Get Symphony in the Summertime: Phoenix Symphony on KBAQ!
By Matthew Heil
Though the orchestra is on haitus for the summer, Phoenix Symphony fans can still get a sampling of the music they love! Yes, once again, the concerts hit the airwaves thanks to KBAQ, the Valley's classical station. Hosted and producted by KBAQ music director Sterling Beeaff, the programs include highlights from some of the best, and most intruiging concerts of The Phoenix Symphony's 2006-07 season. In addition, interspersed throughout are interviews with guest artists from each of the concerts.
Most of the broadcasts are on Mondays, but this week, there is a special Saturday rebroadcast of The Phoenix Symphony's performance of "Hansel & Gretel" as a concert opera. For a listing of the airdates and times, visit KBAQ's website here.
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Though the orchestra is on haitus for the summer, Phoenix Symphony fans can still get a sampling of the music they love! Yes, once again, the concerts hit the airwaves thanks to KBAQ, the Valley's classical station. Hosted and producted by KBAQ music director Sterling Beeaff, the programs include highlights from some of the best, and most intruiging concerts of The Phoenix Symphony's 2006-07 season. In addition, interspersed throughout are interviews with guest artists from each of the concerts.
Most of the broadcasts are on Mondays, but this week, there is a special Saturday rebroadcast of The Phoenix Symphony's performance of "Hansel & Gretel" as a concert opera. For a listing of the airdates and times, visit KBAQ's website here.
8 Comments:
We got "members" of the Symphony LIVE on this balmy Sunday afternoon. Modern art hung on the walls of the Great Hall at the Phoenix Art Museum. Chamber music bounced off the walls and high ceiling and an audience that covered the entire floor of this cavernous venue. For a concert of string quartets and a solo cello suite, this was the perfect acoustic. Warm and reverberant without echoes. Much better than the adjacent lecture hall with its limited seating.
The highlight for me was the Menuetto movement of Joseph Haydn’s String Quartet in d minor, Op. 75, No. 2. It was a battle in canon: the two violins vs. viola and cello. Although Haydn is known as the father of the quartet, I feel that those were merely blueprints for symphonies. I wonder if this piece has ever been arranged for a string orchestra? Gave me a renewed interest in the classical master. Perhaps our Maestro will program a Haydn Retrospective one of these years.
This Downtown Chamber Series has proven to be a very well attended (usually sold out) phenomenon. I suppose there is an entirely different species of music lovers for this type of musical offering. But, as a Symphonic Cat, I couldn’t help but notice the shortcomings of individual artists. In this case, PSO 1st violin section member Dana Pasley played the 1st violin part in both the Haydn and Mendelssohn. Higher pitched passages always became faster and shakier. Quieter passages always slowed down. Both pieces sounded alike in that they lacked “feeling” and visual/audible leadership. So a good catnap was had in the second half.
I wonder what retired critic Dimitri Drobatschewsky thought? Neither he nor I joined in on the all-too-common and meaningless “standing ovation.”
Every profession has its area of expertise. It seems that classical musicians are expected to be able to straddle each area with no problem. Nobody expects jazz players to play rock music or rock musicians to play bluegrass with the ease of those associated with the genre. But the term "classical music" seems to imply that those within the workforce should be able to do it all equally well. The reality is that chamber music is a long way from playing in the section and that is along way from a solo performance. We often assume that a concertmaster should be able to play like a soloist or a chamber musician should play like an orchestra player. However, the skill set for each is so refined now that our expectations often defy realistic standards at any level.
I agree wholeheartedly with the "anonymous section player" above. I am a great 2-tuba section player in a wind ensemble because of my ability to be in tune and blend with the other player and the sections around me. I know a great french horn player who insists on the 2nd part in the orchestra because she is "not a soloist" and has the uncanny ability to make the 1st horn sound good. There is a certain personality and tone that is required of a soloist on an instrument.
Thus, picking "section players" from the Phoenix Symphony and putting them together as a string quartet isn't going to get you a Julliard String Quartet. Having said that, the Downtown Chamber Series does not pretend to offer first-rate chamber music. It is an outlet for Symphony musicians to experiment on their own. It's the old concept of friends gathering and making music informally in someone's "chamber" or living room. In their case, it was originally held at small art galleries.
The Great Hall at the Phoenix Art Museum is no intimate living room. It seems like the concept has outgrown itself. Do they now deserve to be on stage at Phoenix Symphony Hall? A chamber music prelude to the main symphony concert of the week? Perhaps the whole idea is to keep their independence from the orchestra? What a dilemma. In any case, $10.00 is a cheap price to pay for second-rate music played by first-rate professionals.
Another critic's opinion: The Arizona Republic. Sunday, July 15, 2007.
Richard Nilsen says: "If there was a problem in the first half of the peogram, it was that Bock... played like the section leader he is... while the others in the quartet were dangerously recessive. Pasley as first violin never quite asserted hemself as he should, to say nothing of the sour intonation in the higher reaches..."
For once, this Critical Cat and the Professional Critic are in agreement.
Topic for Discussion: STANDING OVATIONS.
Why did everybody, with the exception of Mr. Drobatschewsky, Presto, and Sonny, stand up and applaud at the conclusion of last Sunday’s Downtown Chamber concert? For that matter, why do Phoenicians give standing ovations at just about every classical concert?
Is it because of: (1) Relief that the event went the distance without any natural or human disasters (e.g., terrorist attack, medical emergency, or a musician throwing in the towel)? (2) Finally being able to get off your behind and get some circulation in the legs before departing the venue? (3) Thankful that these nice musicians have played to the best of their abilities just for you? (4) Social consciousness because everybody else does it so it must be the cool and acceptable behavior?
Sonny says you should not do it for any of the above reasons because: (1) Turn around and shake each other’s hands instead to express our unity as Phoenicians. (2) Stomp your feet as you walk to the exits. (3) They are professionals, not an elementary school band that needs parental support. (4) Monkey see, monkey do. I would like to start a trend that we “boo” a terrible performance.
My reasons for spontaneously jumping out of my seat, clapping as hard and fast as I can, and shouting “Bravo!” at the top of my lungs: A truly musically moving performance that had me by the heart from beginning to end, making me forget to breathe and, in the best of circumstances, had me sobbing uncontrollably from the absolute beauty and magic of the moment. The composer triumphs. The conductor triumphs. The orchestra triumphs. Music triumphs. I triumph.
Composer/Critic Ken LaFave says:
"Go, Sonny! I've leapt to my feet maybe half a dozen times in my life. Once for Rostropovich after a concert in which he played both the Haydn C Major and the Rococo Variations, another time for Horowitz playing Rachmaninoff in recital, and a third time for Lenny B's Mahler Second. I think there were another two or three cases, but they don't come as readily to mind.
Phoenicians are clap-happy. Always were, probably always will be."
From a "Seasonal Maestra":
It is funny how things change over time. When Mozart was premiering many of his works the audience would clap in the middle of a piece if they liked the last section or solo. It was similar to how the audience reacts to modern jazz concerts. The audience knew classical music and grasped the subtle tricks and flares of the composer. They showed their approval by applauding and laughing. However, if they did not approve then they would boo or throw orange peels at the stage.
If the piece was very bad, then they would throw rotten food, spit or start a riot (later on in 19th century Paris). I hope Sonny does not plan to throw anything at the next oboe entrance that someone misses. It might get messy in the front rows.
One practice that I would like to see come back is lavishing jewels, flowers and money on the artist if you really liked the performance. In the 19th century Clara Schumann would receive great gifts from wealthy Austrian nobles who attended her piano concerts. She was called "wundermachen" and students would vie to sit at her feet in awe. Women would faint during Liszt's concerts. Mozart received gold snuff boxes and hand-me down silk clothes from royal children. Opera singers would be lavished with dressing rooms filled with expensive flowers from suitors and well-wishers in the audience.
Every year or so I get flowers from one of my students at a concert. It just feels so good to be appreciated.
FYI. The Phoenix Chamber Music Society opened its first season in 1961 with a series of four concerts at the Phoenix Art Museum, performed by a quartet of Phoenix Symphony Orchestra members.
The following season, the society brought three touring groups to play before sold-out audiences at Longview Elementary School and, before long, moved to the Kerr Studio. In 1975, the Society outgrew the Studio and moved to the Scottsdale Center for the Arts.
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