORROW, MARCH 25, 26, AND 27
RAFAEL FRUHBECK DE BURGOS TO LEAD BSO IN MENDELSSOHN’S ELIJAH, APRIL 1, 2, AND 3, IN BOSTON AND APRIL 5, IN NEW YORK AT CARNEGIE HALL
CONDUCTOR FOR JOHN HARBISON’S DOUBLE CONCERTO FOR VIOLIN AND CELLO, WITH MIRA WANG AND JAN VOGLER AS SOLOISTS, ON A PROGRAM WITH MAHLER’S SEVENTH SYMPHONY, APRIL 8, 9, AND 10, TO BE ANNOUNCED LATER THIS WEEK
BSO Music Director James Levine is withdrawing from the next three weeks of BSO programs due to ongoing back problems. These were to have been Mr. Levine’s final appearances of the 2009-10 season. Jayce Ogren will lead the world premiere of Peter Lieberson’s Songs of Love and Sorrow, featuring baritone Gerald Finley, March 25, 26, and 27. The program will also include Sibelius’s Finlandia and Valse triste, with Schubert’s Symphony in C, The Great, bringing the program to a close (in addition to the Lieberson premiere and Schubert’s Great Symphony, the original program was to have included Debussy’s Jeux). The following week, April 1, 2, and 3 in Boston, and April 5 at Carnegie Hall in New York, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos will lead Mendelssohn’s Elijah with soprano Christine Brewer, mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe, tenor Alexsandrs Antonenko, and bass-baritone Shenyang, as well the Tanglewood Festival Chorus, John Oliver, conductor. These programs of Elijah mark the beginning of the Tanglewood Festival Chorus’s 40th anniversary season.
The conductor for the world premiere of John Harbison’s Double Concerto for violin and cello featuring Mira Wang and Jan Vogler, on a program with Mahler’s Seventh Symphony, April 8, 9, and 10, will be announced later this week.“This has been a difficult year for James Levine and we wish him the very best as he works with his doctors towards resolving his ongoing back problems,” said BSO Managing Director Mark Volpe. “Though we will miss James Levine’s presence, all of us look forward to the last six Boston Symphony programs of the season—the greatly anticipated world premieres by Peter Lieberson and John Harbison, Mendelsshon’s magnificent Elijah in Boston and New York under the direction of Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, the final program by Julian Kuerti as BSO assistant conductor, and two season-ending programs led by BSO Conductor Emeritus Bernard Haitink.”
Photos and full artist biographies are available in the BSO’s online press kit here.
Wishing Maestro Levine a speedy recovery.
Lately, I’ve been loving classical music, Mozart and Beethoven, and I think how wonderful that this music is 300 or 400 years old, and we’re still listening to it. I want to be Beethoven, I want to be Mozart—I want people to be listening to those songs (of mine) 300 years form now. That’s my goal.
-Smokey Robinson
This is from his keynote address at SXSW.
My favorite quote is this:
I would tell you not to take yourself too seriously. If you think you can sing, I’m gonna take you to my church on Sunday. There will be people there who can blow you out of the water … If you think, man, the world knows me now, and they can’t possibly do without me — don’t kid yourself. You didn’t start this and you are not going to finish it.
If you reach your goal in any form or fashion, be thankful … if you get a break, use it and count your blessings.
I read it here.
“Any final instructions, coach?” I ask.
“Listen,” she says, “the bowing, at the end, is the hard part. It’s all about the bowing, so we’ve got to practice that.”
I tell her about the terrible mistake I made at New Jersey’s Symphony. I bowed to the orchestra afterward, which had the effect of mooning the audience.
(Conversation between Marin Alsop and Scott Simon, before he was to narrate Peter & The Wolf.)
I read it here.
2nd night, Peter & the Wolf, backstage. Oboist warming up sounds like babbling gander. Love it back here–secret language spoken-
(This was a Scott Simon tweet. @nprscottsimon)
Traveling with an oboe is like traveling with an infant. You can’t just bring a small carry-on because you aren’t just bringing the oboe, you’re bringing the oboe’s reeds, reed tools, music, extra cane in case you have to make more reeds. Seriously, it feels like a diaper bag sometimes.
Opera or Musical … does it matter? The guy writes some mighty fine stuff!
He can be ridiculous with words and speed (and wit):
And he can really hit my heart:
And for something totally different — and a wee bit bizarre, in my little opinion, but bizarre enough to work — Liza Minnelli and the Pet Shop Boys:
