Hysterical!
Classical music has never tasted so delicious!
You can hear conductor Sean Newhouse speak about filling in at the last minute for James Levine in the video below, and you can read the article by going here.
The bigger news — at least when the review first came out — was about something else though. I’m guessing we’ll never know the whole story and if this was as bad as it sounds, but one reviewer was mostly annoyed with the behavior of some musicians but also suggested it wasn’t the best of performances.
Now I know that we musicians can be a pesky bunch, and I know we can be downright rude, too. But during a performance? I really wonder if it was this bad. I’m hoping not!
So the other week I accidentally bought an oboe (standard booze and ebay incident). I’m a grad student and even my drunken self knows I don’t have much cash, so as you’d expect it was pretty cheap and isn’t in the best condition.
Now, I know bugger all about oboes, never played one, never known anyone else who did, but once my drunken prize arrived I thought it would be a bit of a giggle to learn to play the thing. Not properly, just as a thing to fiddle around with in my downtime, I’ve been meaning to find a new instrument to play for years. Looking at the local music shops I find there’s one that specialises in oboes and is run by an ex-pro. I took it down to him today where he basically told me it was an odd, old type, looked short and would be too high pitched to be used in an orchestra. Then he said getting it fixed up would cost about £350, which I don’t have. Since then I’ve been trawling the internet to find out what exactly it is, but I’m at a bit of a loss.
I read that, and more, here. It includes a picture of the thing.
Horatio Parker
I’m going to guess a lot of you already know of Horatio Parker, but I didn’t!
A Northern Ballad
Part 1:
Part 2:
[John] Willams premiers his Concerto for Oboe, written for Pops principal oboist Keisuke Wakao and conducts the orchestra accompanied by film footage in Hooray for Hollywood May 25-28.
I read it here.
Off to band night for [name here] to choose her instrument…please oh please let her choose something we already have..i only have one room that looks like a marching band resides there…one room in which a rock star resides..keyboards..guitars….watch…shes going to come off with something crazy…like…an oboe….
Gotta run….time for band practice. I might get to play the oboe again tonight. Fun, fun, fun!
I went to a recital by my friend (and fab reed maker) Mike Adduci sometime last year. In that concert he premiered a work by Kerry Lewis. I really enjoyed his composition, and I think his works would be a great addition to your music library.
Today I received this note:
To Patty and Michael and my other double-reed musician friends: I’m happy to report that my “Suite for Oboe” and “Elegy” for oboe were just published by TrevCo Music and can be ordered from there (TCO 1187 and TCO 1188). Thanks to Michael Adduci for recommending my music to the publisher.
The Elegy was originally a movement of the Suite, but I decided to make it a separate piece because the Suite was very long.
You can purchase the works here.
Just played an oboe for the first time. Interesting..
London’s Abbey Road recording studios is marking its 80th anniversary with a competition to find “the great anthems of our time”.
The initiative will give composers the chance to record their anthem with the London Symphony Orchestra at the world famous studios.
General manager Jonathan Smith said it would give entrants “an opportunity to have their work performed and recorded at the very highest standard”.
Entries must be received by 15 July.
