I saw Roger Waters do The Wall Last Night.

It reminded me of two lines from Love and Death.

Sonja: Oh don't, Boris, please. Sex without love is an empty experience.
Boris: Yes, but as empty experiences go, it's one of the best.

Ten Songs about America's Ten Largest Cities

(1) Sidewalks of New York
(2) I Love LA
(3) Mrs. O'Leary's Cow
(4) Space Oddity
(5) By the time I get to Phoenix
(6) Streets of Philadelphia
(7) The Ballad of Davy Crockett
(8) San Diego Serenade
(9) The Devil lives in Dallas
(10) Do you know the way to San Jose?

Great Program from Midori Last Night.

She put together a wonderful group of pieces: Mozart, Bartok, Bach, Crumb and Szymanowski.  It was all very  good, but the Bach was really special: her ability to keep multiple lines going makes it sound like multiple fiddlers are playing. 

Then again, sometimes I think Bach should never be programmed against other composers (even young Mozart), because he was just so much better than anyone else.

Orchestra Rankings are Silly

As part of our general obsession with rankings, one from time-to-time sees rankings of orchestras.  Gramophone produced one a few years back, and it produced considerable discussion and consternation.  When I talk with fellow lovers of symphonic music, they often will wonder aloud about whether the "Big 5" is still the Big 5.

When I visit cities away from home, if the local orchestra is playing, I try to take in a concert.  What is striking to me is how really, really good so many orchestras are: within the last year I have heard tremendous concerts here in LA and in Amsterdam, but also in Atlanta and Minneapolis (The Minnesotans played the best  Nachtmusik I from Mahler's 7th that I have ever heard).

Even smaller cities have good orchestras, if not quite at the level as larger cities.  This is not surprising: there is a lot of great musical talent out there (a friend from a city of about 200,000 reports that his orchestra's principal horn player was runner-up for the job in Chicago).  John DeMain did a marvelous job building a fine orchestra in Madison. The Pasadena Symphony is good.

So instead of worrying which orchestras are better than others, perhaps we should just enjoy the ones we have.  But by all means, rag on conductors: the bad ones can make even great orchestras sound dull.

A nice performance of my favorite piece of schmaltz

Listen to Callithumpian Consort if you can

It is a Boston based musical troupe led by Steve Drury, from whom I took music lessons in college.  Tonight they had a concert at Paine Hall featuring six young compoers: Trevor Baca, Josiah Oberholtzer, Ian Power, Sivan Cohen-Elias, Sabrina Schroeder and Anne Cleare.

The players themselves, Jessi Rosinski, Rane Moore, Jeff Means, Gabriela Diaz, and Ben Schwartz, were lively, giving the audience an excellent sense of pulse in thorny pieces.  The playing was very tight, which is particularly impressive given how difficult much of the music was to play.  Jessi and Rane got sounds out of their instruments that I had never heard before, particularly in the Cleare piece.

I particularly like the Cohen-Elias piece, called Air Pressure.  It reminded me a bit of Berio (from me this is a compliment).

Evenings like this also explain that while I have been trying to turn my back on Harvard because of its various misdeeds, I don't think I will ever be able to do so.

The great thing about Mahler's 6th

The first movement pushes sonata-allegro form about as far as it can go.  And it is a wonder.  Favorite records: Bernstein (CBS), Solti, Haitink.  Years ago I heard Maazel, of all people, do a live performance with Cleveland that knocked my socks off.

Schumann's 4th Symphony

For my entire life, Schumann's 4th was my least favorite of his symphonies.  I found it bland and repetitive.  I then heard Dudamel and the LA Phil play it a few weeks ago at Disney Hall, and it was a revelation.  The recapitulation of the opening theme in the second movement, which had in the past struck me as redundant, now seemed ingenious to me, as it made complete structural sense in a symphony that is as fantastic as any I have heard.  The Dude had the orchestra positively swinging in the last two movements, and the soloists were delightful.  Principal oboe Ariana Ghenz was especially good.

My sudden obsession with Schumann 4 led me to this wonderful video of Karajan rehearsing the piece.  I am not always crazy about HvK's interpretation of music, but here he shows he really knows what he wants, and how to communicate it (BTW, much to my surprise, Karajan's Haydn was magic.  More about this later).

Tonight I begin a music blog

I ceased being a serious musician 30 years ago, but I never ceased loving music.  As a teenager, I took advanced music theory classes at Interlochen and played the piano there.  I played piano in college, and played in a trio that performed the Brahms Horn Trio, and played Ives, Beethoven, Schubert and Chopin.  My teacher was Steve Drury.

It has been years since I practiced as I should, but I still like playing show tunes for my daughters (and others!) to sing to.

I write this because I enjoy writing about music, which continues to move me.  I think there is a bit of a hole in music criticism.  Some critics worry too much about the sound of their stereo.  While some gear is  better than others, an obsession with equipment tends to undermine musical enjoyment.  No reproduction equipment will ever match the real thing, so it is silly to spend six figures in a futile quest.  One is far better off spending a few thousand on a system and then using the remaining money to buy tickets to real live concerts.

Other critics are just too snarky--I suspect many of them never seriously played an instrument.  What musicians do is hard, and it takes enormous courage to go out on a stage and play music. given that even the best players are rarely flawless (Maurizio Pollini may be the exception).