Along with a pretty nice review, there’s this little paragraph:
Next season, the company promises to continue this balance of the tested-and-true with the new and interesting. Mozart’s opera seria Idomeneo will open the season followed by Poulenc’s little-known Pagliacci & La Voix Humaine. Verdi’s classic La Traviata and Gounod’s Faust will round up what should be an exciting season for opera in Silicon Valley.
Can you find the “oops”?
We have a good Mercury News review as well.
I just read this:
A theme running through all four movements was used in the Broadway musical “Showboat” and was “Cotton Blossom,” which was the name of the showboat.
The reviewer is writing about a very famous symphony. Before I name it, though, I’m wondering if anyone immediately knows what symphony it is. Do tell!
The headline:
Madonna ‘Writing Classical Music for W.E.’
And then it says something about a “classic score” along with:
The movie is due to premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in France next month and reports now suggest Madonna is hard at work writing the soundtrack for “W.E.” with producer William Orbit ahead of the picture’s big debut.
Another pop star trying to “cross over” to the other side? Hmm?
What is the oboe’s role in the classical orchestra? Furthermore, winds in general?
I’m trying to compose something for a small orchestra (flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn, trumpet, timpani, and strings), and I’m a bit lost on the wind instruments, particularly the oboe. I have so far arranged my main theme like this: strings, bassoon, clarinet, and flute, state the ‘masculine’ ‘question’, followed by a lighter, ‘feminine’ response from the strings alone. I want oboe in that response, but I’m unsure how to incorporate it. Should an oboe double the melody the violins are playing? Should the oboe play a high pedal tone above it? Should I leave the oboe out for now?
Green Clouds
(the oboist is Graziana Giansante)
Concert Announcement:
Wednesday, April 27, 8:00 PM
WindSync: Wind Surfin’ USA
WindSync, a Houston-based woodwind quintet, presents a program of their own unique style of dramatic and interactive chamber music, as well as insight into traditional and non-traditional approaches to composition for the ensemble. In this lecture / recital, WindSync will teach all of the rules, and then show how to break them. Highlights will include works by Beethoven, Berio, Maslanka, and Bernstein.
I’ve really enjoyed seeing the WindSync on YouTube, and this concert, according to the Stanford site, is free! How ’bout that?! Now I just have to locate Campbell Recital Hall on Wednesday evening!
(You’d never catch me trying to move around and play oboe. I’m too klutzy for that sort of thing!)
now Mr. Wigglesworth, why would you put extremely high G’s in an oboe part… and at piano at that. I am not surprised that you were a string player!
… I feel like all on its own it is proving some scientists wrong. I am going to blame the reeds. As usual. (And I’m not even 60 yet. Oh dear!)
Those childhood music lessons could pay off decades later – even for those who no longer play an instrument – by keeping the mind sharper as people age, according to a preliminary study published by the American Psychological Association.
The study recruited 70 healthy adults age 60 to 83 who were divided into groups based on their levels of musical experience. The musicians performed better on several cognitive tests than individuals who had never studied an instrument or learned how to read music. The research findings were published online in the APA journal Neuropsychology.
Conductor and opera director Valery Gergiyev has come up with an initiative to start a magazine on the classical music in Russia.
Speaking at the conference dedicated to the opening of the Moscow Easter festival the musician said both positive or negative opinions on classical music are welcome.
“The most important is to ensure that the discussion on classical music will never stop”, Gergiyev said.
I read it here.
There is certainly a good argument for maintaining huge symphony orchestras in every major city (and many minor ones) across the world. They have become symbols not only of Western civilization at its best, but of prosperity and the quality of life in the cities which they serve.
But these huge institutional orchestras are like imperialist armies that have over-extended themselves.
There’s much more where that came from, but I don’t want to steal the articles attention so go over there, read it, and leave your comments (but hey, why don’t you cut & paste and place your comments here too, okay?).
Do I have an opinion. Yep.
But so often I’ve heard “keep your thoughts to yourself” … so I will. 😉
