Holiday Concerts by Michael Christie
Ho! Ho! Ho!
Off we go into the Holiday season.
It would be an understatement to say this is one of the busiest times of the year for the Phoenix Symphony. Starting tonight we begin a series of four performances of Christmas Choral traditions loved by symphony-goers worldwide.
The program is very eclectic spanning from traditional hymns like “O Come, Emmanuel” to the rapturous “Ave Maria” from Rachmaninoff’s Vespers. The Phoenix Symphony joins the Phoenix Symphony Chorus and Phoenix Girls Chorus on many selections and also performs several orchestral favorites by themselves including a couple selections from the Nutcracker, a gorgeous work by the famous cellist Pablo Casals and a Leinsdorf arrangement of a Brahms Choral Prelude. Mix these glorious works with holiday favorites and I believe we will have a winning combination to start the festive holiday season.
New this season is what we originally called “Michael’s Massive Messiah” during the planning sessions last year but now is called “Sing-along Messiah”. We will turn an orchestra of volunteers around so that I am facing the audience and I will conduct the singers seated in the audience chairs in choral movements from Handel’s Messiah. This is a great holiday tradition around the world and I hope it will become one here as well.
Fostering a community sense as much as possible around the orchestra is so important to me. It requires the time and activities to make one convert at a time but ultimately we want to instill a passion for live orchestral music throughout the entire community. Hopefully being part of the experience will help in achieving this aim.
Our performances of the Messiah are going to be particularly interesting. Robert Mealy, violinist will be our guest concertmaster for these performances. His influence on the early music scene in North America is astounding. He is performing and recording music from as far back as the 12th century and will bring to our Association a wealth of knowledge about early music performance style and practice. He conducted workshops in September to begin acquainting our musicians with the baroque bows and strings we will use this month. The leaner sound of the style doesn’t require an enormous chorus so we will use approximately 60 singers for each performance. To kick off our run of Messiah performances we will perform the entire oratorio twice at the Orpheum before taking “Messiah highlights” on the road.
Last season we started a new Baroque Christmas initiative to begin moving the organization into this sound world. This year we perform an all-Bach concert featuring two of his famous works for orchestra and two “Christmas cantatas”.
Finally, the half of the orchestra not doing Messiah nor Baroque Christmas will be joining our friends at Ballet Arizona for a new production of the “Nutcracker.” We are very proud to be affiliated with the Ballet in this annual favorite.
Off we go into the Holiday season.
It would be an understatement to say this is one of the busiest times of the year for the Phoenix Symphony. Starting tonight we begin a series of four performances of Christmas Choral traditions loved by symphony-goers worldwide.
The program is very eclectic spanning from traditional hymns like “O Come, Emmanuel” to the rapturous “Ave Maria” from Rachmaninoff’s Vespers. The Phoenix Symphony joins the Phoenix Symphony Chorus and Phoenix Girls Chorus on many selections and also performs several orchestral favorites by themselves including a couple selections from the Nutcracker, a gorgeous work by the famous cellist Pablo Casals and a Leinsdorf arrangement of a Brahms Choral Prelude. Mix these glorious works with holiday favorites and I believe we will have a winning combination to start the festive holiday season.
New this season is what we originally called “Michael’s Massive Messiah” during the planning sessions last year but now is called “Sing-along Messiah”. We will turn an orchestra of volunteers around so that I am facing the audience and I will conduct the singers seated in the audience chairs in choral movements from Handel’s Messiah. This is a great holiday tradition around the world and I hope it will become one here as well.
Fostering a community sense as much as possible around the orchestra is so important to me. It requires the time and activities to make one convert at a time but ultimately we want to instill a passion for live orchestral music throughout the entire community. Hopefully being part of the experience will help in achieving this aim.
Our performances of the Messiah are going to be particularly interesting. Robert Mealy, violinist will be our guest concertmaster for these performances. His influence on the early music scene in North America is astounding. He is performing and recording music from as far back as the 12th century and will bring to our Association a wealth of knowledge about early music performance style and practice. He conducted workshops in September to begin acquainting our musicians with the baroque bows and strings we will use this month. The leaner sound of the style doesn’t require an enormous chorus so we will use approximately 60 singers for each performance. To kick off our run of Messiah performances we will perform the entire oratorio twice at the Orpheum before taking “Messiah highlights” on the road.
Last season we started a new Baroque Christmas initiative to begin moving the organization into this sound world. This year we perform an all-Bach concert featuring two of his famous works for orchestra and two “Christmas cantatas”.
Finally, the half of the orchestra not doing Messiah nor Baroque Christmas will be joining our friends at Ballet Arizona for a new production of the “Nutcracker.” We are very proud to be affiliated with the Ballet in this annual favorite.
12 Comments:
I attended the November 30 Holiday Concert. I was quite impressed by the quality of the orchestra ... their sound is every bit as good as the Dallas Symphony (I live in Dallas). However, the program itself exceeded the capabilities of the adult chorus. (The Phoenix Girls' Chorus, however, was superb.) A sense of energy in the musical line was absent. Legato, which I craved in the Randall Thomson _Alleluia_ and the Rachmaninoff _Bogoroditse Yevo_, was usurped by portato ... chop, chop, chop. To pull off a cappella masterpieces such as these, a chorus must eliminate buzz-saw vibrati, sagging pitch, and limp phrasing. But it can't do that unless it's guided by conductor who can imbue every musical phrase with a sense of palpable frisson.
I attended last night's (11/30) performance and I want to thank EVERYONE involved in that performance for such a special evening.
My grandmother came with us and was so very happy to hear Thompson's "Alleluia" which she had not heard for many years.
My favorites were "O Magnum Mysterium" (which moved my grandmother and me to tears), the Rachmaninoff selection, and the spine-tingling "Coventry Carol."
I had not attended one of these "pops" holiday concerts for a number of years, but I will make it a point to attend future concerts, with such fabulous programs as this one was.
I have seldom heard the symphony sound in better form. Do not miss "The Song of the Birds" with its moving cello solo!
If anyone reading this is debating whether to go - GO! You will not regret it, there is something for everyone on the program, from the rowdy "The Boar's Head" to the ever-popular "Messiah" selections. It will create one of those special holiday memories that you will treasure forever.
Thans, PSO. Phoenix is lucky to have you!
I felt like there was a great deal of merit to the performance. I absolutely understand the instinct to go the opposite direction of all the holiday glitz. However, there is a reason why we have all the glitz. People want it. I think that is the reason why all around the country orchestras put on fun hoiday shows. Some doing two weeks or more of the same show to packed houses. I am not sure if the people who came, ouside of the friends and family of the chorous, got what they thought they were paying for. It would be great to balance the "tap dancing santas" with concerts more like church or a classics concert, but with the Baroque X-mas there seems to be very little balance at all. One of the things that I read about is the need to not look down on the needs of the audience. Those people in the fine arts often think this means standing up the perceived pressure to not program lighter works in place of some Rouse or Adams piece. However, it seems that the opposite is true here. Many great orchestras with the most "sophisticated" audiences seem to find a place for real Pops. So can we.
As a chorus member I totally agree with the last comment. I thought the program was far to somber. I expect programs of this type to be joyous both in the religous sense and also in the "Dancing Santas" sense. The Shaw "Many Moods of Christmas" of which there are 4 provide this expectation. I would hope that next year we would perform 1 or 2 of these in their entirety rather than picking out just one or two songs from a single one. For the more secular oriented there is a wonderful arangement of "The Night Before Christmas" which is always an audience pleaser.
We found this year's "An Arizona Christmas" concert to be the least satisfying of the past dozen-or-so we have attended. While the Chorus is talented, we would have preferred less singing and more of the Orchestra. The musical selections also left something to be desired. This concert has become a tradition with our group and we look forward to traditional Christmas music, both religious and secular. Thank you for considering our opinion.
Sonny, I'm guessing you were at the Orpheum over the weekend and not at Camelback Seventh Day Adventist church last night? Camelback has sound to burn but unfortunately the City of Phoenix sold off part of the acoustic shell of the Orpheum leaving us severely handicapped in the choral volume department. I asked the choir to sing louder on the 2nd half of the first performance and from where I was standing they were singing strongly the second night throughout. The sound seems to go straight up in the curtains above them. We were all disappointed that we were left with this situation and I'm particularly sorry that it took away from an experience I hoped and still hope could be a significant component of the PSO holiday experience. You are more than welcome to call the city council to complain!
"Against the Grain" here again:
My husband and I attended the Baroque Christmas concert last night (12/14/06) and it was a truly magical concert. I second Sonny the Cat on Viviana's and Hyung Yun's performances. Brava/o!
I hope to catch it again myself when it comes to "Love of Christ" church in Mesa if my schedule allows.
I was very sorry to see such a small turnout at the MAC. It was my first time in the facility. What an odd building it is!
I attended the Baroque concert at the MAC and was positively thrilled. The orchestra was light and lively. Your soprano soloist, Ms. Greenleaf has a wonderfully clear voice and was a pleasure to listen to. Ms. Cumplido danced on the flute with so little effort. In total it was a truly enjoyable experience. However...the number of attendees was appalling. I seem to recall that last year's audiences for the "Baroque Christmas" were quite small too. Might I suggest that what with Christmas Pops, Messiah and Nutcracker concerts, not to mention and the other offerings around the valley this time of year, people simply don't have the time. Personally, I would love to see more of these Baroque-style concerts but maybe there is a better time. It can't be cost-effective to rent the MAC and have so few people attend, not to mention what it does to the morale of the performers, especially the chorus who only got to sing for a total of 1 minute.
Hey Sonny the cat,
Thanks for your kind words about the Bach. I'm glad you enjoyed it! Its one of those pieces that every horn player looks forward to doing. It's such a great piece that carries such a special place in forn players hearts! As for your question. I use an Engelbert Schmid triple horn. That horn is my everyday horn. Its built with a full double and descant horn all in one instrument. So it is my everday horn that I have used for over 5 years now. Its perfect for pieces like the Bach to big Mahler Symphonies. I hope that answers your question.
Dear Sonny the cat,
I'm so glad that you enjoyed the Christmas Baroque concert and thank you for all of the nice things you've said regarding our performance. To answer your question, yes, I did write my own ornamentation for the Bach Suite. That is something I've enjoyed learning to do, as well as writing cadenzas for Mozart's flute concerti. Most of these ideas come from a lot of listening to really understand the style and then I just start writing my own and trying things out to see what works. I hope this answers your question and thank you for your enthusiastic support of the symphony. Happy Holidays!
Hopefully someone playing Nutcracker will chime in on this but from what I hear the brass and the percussion can be deafening in the pit itself to virtually no effect for the audience. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone under the "lip" of the stage is playing less in order to saving the collective hearing of the orchestra. I know it is most disappointing but this is one of the potential downsides of a covered pit.
My wife and I attended one of the Messiah concerts in the Scottsdale area and the small chorus and orchestra sound was very disappointing. The singers other than the tenor were the worst regional talents we have ever heard. It was good to see a new concertmaster, we have never cared for the person you had. Lastly it was not sold out which supports claims that neighbors see alot of empty seats at your concerts. We will not be back to Messiah next year.
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