January 2006 Archives

Our music director has his own wikipedia entry.

Check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Robertson

“I believe Salieri must have responded to Mozart the way most artists do – with amazement, humility, envy, and finally with gratitude. For, in the end, the source of creation is available to all of us, and those who are blessed with genius are only messengers bringing good news to an otherwise dark, at times unbearable, world.” – F. Murray Abraham

From the applause I just heard, everybody loved the Mozart Birthday surprise at this morning’s Coffee Concert. I can’t tell you what it is… because it’s a surprise! Come tomorrow night and join in the 250th celebration.

And come early, Nic McGegan and Robert Levin will be giving the PreConcert Perspective at 7pm.

Long after rehearsals are over (a morning rehearsal and an afternoon rehearsal today) a lone cellist plays over passages of the Mozart Symphony No. 41, the “Jupiter” Symphony. He plays them over and over again. I haven’t the ear to tell what he’s seeking – greater facility, a brighter tone, more speed – for it sounds marvelous to me, whatever he’s after, alone on the stage, late in the afternoon, playing Mozart.

“Because of Mozart, it’s all over after age seven.” – Wendy Wasserstein, playwright (The Heidi Chronicles, The Sisters Rosensweig)

“Mozart is the greatest composer of all. Beethoven ‘created’ his music, but the music of Mozart is of such purity and beauty that one feels he merely ‘found’ it – that it has always existed as part of the inner beauty of the universe waiting to be revealed.” – Albert Einstein

… on the way to the Mozart Festival. Well, maybe not so funny, but kind of standard procedure in terms of maintaining decorum (maybe) in the face of adversity and chaos in the orchestral world.

Philip Ross joined the SLSO this season as oboist. Phil is a native of Jonesboro, Arkansas, where his father is a renowned maker of gouging machines, which are an essential tool in reed-making. Oboists around the world make the pilgrimage to the northeast corner of Arkansas to consult with Phil’s dad. Which is how Phil got to know our great principal oboe Pete Bowman, and many more of the double-reed tribe.

In politics and consumerism, it’s common for both individuals and agencies to jump on their opponents’ screw ups. A pratfall serves as an automatic endorsement to competitors.

I’ve been up to my eyeballs with stuff, as are those around me. I will try to compose a worthwhile posting soon.

Tonight is a 718 Club night. Downtown at Copia Urban Winery on Washington Avenue after the Elgar/Schumann concert. A sign is set up outside the Green Room to alert all interested musicians.

Some of us were watching on a video monitor as David Zinman conducted rehearsal this morning. He would hardly move his arms for the longest time, then they’d float above his body as if buoyed by the music itself.

For those of you who receive the SymphonEminder, the email notice we send out with information about upcoming concerts and other SLSO news, I am sure you saw that the piece that went out about the Elgar/Schumann concerts included the wrong date. My bad. I wrote December. They are in January, of course. This Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

More has been going on around here than I have had the time to describe.

Around here we are busy as bees as the Chaplin bliss wears off, with increasing anxiety building as we begin the long ride toward … a Mozart fest, the rest of this season, a trip to Carnegie, the announcement of next season, and all that these things demand.

A few days after the City Lights concert at Powell, and I am not the only one still harboring memories of delight. My wife and I and newly engaged friends were there on Friday night and we all, when it ended, looked at each other with such happy faces. Chaplin’s comedy truly is timeless. He produces laughter that surprises you in its making. When did you laugh so hard, and so openly, without constraint? The orchestra got everything right in regards to the moods, the emotions, the drama and pathos of Chaplin’s Tramp. What fun!