November 2008 Archives

Wednesday afternoon, not long after the Young People's Concerts had concluded and hundreds of schoolchildren were making their way from the bathrooms to the busses, I was talking to a musician about the general busy-ness of the holidays--the stuff we all are involved with: family, friends, travel, food, etc., but on top of that for the orchestra two Ravel/Bartók/Strauss concerts and then a Family Concert on Sunday afternoon--and he admitted that on some days during this time of year the last thing he does is practice. Moreover, he took his leave saying he had to go get a handle on Don Juan an hour before rehearsal.

This morning schoolchildren were lining up to enter the hall, all of them bundled in their winter coats, with Pictures at an Exhibition to deliver some warmth once they got inside for the Young People's Concerts (grades 4-6).

One of the amazing things about the Mahler 9 performance last weekend--one among many--was how when all that great, beautiful noise came to a gentle completion, what followed was this great, beautiful silence. All that sound made the quiet so very present and palpable.

I was talking to one of the horn players in the elevator about the Mahler 9 this weekend. "It's a really interesting Mahler symphony," he said. "It has all these little twists and turns and you're not sure where it's going. He throws a lot of stuff at you."

Chris King wasn't able to make it to Bloggers' Night last Saturday, but he did make it to an orchestra rehearsal for the Pageant concert and recorded what he saw and heard in image and text. Click. 

The good folks of Euclid Records in Webster Groves sent an emissary to Saturday's Bloggers' Night. Here is what she had to say. Click.

Again, I'm greatly affected by how many of our guests believed that coming to Powell was like crossing a border into a hostile country. And I greatly re-emphasize: they had a great time!

Bloggers' Night just keeps being fun on into the week. I again thank everyone who participated and for writing such great postings, and cartoons!

Trouble in River City tells the tale.

Click here.

Mike Lynch was standing inside a cold truck on a chilly November morning directing the unloading of instruments and equipment from the Chicago run-out when I arrived at the Hall today. Guitar Fest was quite a week: six concerts in six days at four venues, including the Harris Theatre in Millennium Park. I wasn't even on the Chicago trip and I'm beat. The musicians get a couple days before they launch into Mahler 9 with David Robertson Wednesday morning.

We sent out an invite to a number of local bloggers to come to Saturday night's concert, and as of about an hour before the show about nine are scheduled to arrive. They've been asked to post their responses to the SLSO experience in whatever form they choose (there is at least one cartoonist and one video blogger among us) and then I will link to their postings via the SLSO blog. I hope to have some postings for you Monday.

Thursday night David Robertson and the SLSO played the Pageant Theatre, in St. Louis' Loop District, a hip-and-happening part of the city, which is actually mostly University City, near Wash. U., with restaurants, retail, a movie theater, a bowling alley, Vintage Vinyl, the St. Louis Walk-of-Fame (you'll find stars in the sidewalk and mini-bios of such notable St. Louisans as T.S. Eliot and Tina Turner), and the one and only Blueberry Hill--to name a few of the things that make the Loop special.

A fellow blogger recently wrote asking me if the Palins really came to Powell Hall, as I wrote in the slso blog. I wondered what he was talking about and then remembered--the Palins of Halloween Night.

As I am writing this, something less than 100 electric guitarists are rehearsing Glenn Branca's Symphony No. 13, "Hallucination City." This afternoon, following the Stravinsky/Mackey rehearsal, a steady stream of unfamiliar musicians (other than David Robertson and a few others) made their way to the stage carrying their axes and their amps. They will be going at it until around midnight tonight, and I think the same tomorrow.

A blog reader writes:

I know I promised to put up Halloween pictures this week, but, alas, with Guitar Festival week dead ahead (and everything else) we've been scurrying around the hall to prepare. I know people who may be sleeping on cots in their offices next week. We'll try to get the pictures up soon.

The other morning my friend Harper Barnes and I were talking to oboist Barbara Orland for a future Playbill article that Harper is writing. The article looks at how an orchestra, and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra specifically, coheres even as it goes through constant changes in personnel. On average, about four musicians leave and four musicians join the orchestra each season. This, of course, varies, but by and large an orchestra is an ever-changing, ever-evolving organism, which somehow maintains its identity and its integrity throughout its history.

All was quiet around the hall, what with the orchestra getting a November break before the Guitar Festival next week, and then I ventured downstairs and heard quite a musical racket: the Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition was happening. The winner performs as soloist in a concerto with the YO later in the season. Music from the Green Room, music on the stage, music in the musician's lounge--and nervous energy everywhere.

The talk around the hall is "How long were you in line?" One hour 45 minutes. 48 minutes. Over two hours. Five minutes. It almost sounds like the timings for a concert: Bruckner 8 approximately 80 minutes; Ward 28 approximately 105 minutes. A colleague's crazy husband was at the door of his polling place at 5am so he would be first to vote at 6. And he was.

I promise that later in the week I will supply you with photos of the SLSO Halloween Contest, which included Emmett Kelly, the Palins, Miss America, Little Red Riding Hood, David Robertson, and a tribe of zombie violists (viola joke: how could you tell they were zombies?).