A Pops Finale with Loras John Schissel
Guest Pops conductor Loras John Schissel stopped by SoundPost to talk a little bit about the upcoming concerts he'll be conducting this weekend at Symphony Hall:
Dear Friends of The Phoenix Symphony,
I'm looking forward to being with you folks and working with the great Phoenix Symphony! It's funny that we'll be featuring a lot of John Williams' music on the program as I spent time with him here in Washington this past weekend. John conducted a film music concert with the National Symphony with Spielberg and Scorsese as narrators. In one sequence, they showed a clip from Indiana Jones with no music----and it just died. Then they showed it with John's music played live with the NSO. You wouldn't believe the change. For anyone who loves John Williams' music (and I certainly do), I think they'll find this concert with The Phoenix Symphony is going to be a blow-out. I've got some surprises on the show that aren't printed in the program. E.T. phone home. See you soon!
-Loras
The Phoenix Symphony's "Big Screen Legends Featuring the Music of John Williams" concert is currently sold out, but it never hurts to check with the Box Office at 602-495-1999 to see if anything happens to open up at the last minute.
Dear Friends of The Phoenix Symphony,I'm looking forward to being with you folks and working with the great Phoenix Symphony! It's funny that we'll be featuring a lot of John Williams' music on the program as I spent time with him here in Washington this past weekend. John conducted a film music concert with the National Symphony with Spielberg and Scorsese as narrators. In one sequence, they showed a clip from Indiana Jones with no music----and it just died. Then they showed it with John's music played live with the NSO. You wouldn't believe the change. For anyone who loves John Williams' music (and I certainly do), I think they'll find this concert with The Phoenix Symphony is going to be a blow-out. I've got some surprises on the show that aren't printed in the program. E.T. phone home. See you soon!
-Loras
The Phoenix Symphony's "Big Screen Legends Featuring the Music of John Williams" concert is currently sold out, but it never hurts to check with the Box Office at 602-495-1999 to see if anything happens to open up at the last minute.
4 Comments:
While our orchestra was playing movie music, our Maestro was in San Diego conducting their Symphony. Aren't you curious what their music critic had to say about how "fast" our conductor takes things?
Here's an excerpt from the review by Kenneth Herman (sandiego.com).
"Christie opened with Mozart's Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, an athletic reading that telegraphed every new idea in bold upper-case letters. A little too bright, sometimes a little to fast, I might have bought his approach to
Mozart's Symphony 41, the "Jupiter," but this robbed the G Minor of its mystery and complexity. But Christie, who is Music Director of both the
Phoenix Symphony and the Brooklyn Philharmonic is crisp and engaging on the podium.
I hope the Symphony invites him back."
Yuck. Glad I missed it. Music at breakneck speed is one of the things that might get me not to renew my season tickets next year. Maybe having a few more guest conductors might help?
In my own defense, the reviewer didn't say breakneck speed. "Sometimes a little too fast" was the quote.
The orchestra was used to playing this symphony at a snail's pace, especially the 2nd and 3rd movements, or so I was told. Keeping the tempo a bit brighter afforded the opportunity to hear different aspects of the texture.
What you would have also missed had you not attended the concert was a rousing standing ovation for John Corigliano's Pied Piper Fantasy, a multi-media work that would definitely be classed as new music.
The soloist, children's flute ensemble and orchestra put on a great performance of a difficult work and the audience loved it, but I'll bet they came for the Mozart and the Dukas.
What have we done this year that was at breakneck speed by the way?
Maestro, when are you going to bring these audience-friendly modern pieces like The Pied Piper Fantasy to Phoenix?
I have been pleading with you to get John Corigliano as the featured living composer. Although that particular piece might be considered a pops sell-out, his other orchestral works are definitely entertaining.
Examples are Red Violin Concerto, Clarinet Concerto, Oboe Concerto, A Dylan Thomas Trilogy (an oratorio scored for boy soprano, tenor, baritone, chorus, and orchestra), Mr. Tambourine Man: Seven Poems of Bob Dylan, and Three Hallucinations (based on the film score to “Altered States”), just to name a few.
Let's give the conservative Phoenix audience something that they can enjoy at first hearing!
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