GMUSO Tonight

Click for details on tonight’s all Beethoven Program

Beethoven: Egmont Overture

Beethoven: Violin Concerto

Beethoven 9: 4th Movement

 

Disclaimer

I’ve been hunting for a new mouthpiece lately, and though I have seen this before, I never realized how funny it was. Tom Greer is the man behind Moosewood mouthpieces (I very happily played on his A11 for quite a while) and this is his disclaimer in which he basically makes fun of stupid people.

As we seem to live in a litigious age, with occasional avaricious philistines seeking free rides at the expense of working people, I hereby supply a Moosewood disclaimer.

Moosewood and all associated with the production of Moosewood mouthpieces and accessories will not be held responsible for: allergic reactions, missed notes, clams, adverse criticisms from colleagues or conductors, missed rehearsals, loss of mouthpieces or other Moosewood gear in the player’s possession. Nor will we be held in any way liable for mishaps, damage or accidents of any nature while the player is in possession of a Moosewood mouthpiece or accessory. Neither will we suffer fools gladly. Such fools may include those who fancy that a mouthpiece will: 1) relieve the player of diligent and regular practice and 2) obviate aural and musical sensitivity.

As commercial car ad subtitles warn: “Professional driver on closed course. Do not attempt”

Truly Yours,

Dr. Thomas Greer

“Conductor Begins His Tenure With Force”

I read this on my phone via the NY Times iPhone app earlier this week. Let me just point out that he opened the program with a NEW WORK BY JOHN ADAMS (just to backup my complaints in the “Change…” post). My only problem with this article is this little quote: “I was fully drawn into the music, confident that a pro was on the podium.” Well, of course a pro was at the podium. Have you looked at Dudamel’s résumé?

Of course, you can be the judge yourself. Fire up your Tivo or cable DVR (or just mark your calendar and be oh-so-retro-chic) to record PBS’s “Great Performances” on the 21st of October to see the concert in it’s entirety.

NY Times

Great Performances

“Crush It!” Book Tour Comes to Arlingon this Week!

I hope I can go and buy a book/get it signed

Change is in the Air?

Leonard Slatkin’s season with the DSO this year promises to usher in the “beginning of the new era.” The orchestra will play in street clothes with their backs to the audience, severely abridge major works from the standard orchestral literature (ie. 12 minute version of Rachmaninov’s 2nd Symphony), orchestration changes (rewriting the opening bassoon solo in Le Sacre du Printemps for tuba) and having the patrons adhere to a white-tie dress code. Slatkin also plans to produce a chamber version of Mahler 8 and to perform a cycle of Bruckner’s symphonies and the 33 known orchestrations of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition in two respective sittings.

So is this change? Is it ushering in “the new era” of classical music performance practice. Well, sort of. Slatkin’s ideas of performing with the orchestra facing away from the audience is interesting (I alway prefer the chorister seating where you can see the conductor anyways) but concert hall acoustics probably won’t prove favorable for this type of set up. The horn section, for instance, will go from playing into the back of the hall to playing into the audience. I am in favor of eliminating black tie as the norm, (not altogether) but to have patrons dress in white or black tie for the shows is a little odd if the performers are not going to look as presentable. However these are minor gripes of mine. In fact, they are barely complaints at all. I am more so curious of how they will turn out and these are simply my own speculations.

What I do have a problem with is Slatkin’s justification for abridging standard rep such as Rachmaninov 2.

The piece is so long and repetitive. Once you have heard the main tunes, well, they are so memorable that they do not have to be played again.

So why play it at all? If everyone knows the tune and is absolutely board of it why would they bother coming to hear the work? According to this logic, once you have heard the piece once, you don’t have to hear it again. If this is the case, why not play new works? There are tons of great 20th Century composers, and living 21st century composers, that have never been heard.

Slatkin does have some good ideas, and I am glad that he is being experimental. However a lot of these ideas are taking one step forward and two steps backward.

Dave Taylor

Dave Taylor, Bass Trombone, came to DC with the Post Classical Ensemble performing a program of Schubert, Stravinsky, and Schnyder (A living composer from Zurich). I’ve never heard anything like this…but I must say it was fantastic. Here’s a clip of him performing an improvisation based on J.S. Bach, followed immediately by an improvisation based on Shcubert. He performed the Schubert last night with PCE.

Rite of Spring Tonight

Fairfax Symphony Orchestra, 8 PM GMU Center for the Performing Arts

Gary Vaynerchuk in NY Times

I am very happy to see this. About two years ago I started watching Wine Library TV and was instantly hooked on Gary’s personality. It’s neat to see someone that you’ve known about since they weren’t so big get this kind of recognition. My only complaint is that the photo quality is pretty substandard for the Times…maybe there’s hope for my amateur photo career yet

“Gary Vaynerchuk, who has developed a rabid following through his online video series, Wine Library TV, has broken through class barriers in a way that no other wine critic has been able to.” Read NY Times article.

Good First Day

Today was the first day of rehearsals at GMU. It was actually presently surprising despite all the audition delays, drama and nearly total change of rep (okay so that wasn’t good in my opinion). Having Layendecker as a conductor is completely different from Maiello. He wants the orchestra to listen more, which is good…the fantastic part is I think he may actually succeed! The horn section sounds surprisingly good, too. I even got a few comments from other people in the ensemble. So far it’s looking like this schools about to get a little more serious just in time for me to leave :/

THE horn stand

With a price tag of eighty dollars this horn stand will set you back a little bit. However, if you already have an awesome 1. Horn 2. Mouthpiece 3. Straight Mute 4. Stop Mute  5. Flight Case 6. Tuner/Metronome…well then it’s time to start stocking up on show off accessories! Of course if you play in an opera or any long (I mean long) work often, this has your name written all over it. Hey, if it’s good enough for Dale Clevenger and John Cerminaro, it’s good enough for you, right?!