July 2008 Archives

Here's a descriptive I approve of: thick. With thanks to my colleague Melissa Lange, who describes the Bruckner Symphony No. 8 as "Thick!" in the way in which a voluptuous mud bath is thick, or as she describes the "brass section pumping out gallons of sound, sending me over the edge."

Bruckner 8. Get thick.

Writing promotional copy is an adjectivally burdened exercise, or rather, a practice in which the convenient adjective is a constant temptation. "Extraordinary." "Exhilarating." "Dynamic." "Profoundly moving." You've read it all before. I've written it all before.

Marc Thayer's final installment on music-making in Iraq, including dining with students, cash in hand, and the solace of security. Link here to the Saint Louis Beacon.

"How doe we fit what happened to us into life without turning it into an anecdote with no teeth and a punch line you'll mouth over and over for years to come.... And we become these human juke boxes spilling out these anecdotes. But it was an experience. How do we keep the experience?"

"Erasure" is a theme I've been thinking about for some time, perhaps as long as I've been engaged in anything you could call "thought." I'm sure the loss of the family farm when I was seven has something to do with this.

"Come on you Redbirds, we need some tallies," Mike Shannon, the voice of the Cardinals, often says on the radio broadcasts of the games (lately he's had to say it too often).

In Marc Thayer's final post from Iraq before returning home he comments on the absence of greenery, the presence of beer, and the longing for humidity. Click here to link to the Saint Louis Beacon.

My summer officially ended with the arrival of the Playbill deadlines in my email this morning.

In this edition of "Letter from Iraq," Marc Thayer takes part in a grand finale in Suleimanya and then travels west to the city that was the home of his last summer trip to Iraq. Click here to link to the Saint Louis Beacon.

The season begins in a couple months with Bartók's Concerto for Orchestra as the Opening Weekend finale. Bartók wrote the piece in exile in the United States. He had been lying in hospital as the world that had given inspiration to his music--the rural folklands that were the home of Hungarian, Romanian and Czech peasant traditions and Gypsy music and exotic North African sounds--was being destroyed by war.

Compose Your Own is the subscription series for those with the DIY 'tude. Nobody tells them what concerts to go to. They drive up to the hall in Harleys and leathers and tattoos that read "Rach 3 Rocks My World."

If you've been reading along, you know that in the midst of St. Louis' very wet spring, some of that wetness found its way into Powell Symphony Hall. A memorable morning backstage, in April, included bass player Sarah Hogan appearing to the stage hands, looking only slightly panicked, informing them that it was raining in the double bass room.

Marc Thayer makes an early a.m. post from Suleimanya. In this edition of "Letter from Iraq" Marc learns a Kurdish scale, describes how rehearsals can be like the movie Groundhog Day and prepares for a big concert. Click here to the Saint Louis Beacon.

For the weekend I will leave you with Marc Thayer's latest "Letter from Iraq." In this edition Marc visits a hookah bar, meets Marin Alsop's twin, and eats more good food. Click here to the Saint Louis Beacon.

In my summertime listening mode I'm attentive to connections, concerts that can frame interesting juxtapositions. Here is a pretty amazing triple play:

Lucky me, the other morning I got to do a phone interview with percussion wizard Colin Currie, who was in his home in London. This will become a Playbill feature for September to promote his appearance here with David Robertson and the orchestra in October, when Currie will take on a rare musical feat: over three concerts he will before a different concerto each time. Something he's never done before, nor has the orchestra.

In today's "Letter from Iraq," Marc Thayer finds himself making copies of music for the musicians taking part in the workshops in Suleimanya, rides in a convoy near the Iranian border, and makes a call for airfare for Iraqi students who are hoping to attend Saint Louis University this coming school year. Link to the Saint Louis Beacon here.

Last summer Marc Thayer, who is VP for Education and Community Partnerships of the SLSO, traveled to Erbil in northern Iraq to teach music workshops to musicians from all over the war-torn nation. He submitted regular posts to the slso blog, which made for fascinating reading as Marc brought a fresh perspective on a people trying to re-discover normality under the most extreme circumstances.