The Historical Piano Concerts series for Spring 2011 is announced

The Historical #Piano Concerts series for Spring 2011 is announced.

http://tinyurl.com/29rfz97

And some articles about last year's performances:

Finehouse on Frederick Collection’s Tröndlin an Alignment of Stars

In these concerts, the piano is as much the star as the pianist

http://classical-scene.com/2010/09/12/finehouse-on/

Pianist Yi-heng Yang Brings Out Qualities of Frederick Collection’s Tröndlin

http://classical-scene.com/2010/06/08/yi-heng-yang/

I'Estro Armonica: Héloïse Degruillier on recorder, Paul Cienniwa on harpsichord

This is a pitifully late review of a concert I went to last April that was just exquisite.

Héloïse and Paul were charming, polished, musically profound and technically brilliant. I took a few photos of them that came out better than I expected. Sadly I have since lost the program which listed the pieces they played, and too much has happened in the interim, but my attention was riveted by the entire performance, which tells me they performed technically difficult as well as musically satisfying pieces. I am not a snob but I do get bored. :-)

I am so thrilled to have music of this caliber available in this area, so I wanted to mention this concert series because it deserves support in the local community to keep it alive, not to mention you get to hear some fantastic performers without schlepping into Boston.

For more information on this concert series:

http://www.uuharvard.org/CongregationalLife/SpecialEvents/Concerts.aspx

Announcement for the concert

Sunday, April 11, 2010 at 4 p.m.

I'Estro Armonica:
Héloïse Degruillier on recorder
Paul Cienniwa on harpsichord

Héloïse and Paul have been performing together in the Boston and Newport areas since 2007. Their 2009 concert for the Boston Early Music festival won them praise in the American Recorder Society and the classical music blog Soho the Dog.

Héloïse has worked extensively as both a recorder performer and teacher throughout Europe and the United States. She has performed with leading period ensembles, including the Boston Early Music Festival Opera, Newport Baroque, Harmonious Blacksmith, the Dunya Ensemble and L’Academic. She teaches with the Boston Recorder society, Recorder Guild of New York, Pinewoods and others. She has a Masters in Music from the Utrecht Conservatory in the Netherlands, and is an Alexander Technique graduate.

Paul has recently performed at St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue, Yale University, Harvard University, MIT, the Kingston Chamber Music festival, and in Chicago. He was hailed by critics for his performance and direction of Handel’s Alcina for the Boston Opera Collaborative. His undergraduate work was done at DePaul University, and he received the doctor of Musical Arts degree from Yale University. His musicological articles have appeared in American and European journals, including Early Music and Ad Parnassum. Read more about Paul at www.paulcienniwa.blogspot.com.

For more information on this concert series:

http://www.uuharvard.org/CongregationalLife/SpecialEvents/Concerts.aspx

Mike Stern in Worcester

On November 21, Mike Stern visited Worcester, MA with his current touring band, which includes percussion wiz Dave Weckl, Tom Kennedy on bass and Tom Malach on tenor sax. The show was hosted by WICN's "Jazz Rocks" DJ Walter St. Dennis.

It was very disappointing to see such a small crowd for a group of performers of this caliber. Of course, the Mechanics Hall is not a great place to put a "rock" band. It's designed for acoustic symphonic groups. The sound was muddy and fuzzy. Way too loud in my opinion, though no one else seemed to mind. I don't know what other venue would have held a band like this in the Worcester area. One would think that the colleges would like to have a top-level band like this on their campus.

Nevertheless, the musicians were very gracious, in spite of a grueling travel schedule, and they played well, smoking solos passed back and forth between band members. Stern plays very tunefully and also produces sound textures that are very compelling.

WICN followed up this concert with a show on the Yellowjackets last Monday. These recordings from a Jazz at Lincoln Center concert was fantastic, were interspersed with an interview with band member Russell Ferrante.

Occidental Gypsy Jazz Quartet

Last Saturday night I went to see the Occidental Gypsy Jazz Quartet (their new website coming soon they say) at the Bull Run in Shirley. I saw them last year at the Bull Run, on a whim. As a fan of gypsy jazz trio Ameranouche of Manchester, NH, I was curious to see other gypsy jazz groups. I am a huge fan of jazz violin, from Grapelli, to Ponty to Goodman (Dregs) so I was really looking forward to hearing OGJQ. Their violinist from last year, Joel, who was fantastic by the way, has departed the band. But not to fear: OGJQ's new violinist, Julgi Kang is incredible.

They started late-- not their fault, their meals arrived late after the drive up from their home base in RI-- but the show proceeded smoothly and gracefully after that. Their violinist, "Julgi," poor thing, had a bad headache but nevertheless played beautifully. She effortlessly doubles many of the solo lines with guitarist Brett Feldman. Julgi is a student at Berklee. I am now an unabashed fan.

They played most of the songs off their debut CD and a few standards like "I can't give you anything but love". The latter song will forever and always bring to mind images of the maladroit, blundering of Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant in the movie "Bringing Up Baby", as they chase "Baby," a "tame" leopard sent from South America as a present to Katherine's character. If you can get over the fact that the characters are behaving like imbeciles, it's a fun movie. But I digress.

The OGJQ plays lightning fast and clean gypsy jazz. Their arrangements are well-rehearsed, show a lot of character, great playfulness and inventiveness, and yet do not step so far outside the gypsy jazz genre as to be incongruous. The presentation is balanced-- no one overwhelms or steals the spotlight. They are warm, vivacious and with those solid rhythm chords holding up the bottom - you can't help but move to the music.

They seem to perform mostly in their home state of RI. The Bull Run says they will be back in March 2011. I hope we will see them again in Northampton MA at Django in June.

BSO at Tanglewood - 16 July

On a steamy Friday afternoon, 30 of us, mostly members of Harvard Pro Musica, boarded a bus in Harvard for the 2.5 hour trip to Tanglewood. We had our doubts we would arrive in time when we ran into a traffic jam east of Palmer MA and a heavy downpour of rain after we reached the highest elevation point in the highway. On the way up that hill, the bus screamed its displeasure - too much sitting in traffic followed by an uphill climb in 90F weather with a dewpoint nearly that high.

By the time we arrived in Lenox, the clouds were scudding away and tendrils of a later afternoon sun filtered through the trees as we settled our folding chairs into a communable circle on the damp, closely-cropped grass. Wine and food were passed around, and the cooks were lauded with praise. Like any good potluck, each brought enough to feed nearly the whole group. And so we gasped in satiated pleasure as the sky muted, adjusted our chairs and waited for the concert to begin. Just as the chorus was filing in, and the crowd acknowledged the arrival of Michael Tilson-Thomas to the podium, a gorgeous array of color filled the western sky. I'd left my camera at home in case we were in pouring rain, so I managed to take a reasonable photo with my phone. Warm washes of pink, yellow and orange flitting through and over the treetops.

The program for the evening was Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms and Mozart's Requiem in D minor. As with last years performance of Beethoven's 9th, also conducted by MTT, the singers had memorized their music. I have been trying to convince my local choruses that this is possible for us as well, and that the results will be worth the effort. A group cannot sing as emotively or as organically unless they are off the written page. Only then do they listen. Only then does the music fuse. There is no flicking the eyes up and down. We are focused on the eyes and hands of the conductor and ears are drinking in the voices around us. We vibrate the music and are carried along with it, because we are not trying to assimilate a graphical interpretation of the music and reacting to it. We ARE the music.

I have memorized the last few concerts and several of my fellow chorus are starting to come around to my way of thinking on this, because they now see that it can be done by a mere mortal and they can hear and feel the increased emotiveness and cohesiveness of my lines.

The Stravinsky contained skin-chilling and bone-buzzing harmonic structures. I love these grating fusions of chord on chord, and their resolution into melody -or not, sometimes. Sometimes they leave you on a cliff. Shall we jump over into ether? Shall we just look over the edge and get dizzy? Shall we walk away into a pleasant tonic resolution? One never knows. I love the 'crunchy' stuff.

Mozart also threw out a few harmonic curves, but mostly it is structure, layer upon layer that builds the sonic atmosphere. The Lacrymosa, as always, pulled a few small tears from the corners of my eyes. Later on the bus ride home, a few of us sang an improvised trio on the theme.

Thanks to large screens and strategically placed video-cams, we were able to locate our former chorus-mate in the risers. Sometimes these video montages feel disjointed and jarring, and I do not like to watch them, but I felt these were well done and added to the overall experience.

I could spend more summer evenings like this. Many many more.

This Song Rocks my World

Go to

http://www.eldarjazz.com/

Click on Launch My Audio Player

Then navigate to "Virtue" (album) and choose "Exposition".

This CD has been out since last August (09) but I am still not tired of it, especially not this song. It is a nearly daily spin.

AllMusic.com gives Virtue 4 Stars (sept 2009)

Eldar Djangirov continues hell-bent on dazzling audiences with his impressive technique, speed-demon array of notes, and music that is displaying more of a jagged edge and abject angular inventions. The staggeringly pronounced music he is making takes a different turn on Virtue, utilizing horns and synthesizers, but it's mostly his kamikaze acoustic piano -- frequently turning on a dime -- that is the centerpiece.

-----

My thoughts:

Angular, yes, I agree, but still tuneful! And the time signature changes pull you along, it's like watching birds flock and turn and swing through the sky or water tumbling over rocks. So organic, so lithe, so dynamic, loud then soft, tumbling and pooling and falling over the edge into a tumble. The bass keeps forward momentum throughout, climbing lines enhance tension. When the song ends it is as if a beautiful dream has been rudely awakened. Not that the song ends badly, just that it ends at all. It should go on.

This song for me is much like Michael Manring's Monkey Businessman. The pulsing, the dynamics, the flight and the swoop. All there.

There is nothing quite like falling in love with a song.

AvivaShir

Karl Paulnack to the Boston Conservatory Freshman Class

This is an old post that has made the round in music circles, but it continues to be, and will always be, relevant:

http://greenroom.fromthetop.org/2009/03/11/karl-paulnack-to-the-boston-conservatory-freshman-class/

In Search of Lost Sounds

This is a well-written article about the difference in playing on contemporary vs. the instruments the composers wrote for:
http://www.slate.com/id/2245891/pagenum/all/

There are audio files there so you can compare.

Another weekend of great music

On Sunday 30 May, Shuann Chai gave an astounding performance to a packed house (well ,a packed church). Chopin, Schumman (both R. and C.), and a little known Henselt piece. Her comments were witty and astute and greatly appreciated. I love being able to see artists of this caliber in an area most people would refer to as rural. It is a real treat to hear these compositions performed on pianos similar to those on which they were written. There is a huge difference in the texture of the music, and therefore deeper understanding, when it is played on the exact instrument for which it was composed.
http://www.frederickcollection.org

On Friday 28 May Hiro Honshuku's group gave an energetic performance at the Acton Jazz cafe. Violin, vibes, flute, percussion and bass. They really tore it up and those of us who made the effort to get there had quite the treat. You who did not attend missed a fantastic journey through sound. This is jazz that brought to mind JL Ponty, Weather Report, 1970s canadian jazz fusion such as Contrevent. Hiro's compositions were lovely.
http://anonemusic.com

More later as I have time to write.