Miss Music Nerd’s Fall Arts Preview: A Far Cry from Boston!

Fall really is upon us, Music Nerds! One minute I was enjoying my Labor Day vacay, and next thing I knew, the concert season was in full swing! For me, it started last night with the [plain] song, in a program being repeated Saturday and Sunday (details here).

photo: Yoon S. Byun

It continues tomorrow afternoon with A Far Cry. Fortunately for you, dear readers, you have three chances to hear this concert as well. However, I strongly recommend tomorrow’s performance, not only because it will be your chance to meet Miss Music Nerd in person, but also because the venue has marvelous acoustics and the tickets are only $10! (Said venue is the church where I am Minister of Music, so yeah, I’m biased!)

A Far Cry: “Primordial Darkness”
September 18 2010 4pm
JP Concerts, St. John’s Episcopal Church, Jamaica Plain

September 19 2010 1:30pm
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston

September 24 2010 8pm
Jordan Hall, New England Conservatory, Boston

A Far Cry is an exciting young string orchestra, now in its fourth season. They perform conductor-less, with the performers standing up (except the cellos!), which lends an intimacy and excitement to the playing that is very compelling. Or as they put it, “seeking the freedom and flexibility of a string quartet as well as the power and beauty of an orchestra.” In addition to their Boston area performance and outreach activities, they have recently begun taking it on the road, as an article in today’s Boston Globe relates.

The theme for their fourth season is “History of the Night,” and this first concert is titled “Primordial Darkness.” In keeping with that theme, they will play Mozart’s Serenata Notturna in D major. Here’s the full program lineup:

Xenakis: Analogique A et B
Mozart: Serenata Notturna in D major
Cornell: New Fantasias
Purcell: Suite from “The Old Bachelor”
Bartók: Divertimento for String Orchestra

The piece by Boston composer Richard Cornell was commissioned by and written for A Far Cry, so I’m very excited to hear it. I believe it is one of the pieces, along with the Xenakis, requiring the sound system the group is bringing in – I got a sneak peek today when I stopped by the venue to open the door!

So get ready to rock out in a classical kind of way, and tell ’em Miss Music Nerd sent you!

The Art of Song in Boston

the [plain] song is a group of ambitious young musicians whose mission is to share their passion for art song. From their website: “For centuries this intimate genre has synthesized the works of the greatest musical and literary minds in history. the [plain] song believes that the shared cultural heritage represented by the medium of the art song has continuing relevance and importance in today’s world.”

This weekend in Boston, the [plain] song launches their inaugural season with a presentation of Hugo Wolf‘s Spanish Songbook. It’s the first of a series of four concerts showcasing most of the output of one of the greatest art song composers of the 19th century. Performers include singers Ferris Allen, Katherine Growdon, Emily Quane and Jarvis Wyche, with pianists Elizabeth Avery and David Collins.

The program will be performed three times:

Thursday 9.16.2010, 7:30pm
JP Concerts
St. John’s Episcopal Church
1 Roanoke Ave.
Jamaica Plain, MA

Saturday 9.18.2010 4pm
Endicott College
Center For The Arts,
376 Hale St. Beverly, MA

Sunday 9.19.2010 2:00pm
St.Anne’s-in-the-Fields Episcopal Church
147 Concord Rd.
Lincoln, MA

Free admission, with with a suggested donation of $15. Tell them Miss Music Nerd sent you!

Another One Bites the Dust

Thanks to everyone who voted for me in the “Your Own Show” competition! I got over 1200 votes, which is not bad for a last-minute entry, I think! 🙂

One cool dude, yes, but alas, not commercially viable. 😥

A short time ago, music nerd Andy brought to my attention that his local classical music radio station, KFUO 99.1 FM in St. Louis, would soon be going off the air, to be replaced by Joy FM, which will broadcast Christian pop music.

I just learned that today is the final day for the classical format, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch is running an informal poll on its website asking which recording of Beethoven’s 9th Symphony should be the last selection played. Go and vote, if you’d like, or at least read the poll choices, which provide an interesting mini-history lesson on important recordings of the 9th and how they relate to social and political milestones of the 20th century.

Another interesting factoid in the Post-Dispatch article is that the classical station was sold down the river owned by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, which is headquartered in St. Louis. Now, I was born in St. Louis and raised in the LCMS, and VirgoMom worked for the church for a number of years, so I believe I have some standing to comment on this, and I would just like to say,

What the H-E-double-hockey-sticks, LCMS?!?!

Remember, J.S. Bach was Lutheran. My appreciation for sacred music developed in large part through the Lutheran Church, where I started playing for services when I was 12, first on piano, and not long after on organ. If any church can appreciate classical music, it oughta be the Lutherans! And while I very strongly believe that one mark of a good musician is the ability to appreciate all styles of music, I must confess that I am sorely challenged when it comes to Christian pop. I have heard some good stuff in the genre, but like anything that has to compete in a commercialized world, the good stuff is often swamped by a high quantity of mediocrity. (The same thing is true of country music, in my humble opinion, and I realize that saying such things can get me in big trouble from all sides! Put down those pitchforks, y’all!)

Anyway, the loss of a classical station is a sad thing for those of us who have built our lives around this music. It brings up several thorny issues relating to our poor track record in drawing and retaining audiences, the cruel vagaries of the marketplace that elevate mass appeal over quality (and if you think that sounds elitist, please riddle me this: what’s your favorite restaurant? What restaurant do you feel is the best? Now, what restaurant has the highest revenue? Yeah. 😛 ), and the near impossibility of earning a full-time income in my chosen profession. Yeah, I’m a little bit bitter — sorry.

Now, I realize that life will go on, and in fact, so will KFUO-FM, in an online incarnation. But that means that drivers in the St. Louis area won’t be able to run across classical music serendipitously as they scan their radio dial. As the world becomes more compartmentalized and specialized, we only encounter what we’ve already chosen for ourselves, which limits what we can be. It’s a pity.

One Twisted Instrument!

Music nerd Andy filed a request recently for a Music Nerd Merit Badge having to do with brass instruments. He didn’t specify which one, and in keeping with my characteristic goofiness, I chose the Wagner Tuba. I went looking for pictures of the instrument to use as a model, and I found a real purty one on the website of a German instrument maker:

It was the largest picture I could find, which helped me see the details clearly. I set about copying it, and got rather fascinated by the twists and turns of its tubing:

I used a variety of pretty colors for the different sections to help me keep them sorted out, and then I planned to turn them into gold (er, brass, I mean!) when I was all done.

I decided I’d better look at some pictures of players actually holding the instrument, to see how that worked. I found plenty of examples. Here’s a single player:

And here’s a quartet of them:

Great, right? Except for one thing… It may seem like a minor detail, but the mouthpiece is on the opposite side compared to the model I was working from! Ack!

I looked at as many pictures of people playing the instrument as I could find, and they all had the same arrangement, which differed in a small but very important way from my developing masterpiece. (Musicians can be pretty fussy about these things!)

So if there’s anyone out there who plays this consarned thing, or knows anything about it — can you hip me, humble pianist/non-brass aficionado that I am? What gives? Is there no standardization to the thing? Are there no rules? What’s next, dogs and cats living together?!

But most importantly… do I have to scrap my backwards drawing and start all over! 😥

It Gets You Every Time!

When McDoc and I were on vacation recently, we were taking a leisurely walk at the end of the day, and had the good fortune to be out at just the right time to watch a beautiful sunset, with its astonishing palette reds and pinks and oranges stretching across the horizon before giving way to purple twilight. The thought occurred to me, and I said it to McDoc, that even though the sun sets every day, watching it never gets old; in fact, it can still take your breath away no matter how many times you’ve seen it before.

I think beautiful music has much the same effect.

Two days ago, I wrote a post about the “Summer Sings” being presented by Masterworks Chorale, a chorus McDoc and I sing with. The second event of the series took place last night, featurng the Requiem by Gabriel Fauré. I’m quite familiar with this piece; I played the organ for a performance of it at my old church in San Diego; I conducted two movements of it with a community college chorus; and I’ve listened to it umpteen times, because McDoc plays the recording frequently (we have a whole Requiem playlist on heavy rotation, which may sound morbid, but it isn’t, really!). I’m basically sick and tired of it, to be perfectly honest! I still think it’s a beautiful piece, of course, but I thought I had become immune to it due to such frequent exposure. 😉

So there I was, minding my own business, singing along during the rehearsal portion of the evening. I was feeling pretty smug about how well I remembered the alto part, and what I didn’t remember, I was sight-reading like a fiend! Woo hoo!

Then we got to the last movement, “In Paradisum.” The altos don’t do much in this movement, which starts with a long, soaring melody for the soprano section. Here’s the Latin text and English translation:

In paradisum deducant te Angeli; in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyres, et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Ierusalem. Chorus angelorum te suscipiat, et cum Lazaro quondam paupere æternam habeas requiem.

May angels lead you into paradise; upon your arrival, may the martyrs receive you and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem. May the ranks of angels receive you, and with Lazarus, the poor man, may you have eternal rest.

I was digging on that soprano line, just appreciating the beauty of the music, to which I was perhaps not so immune after all! Then as I read the words, I felt a lump in my throat, and out of the blue, I started thinking about VirgoMom; this coming August, it’ll be 10 years since she passed away. By the time they got to “et cum Lazaro, I was toast. It was darn near impossible for me to come in on that last “requiem,” and the fact that the alto line at that point is set to the tune of “Three Blind Mice,” as I had frequently reminded my college chorus students, didn’t help one bit! 😉

What about you? What work of art never fails to move you, no matter how accustomed to it you think you are?

“In Paradisum” from Requiem by Fauré
Note: the audio is a little glitchy on this video, but I liked the performance.

Watch This. Watch it NOW!

I’m not kidding, music nerds — you need to drop whatever you’re doing and spend the next 20 minutes watching this. You’ll thank me after, I promise!

Benjamin Zander: Classical music with shining eyes (TEDtalks)

Many thanks to the multiple people who sent this to me. I have lots to say in response, but I have to digest it a bit… it has me knocked right onto the fainting couch!

Singing for the Summer!

Happy first day of summer, music nerds! If you’re a choral music nerd in the Boston area, there’s something you should know about, if you don’t already!

It’s hard to believe, but in a few days, it’ll be exactly one year since McDoc and I arrived in Boston! In many ways, the year has raced by, but I also feel like I’ve been here longer than that, given all the wonderful people I’ve met and the amazing breadth and depth of musical activity I’ve found here.

One of the first things McDoc and I did upon arriving (after an urgent call to our new landlord when we didn’t find the key to our apartment where the rental agent promised to leave it — we needed to relieve the suffering of one very unhappy car-ride-hating kitty!) was to make our way to the Noble and Greenough School in Dedham, not far from our new home, to attend a “Summer Sing” put on by Masterworks Chorale, a Boston-area choral group about to enter its 70th season. We found out about it before we even left Detroit, from a friend-of-a-relative-of-a-friend, and McDoc was particularly jazzed about it, as he loves choral singing like nobody’s business, and had not had room in his schedule for it at all during his first two years of sadistic hellish torture residency training.

What, exactly, is a Summer Sing, you ask? Well, it’s basically where you condense what would otherwise be two or three months of rehearsal into one hour, and then put on a show — all very informally and just for fun, of course! In other words, it’s a quick and easy way to feed your choral music addiction outside of the regular choral season. 😉 We attended several of them last summer, and they were indeed a gateway drug — we ended up auditioning successfully for the Chorale when they started rehearsing in September. 🙂

Each evening is led by either our fantastic music director, Steven Karidoyanes, or one of several esteemed guest conductors, and features professional soloists, too, so it’s like being a performer and an audience member at the same time — what a treat!

Masterworks Chorale in concert. The Summer Sings are somewhat less formal -- tuxes not required! 😉

Now, summer is upon us again, and it’s time for a new season of Summer Sings. This time McDoc and I are not only singing, but serving as volunteer staff! The season opened last Tuesday night with Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem. Tomorrow night, we’ll sing the beautiful Fauré Requiem, and if you’re in the Boston area and would like to come sing, I may just be the one selling you a ticket!

The Vital Details:

Masterworks Chorale Summer Sings
Tuesdays at 8 pm through August 3
Noble and Greenough School
10 Campus Drive, Dedham, MA 02026 (Google Map)
Tickets: $10 General Admission, $9 for Seniors;
$5 Student Rush with valid high school or full-time college ID
Discounted admission for 3, 6, or 8 sings available at the door!
Plenty of scores available to borrow, at no extra charge!

Here’s the roster of repertoire for the rest of the summer:

• June 22: FAURÉ – Requiem
• June 29: HAYDN – Lord Nelson Mass
• July 6: ORFF – Carmina Burana (Oh, Four Tuna! 😀 )
• July 13: J.S. BACH – Mass in B Minor [Part 1: Kyrie & Gloria]
• July 20: RUTTER – Requiem
• July 27: POULENC – Gloria
• August 3: MOZART – Requiem

So come out and sing if you’re in town… and look for the gal with the purple streak in her hair, and say hello! 😀

Music Nerd Merch: the Gregorian Chant Store!

Happy Father’s Day, music nerds!

McDoc just found something to make the music nerdometer redline!

He’s heavily into Gregorian Chant, you see — more so than I am (who’s really the music nerd here, one wonders?), and he found, through the magic of Facebook, this online store featuring Gregorian Chant Merchandise and Apparel. What music nerd’s life could be complete without an Alma Redemptoris Mater coffee mug or an Ubi Caritas T-Shirt? (And if you’re really hardcore [and a grownup], check this out! :P)

But as if that weren’t awesome enough, shop proprietor Brien K. Meehan has embarked on a project to transcribe popular tunes into Gregorian chant notation, while translating the lyrics into Latin. He takes requests! My mind is, once again, reeling with the endless possibilities!

His first entry will take you down memory lane if you grew up in the previous century: Navis Amoris. The Latin doesn’t ring a bell? Here’s a hint:

Sorry to do that do you — I know it might be a bit of an earworm! 😉

Let’s have something more serious as well:

Alma Redemptoris Mater – chant sung by the Trappist Monks of Gethsemani

Ubi Caritas et Amor, setting by Maurice Durufle, sung by the Suspicious Cheese Lords

Hold the phone — the Suspicious Cheese Lords?! This is something that warrants further investigation, not to mention a tip of the nerd glasses!

And here I thought early music was boring! 😀

The Boston Wagner Society Brings a Slice of Wagner to New England (Plus, a Pop-up Soprano!)

Dalia Geffen loves the music of Richard Wagner, but she got tired of having to travel long distances from her home in Boston to hear it performed live (Boston is not a big Wagner town; New York is the nearest place to hear him regularly). So she founded her own group, the Boston Wagner Society, whose mission is “to promote the enjoyment and knowledge of Richard Wagner’s enchanting and profound operas.”

The Society presents lectures on Wagner-related topics as well as concerts of his music. I attended their May concert, “Exquisite Love Duets and Solos,” featuring excerpts from Rienzi, Lohengrin, Siegfried and Tristan und Isolde. The singers included soprano Andrea Matthews, heldentenor Alan Schneider, soprano Joanna Porackova, and mezzo-soprano Rachel Selan; they were heroically accompanied by pianist Jeffrey Brody, who serves as Music Adviser to the Society in addition to his active career as a composer, conductor and vocal coach.

Ms. Matthews never thought she would sing anything by Wagner; she was more disposed to Handel and other repertoire better suited to her lighter-than-typically-Wagnerian voice. But Dalia Geffen persuaded her to try the role of Elsa from Wagner’s Lohengrin, and all I can say is, I would never have guessed when I heard her sing excerpts from the role that it was her first performance of Wagner!

I snapped this just before a couple of audience members rushed the stage. Okay, they didn't, but wouldn't that have been awesome? 😉

I was very impressed by the quality of both the singing and the acting – sometimes you have to settle for one or the other, and I particularly value good singers who can also act. The Bridal Chamber Scene from Act 3 of Lohengrin was the highlight for me; Ms. Matthews and Mr. Schneider did a wonderful job of conveying the drama and tension of the scene, where Lohengrin attempts to deflect Elsa’s natural curiosity about the mysterious knight she has just married.

You can read a synopsis of the whole opera here, and an English translation of the libretto here, but for brevity’s sake, I give you a condensed version of the scene, Lolcat style!

Lohengrin: U haz a happy?
Elsa: Yes, I haz a happy! You iz gift from from Ceiling Cat!
Lohengrin: You is sweet like byootiful flowr!
Elsa: Kthx! Srsly, tho, who are u? Where u from?
Lohengrin: Alas!

Seriously, though, it was great singing and great acting. 🙂

I didn’t feel deprived in any way by the concert performance setting, as opposed to a staged production with costumes and scenery and all, but it helped that I was already somewhat familiar with the stories involved. A gentleman sitting next to me told me he enjoyed the performances very much, but didn’t quite understand what was happening during the Love Duet and Brangäne’s Watch from Act 2 of Tristan und Isolde. “I don’t know why that one soprano stood up in the middle and then sat down again,” he said.

He was referring to Rachel Selan, singing the role of Brangäne, whose voice of warning interrupts the love duet between Tristan and Isolde. It made sense for Ms. Selan to be seated inconspicuously beside the piano while she wasn’t singing, but I can see how that arrangement might confuse those less familiar with the story.

After the performance, I chatted with Paul Geffen, Marketing Director for the Society (and Dalia’s husband). He spoke of the joys and challenges of running what he called a “Mom-and-Pop opera company,” decribing it as a “labor of love” and this “crazy thing we do that seems like it’ll never come together, but does at the last minute.” He also spoke admiringly of Dalia’s persistence and dedication to her cause, and her skill at rallying support for it. I concur — I’m sure that if she had her way, the Society would be mounting fully-staged productions!

Watch for the Boston Wagner Society’s eighth season beginning in the Fall, and tell ’em Miss Music Nerd sent you! 🙂

Extreme Sports, Classy Music!

Here’s a little something that landed in the MMN inbox today, and left me almost at a loss for words!

Extreme Ironing

You see, I was complaining to my Facebook friends yesterday about having been reduced to the tedious task of (gasp) ironing. It’s something I usually manage to avoid through very careful choice of fabrics and clever use of damp washcloths in the dryer. But then I had to go and buy a silk blouse, and my perfect record was spoiled!

But I’ve got nothing on the athletes in this video, who display an abundance of courage and skill (well, sorta), even if I can’t help thinking they have a little too much time on their hands! I must express admiration for the choice of music, though; I would expect an extreme sports video to harangue me with a variety of banal electric guitar busywork, but these guys* really classed it up (they are British, after all!), choosing the infamous Bach Toccata in D minor for organ, followed by “In the Hall of the Mountain King” from Peer Gynt, by Edward Grieg.

I’m all for using classical music in creative and funny ways, so I tip my nerd glasses to them! 🙂

*Caution: link goes to a page with autoplay video, of which MMN disapproves! 😦