Michael Christie and The Phoenix Symphony on "Horizons" TV Program
A crew from KAET television (one of The Phoenix Symphony's media sponsors this season) stopped by the open rehearsal and 2008-09 Season Launch party a few weeks ago and had a chance to sit down with Michael Christie to talk about his contract extension, the orchestra and the future of making great music in Phoenix. The footage and interview appeared on the Horizons program this evening. In case you missed it, check out the video below:
6 Comments:
Okay, I stayed up an extra hour-and-a-half to watch the entire video. Call me Sonny, the Night Meowl.
It was a beautiful PR production. Niceties without getting down to the nitty gritty of how much of a deficit we need to cover, etc.
As usual, Maestro Christie is such an excellent speaker. Intelligent. He's definitely the right front man for the organization.
By the way, that's me in the blue shirt in the 7th row.
Mr. Christie brings many positive aspects to the Symphony; I hope he stays longer.
Review of Last Friday's Concert:
Presto and I really like the continuing practice of having the piano already on stage at the beginning of the concert. Both the rolling of the piano to center stage and the departure of the chorus after the Bernstein were expeditious and did not interrupt the flow.
I thought it was very strange that there was such a lack of loud applause for the Bernstein and Mozart. Then I realized that this was really the "Thursday" concert. I am glad that I have subscribed to the Saturday 16 for next season. I like to hear the support of the audience as much as the musicians do.
The piano soloist Elizabeth Schumann was outstanding. No wonder she won the 2007 Bosendorfer USASU Piano Competition. I think that it is very special when we hear a great performance by a rising superstar as much as, or more than, a declining legend like Leon Fleisher.
The weekly audition by a guest concertmaster has added excitement to every concert. Presto and I are keeping score. We still think the woman (sorry, I forgot her name) from the Chicago Symphony, who played on the Grand Canyon Suite and the Navajo Oratorio, is the top pick.
The complete ballet music to Daphnis and Chloe was nicely executed by the large forces assembled for the occasion. But realistically, playing the 2 Suites would have been sufficient. Without the visual element that the original "ballet" score was written for, it was hard for me to totally enjoy this type of "impressionistic" music. Even though I disagreed with the use of photography in the Navajo Oratorio, I think a video accompaniment with a live action or animation rendition of the storyline would have kept my interest more.
See you at the Orpheum. I will be looking forward to the Maestro's interpretation of Beethoven's Seventh.
Dear Sonny,
I enjoyed the Phoenix Symphony concert on Sunday. The Mozart Piano Concerto No. 21 was performed stunningly brilliant technique by Elizabeth Schumann. She is quite the perfectionist. I especially enjoyed hearing the slow movement which is popularly known as the theme from "Elvira Madigen". Elvira was a tight-rope walker and trick rider who died a tragic death. Performing a great Mozart concert like No. 21 can be a bit like walking on a tight rope. One slip and it is a long fall. Ms. Schumann is definitely an expert and keeping her balance on the piano keyboard. There can be no doubt that she deserved to win that competition.
Bernstein's "Chinchester Psalms" is a rather eclectic choral piece. Imagine hearing a mix of Orff's Carmina Burana, West Side Story, a Robert Shaw Americana piece, Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms, and the Cuban Overture all rolled into one! I felt like I was at a deli instead of a concert. Seriously, what is fascinating about this piece is that Bernstein actually used some early sketches from West Side Story when it was supposed to involve a Jewish-American gang.
Bernstein's Psalms were also written shortly after his "Kaddish" Symphony, which is very close to the edge of despair. Yet, the Psalms are affirming and even jubilant. The opening of the last movement does explore a tense and somber mood. There is also his use of the 7th and the 7/4 meter which goes along with Hebrew numerology. The interval of a 7th is also used very poignantly in West Side Story in "There's A Place For Us" and in "Maria". It may be that Leonard merely enjoyed writing 7ths. It is part of his signature along with the complex rhythms that sound like Cuban music of the 1950's. All of this just seems hard to wash down in one piece and is sometimes a bit "far out" for a religious setting of the Psalms. I must say that the boy soprano stole the show. He navigated some very tough intervals like a pro. He was also a perfect gentleman up there on stage and watched the conductor like a hawk.
(Aside: I met Berstein and performed with him during the first Los Angeles Philharmonic Conducting Institute in the eighties. He was very conversational on the podium in terms of almost shaking hands with each section of the orchestra. No one could feel ignored around Lenny. He was extremely friendly and magnanimous to everyone.)
I was pleasantly surprised to hear Ravel's entire "Daphnis and Chloe Ballet" music. This titan of the Impressionistic genre is rarely given a complete hearing. The Greek revivalism of 1912 France is not a popular subject matter, so the ballet is not performed much anymore. Yet this "symphony choreographique" is packed with passion and exhilarating music that sweeps the listener away in waves of sensual beauty.
It is possible that modern American audiences are afraid of overt expressions of intimacy in their classical concerts. It is also possible that they don't get it at all. The Impressionists such as Debussy, Ravel and Stravinsky were not tip-toeing around the subject of sex in their music. We are talking about France after all, not Victorian England. Yet we Americans persist in doing an injustice to this music by Disneyfying the Impressionists with dinosaurs in the "Rite of Spring" instead of virgins dancing themselves to death. I am relieved to see that Michael Christie did not sacrifice the true underlying paganism in Ravel's magnificent ballet. We were treated to the un-cut natural version that Ravel intended with every innuendo and nuance still intact.
It's always nice to get some good PR on TV - but the embedded video was horribly choppy to watch online here . . . YouTube maybe?
Thanks for the comment Martin. We're always looking for the best ways to integrate video/audio content on the blog so that it can be enjoyed by the widest audience possible while at the same time maintaining digital quality. We've found YouTube's video streams to degrade in quality quite a bit in converting from broadcast so have been trying out the Vimeo video service in the meantime.
Hopefully, this will all become a moot point in the coming season as we look to fully integrate the SoundPost blog into PhoenixSymphony.org instead of having it hosted through Blogger. Keep an eye out for the change in the months to come!
Brendan Anderson
Digital Media Coordinator
The Phoenix Symphony
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