Well it’s been a while since I posted. Since we last checked in I finished the season with the KWS, including a wonderful performance of Les nuits d’été with the fabulous Measha Brueggergosman. She has a nice history with the orchestra, having done her first Verdi Requiem and more with the orchestra. She has the bearing of a diva, but the truth is she is a very serious, no-BS musician who likes to work things out. We have plans for future concerts in KW, and they are cool.

After the season, Tom and I spent a week in “cottage country,” Stratford, Niagara Falls, Niagara wine country, and Tornoto. It was nice to hang out in Ontario with out work hanging over my head — it’s a beautiful, fun place to hang. Next summer I have to get more of my Cali friends up here.

Then three days in Cardiff, Wales with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW) for some radio recordings. Britten Cello Symphony with Danjulo Ishizaka and Hindemith Schwanendreher with Maxim Rysanov. These are two concertos that I’ll probably never get to do live without some serious explaining, but they’re both great works. The Cello Symphony in particular is not easy going for the listener. The music makes me feel trapped and empty. It is full of the intense yearning you find in Peter Grimes, but yearning for what? Britten never exactly answers the questions he poses in his music.

Now I’m back in SF, and I must have serious jet-lag because I heard Mahler’s Adagietto in the men’s locker room of my yuppie gym. This kind of stuff is what drove Daniel Barenboim out of this country. Anyway, I would like to believe that it subtly reminded all of us trying to keep fit, that we’re all gonna die anyway.

When I was in high school, spending hours and hours listening to Beethoven string quartets and Mahler symphonies, I wondered to myself, “how is this music making me feel this way?” When I arrived at Harvard and started taking Music 51, this question began to be answered, thanks to John Stewart.

John Stewart is a composer and an educator, protégé of Harvard professor Luise Vosgerchian, who in turn was a student of Nadia Boulanger. John carried on the Boulanger tradition teaching harmony with only one “texbook” — the Bach Chorales. He knew every chorale inside-out, and taught us harmony from the ground up, using Bach for every example. What was extraordinary about John was that he taught us the why of harmony, not just the what. Every example was demonstrated with wonder at Bach’s achievement, and an emotional reaction to Bach’s every harmonic move. I like to think that I carry these emotional reactions with me when I perform, understanding the music simultaneously with the mind and the heart. If I am successful in this respect at all, it is thanks to John. Every week when I travel to conduct a new concert, I bring my scores, my tails, my batons, and John Stewart.

John is retiring from Harvard, and it’s not entirely clear that this wonderful tradition of music education will continue there. In fact, it’s rare to find this kind of awareness of harmony in many places these days. That’s because it takes great knowledge, effort, devotion and love to teach it. I hope the tradition that John inherited and passed on will continue. I’ll do my best in that respect.

For John’s retirement concert, there was music by Bach, Stravinsky, and John Stewart himself. It was played by his current students, former students from violinist Joseph Lin to jazz great Don Byron. We ended by singing a Bach chorale together.

John’s music held up very well with the two other greats on the program. That bodes well, since John plans to devote a great deal of his time to composing. Though I imagine that if some wise and curious music student came knocking at his door, he might be able to lend a hand. He is a truly great and generous person — so how could he resist?

electric:

acoustic:

I’m saddened that the Columbus Symphony plans to close its doors at the end of this season.  For me, making music with them was one of the highlights of the year.  They are a first rate orchestra, truly engaged with the music.  They stand out from the crowd.  

I hope more support comes forward from the community.  ”Downsizing” the orchestra isn’t a good idea.  Once that decision is made, it’s hard to come back — the orchestra would be a shell of its former self.  I’ve seen it happen.  It’s kind of like tearing a piece out of a painting, or cutting the nose off a statue and saying, “well, at least we still have a statue.” 

Columbus certainly knows how to support certain things — its support for Ohio State football is mind-numbing.  I hope they will find it in their hearts to support this wonderful institution and its musicians and staff.  Truly beautiful things are growing more and more rare in contemporary culture, they need to be loved and cared for.

Some readers have let me know that if you google me, you’ll find out about Viagra, anti-depressants, and even a little good ol’ fashioned porn. We’re working on this — and no, it’s not some hot new marketing strategy to attract newbies to classical music. Though if I see a big jump, I shall notify the League of American Orchestras immediately.

The Calgary Philharmonic is another fine Canadian orchestra (there really are so many — it’s fun to conduct in this excellent country). We played a sold-out “light classics” program with them last night. It was all great music related to fairy tales and fantasy: Magic Flute Overture, Dream Pantomime from Hansel and Gretel, Once Upon A Castle (an organ concerto by Michael Daugherty), Ride of the Valkyries, The Swan of Tuonela, and Sleeping Beauty Suite.

I wonder if these are all “light classics” though, and what “light classics” actually is …

Personally, I’d like to do away with the whole “light classics” category altogether. It feeds into the whole “I’m afraid of classical music” thing, and diverts our audience from our core artistic mission as orchestras, which is to play the greatest music possible for as many people as possible.

The thing is, the audience gravitates to light classics for a reason. Many “main series” concerts are so heavy and serious the create aesthetic indigestion for the average concertgoer (the one who doesn’t know the repertoire inside-out). “Main Series” concerts are, in my opinion, too long, too heavy and too self-important. Even I find myself suffering from the Stendhal Syndrome at concerts. So much great art is crushed into a small space that I really take anything in.

Let’s get rid of “light classics” and consolidate our audiences by making main series concerts more digestible and fun. It shouldn’t be difficult. It’s all great music.

Hillary Clinton may want to compare herself to Rocky Balboa, but in today’s New York Times, Maureen Dowd compares her to the Marschallin from Der Rosenkavalier. Nice! It always warms my heart to see a classical music reference, especially to a Strauss opera.

Who would Barack Obama be … Lohengrin? John McCain … Wozzeck?

My second commercial recording just came out. It’s a CD of music by the American Indian composer Jerod Tate with the San Francisco Symphony, and the SF Symphony Chorus. The music is quite virtuosic, dynamic and trance-like.. It’s quite a trip for the listener. The orchestra and chorus are phenomenal, of course. This is the first music by a living composer that they’ve recorded in quite some time …

You can order the recording HERE.

Another shameless plug. The 2008-2009 season of the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony is now available to browse online. What big warhorses have I programmed? Who will be the featured artist in next years’s Intersections series? Check out the KWS website to find out.

I was shopping at Whole Foods yesterday (one of those “better food for higher life-forms” markets), and noticed that they were selling a few CD’s in the checkout aisle. What were they selling you ask?

Kenny G. and Jim Brickman!

By their own organic standards this music should not be permitted. It is artificially sweetened and highly processed. Lame. Lame. Lame. Why do the organic food folks have such terrible taste in music?

Oh yeah, and whenever there’s an NPR story about an interesting new band — forget it. 99% chance they will suck.

Just came back from a few days with the New World Symphony.  They’re getting ready to open their new hall in a few years.  Designed by Frank Gehry, the hall will have his usual visual flash, and will be designed esepcailly for multimedia presentations of orchestral music.  They’re preparing for this transition now.  My one hour presentation of Bartòk’s Miraculous Mandarin included a full video backdrop, complete with historical footage and animated original images outlining the plot.  I was asked to write the script, and instead of the usual historical background, I opted to put the music into a modern context.  I compared it to other shock art — A Clockwork Orange, etc.  I tied the work into current fears of the unknown, immigrants, etc. It worked well. The audience responded, laughed, and a few even got irate at the politics of the show.

I think our new audience members need to know what makes this music relevant to them now.  What are the things that connect us to Bartòk?  If we’re going to talk about music, what are we going to talk about? There are so many different thoughts about this now — and certainly no consensus.