I went to a CD release party last week; the former owner of my needy cat put out a CD of bass clarinet music! It features several new works composed for Kathryn, several improvisations, and some pieces she composed herself. And: it was good!  She’s definitely one of the best bass clarinet players I’ve heard ever (not that I’ve heard so many), but what was really great was to see her improvise in groups.  There were four improvisations, each with a different ensemble, and each illustrated a really excellent group dynamic that allowed for some really great music to be made – none of the usual jacking-off onstage that characterizes stereotypical improv. The standout piece on the program (and on the CD) was The Down Low – an improv between Kathryn and Tom Bouda, a local bass player and composer. This was really fantastic, winding from one incredible colour combination to the next, with enough energy and change to keep me stimulated without being scattered.* There were also lots of great colours in the first improv, Further Reflection with Richard Burrows on marimba “and things”.

I liked the composed works quite a lot as well – Kathryn really knows her instrument (of course) and makes the most of its range and capabilities. I could really hear Richard Windeyer‘s influence in Open Strain – a piece for bass clarinet and electronics. Artoxinovix, once I got past the “this is my fantasy world” program note composer Dan Di Maggio wrote for it, was interesting, and the “performing with self from five years ago” side of Veronica Tapia‘s Ladano was trippy and fun.

A couple of things: in performance, the improvs that involved drumset and piano tended to feature a mostly-drowned-out bass clarinet (tragic!), and I would’ve liked to see the composed pieces mixed in a little better with the improvisation (similarly: solo b.clar. mixed up with ensemble) on the program, just to keep things even more interesting.

Anyway! It was a good concert, and (shockingly) the first CD release I’d ever been to. Way to go Kathryn! Nicely done. In other news: your CD cover makes me nostalgic for my sordid history with Christian Pop and I love it.

*…but I am a total colour nerd. Bass clarinet and bass harmonics? Bass clarinet harmonics with bass tremolo? bass clarinet slaptongue with bass pizzicato? AND SO MUCH MORE.

There is a time and a place for Romantic music – but it is not for when I’m a giant stressball. I want something with repetitions and quiet beauty that will get into my bones and make me relax when that happens. An overture like La Forza is too full of  cartoon stress – and it sort of makes a mockery of actual emotion when one is actually feeling sturm und drang.

…but like I said, there is a time for Romantic music, and yesterday morning I got a chance to listen to James Ehnes play Massenet’s Meditation from behind the orchestra, just to the right of the horns and just behind the harp, and because they were projecting away from me, most of the instrumental sounds blended together in an impressionistic wash (even the solo violin, which, by the way, sounded so dark as to be beautiful like a viola, way to go Antonio Stradivari and James) except for the horns occasional colour note and the harp’s arpeggios which were in sharp focus…it was like this:

Or this:

You know? It’s an interesting way to see and hear something which might not otherwise seem striking – a few details sharply clear and the main theme obscured. I think I’ll probably end up backstage-listening more often.

Anyway, this concert with James Ehnes was really great apart from La Forza which, like I said, I didn’t like because of the timing for me. He played two of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and while I am heartily sick of that piece* he played it really, really well. (Also, string orchestras are so homogenous as to be relaxing.) There were a couple of moments in the trio sections when the soloist plays with the principals of Violins I and II where I was like…disconcerted? It felt a little seasick, like a film just a teeeeeny bit out of sync…but, you know, James is really good at the violin.

Seriously.

Dawna described this concert as “music that makes people open their wallets” and hey: true facts. There were some Kreisler things and Ballet Music from Faust and the Zampa Overture by Hérold (about whom we could find very little information for the pre-show slides, boo), and it was fun!

Story time! I got a call a couple of months back from a woman in a city about an hour west of KW. She told me that her four-year-old son was James Ehnes’ biggest fan, that he watched the DVD every day (more than Backyardigans!), that he had asked to take violin lessons. I got to arrange for them to meet at intermission!

This is what makes working in the arts worthwhile.

Also! Does everyone remember those Classical Kids stories? We had them all when I was little on cassette, and we listened to them so often that now whenever I hear The Four Seasons I get the corresponding emotional and story associations from “Vivaldi’s Ring of Mystery“.

*Kirill Gerstein once said that there is no such thing as bad music, just overplayed music (for some pieces, that number is in the single digits). I really like that! And I think it explains a lot.

The Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony extended Edwin Outwater’s contract as Music Director through 2015!

Not going to lie: pretty excited about this.

The way I see this is like Alkali Metals in water (see video). With each progressive year (alkali metal on the periodic table) under Edwin’s direction (water), the orchestra (reaction) gets bigger and better and crazier and more impressive.

You can read the Press Release and see Edwin’s reaction here.

Carrying on with the chemical reaction metaphor, let’s revisit the last few years!

Lithium (2007/08)

They started to make waves, sizzle, and catch fire.

Highlights: the opening night concert with Beethoven 5 and Jamie Parker playing Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, Karen Gomyo on violin,Colin Currie and Ein Heldenleben,  Measha (back this year!), the first season of Intersections featuring YouTube sensation Gilles Apap…

Sodium (2008/09)

Going places! On fire!

Highlights: the orchestra’s backwards entrance in the opening concerto John Corigliano’s Promenade Overture, Yuja Wang, Mahler 9, Mason Bates, Time for Three, Open Ears, Beethoven 9 (sold out!)…

Potassium (2009/10)

PURPLE FIRE, spreading out in all directions

Highlights: moving into the Conrad Centre, Flicka,Nico’s Choice, the Beethoven Festival, Music and Food, going to Toronto, the story in Macleans, Cirque de la Symphonie (back for 10/11!), Carmina Burana,  Star Trek: The Music with John de Lancie and Robert Picardo…

Rubidium (2010/11)

Fireworks! Fireworks and explosions and excitement!

Highlights: We signed Edwin on for another 5 years! WOO! The rest: still to be seen.

Caesium (2011/12)

…

Francium (2012 and beyond)

!!!

New Twitter! The video is fun and not full of text or talking – just images depicting use in all different situations (and to depict a virtual tool so physically is sort of impressive?). And the features are actually kind of great! I am a little excited, and a little insecure that this makes me lame.

Mymble’s Daughter, from whom I once bought a necklace, just added me on Facebook. I thought this was weird, at first, but then it occurred to me that I hadn’t thought about this place in a while and was now thinking about it. Success on the part of Mymble’s Daughter, I’d say! Also I went to the site to see if they had any more of the necklace I bought (mine broke after years of regular wear). So really: Well done there.

Michael Christie, who, when I idly tweeted:

actually responded:

Quick note: I do not follow this guy, did not @ him and really have no idea how he came across this (Google Alerts, peut-etre?), but it made me pretty happy. Way to go Michael Christie!*

*or Michael Christie’s publicist

UPDATE Re: “more delicious, but not as catchy”

So I am having a really excellent morning listening to music, flipping between the first episode of this and various  Appalachian folk, principally a really fantastic banjo player called Morgan O’Kane:

You guys, music is so awesome.

Who: The Scissor Sisters

Where: Sound Academy

When: August 31, 2010

I wonder what Ana Matronic eats for breakfast. I wonder if Jake Shears wears old man sweaters when he’s at home. I wonder if the keyboardist is the life of the party on the tour bus – if he’s the go-to guy for hallucinogens, awful puns, and cheap shots. I wonder if Del Marquis has a thing about Oxford Commas. I wonder these things because at this concert (packed in among so many girls and gays) there is a space between the music and the dancing, a space that would ordinarily be filled by staggering bass or the singer’s feelings slopping all over the stage. I resort to filling the space with idle, mental queries and remind myself not to wear just one earplug next time.

(It was a really good concert, though.)

Everyone knows the new year begins in September. School supplies and class schedules, room numbers and brand-new non-scuff sneakers with the curly laces you don’t have to tie. For musicians, for orchestras, September is about new beginnings, too. Kick-off concerts and hype from the press.

I made new year’s resolutions for September 1st this year. Some of them are mundane, like “make your own lunch” and “never wear the same thing twice”, but something else I want to do is write more about music. So my Resolution, this September the First, is to write a review for every concert I see. It doesn’t need to be professional, it doesn’t need to talk about the artistry or the talent or the tuning of the scales; I want it to be Sean-from-Said-the-Gramophone-style, flashing experiential evidence. I want to practice the combination of otherwise-unrelated words for the cause of re-evoking the moment.

I saw this on the bus on my way to work yesterday and took a picture. Two things: 1) Notice that the appallingly muscular men are flexing on the beach and a skinny, be-suited be-shorted violinist is performing kneeling in the middle. Why is this the case rather than the muscly guys playing? Why bring in bonus skinny nerds? and 2) WHY IS THE KWS NOT ADVERTISING RIGHT NEXT TO THIS?

It would be so funny.

It’s so amazing.

I look through the concert series around me, and the major ones are full of music I am only interested in tangentially (Poulenc, Schubert, Beethoven, Debussy) or not at all (Mozart, Sibelius, Tchaikovsky). I am fortunate in that I live in a city which has a reasonably lively new music scene with Intersections and NUMUS and Open Ears (although I am shockingly only interested in a few NUMUS concerts this year), and in that I live so close to Toronto with its treasure chest of contemporary classical jewels so I do not go unindulged in my niche tastes. But I live vicariously through the blogs and the hype and the excitement of the New York City contemporary classical scene – it is so brilliant.

I went to the Bang on a Can Marathon this past weekend and listened for all 13 glorious hours! It was fantastic to be around all the composers and musicians who I’ve read about and listened to, as well as the bloggers who provide the reading material. It was even more fantastic to get a chance to hear the music live – Evan Ziporyn is my new hero (“Tire Fire” performed by Gamelan Galak Tika blew my mind, as did Mr. Ziporyn’s clarinetting in the Bang on a Can All-Stars’ several performances), Tim Brady did Canada-dee-doo-dee-da proud with his brand of GuitArt, Florent Ghys took double bass to new heights, Buke and Gass were fantastic (and their CDs sold out before I started my volunteer shift behind the table), German composer Moritz Eggert was engaging and entertaining and played the piano with his ass, and I love love new music recorder quartets. When the QNG played Paul Moravec’s Mortal Flesh I knew it was Meant To Be.

I slept at my awesome friend Agatha Kasprzyk‘s house – she is a Masters student at NYU – and saw this program. Inside: Aggie’s piece, performed in Merkin Hall as part of a Takemitsu tribute concert.

On the back: featured upcoming concerts including THREE (3) artists whose blogs I read.

She also told me about a concert that she and her film-scoring-friends (soon-to-be composition collective) who call themselves “Vision Fugitive” just put on at (Le) Poisson Rouge. I went “!” because of course, everyone and their mother blog about (Le) Poisson Rouge, and I would just about kill puppies to get in on that. I wish I could’ve gone to see it!

Anyway, all this to say: NYC, I am way jealous of your scene!

Also, your baristas know how to spell!