Symphony Singers
So school is totally over, and so is my NYYSS (New York Youth Symphony Singers) concert at Carnegie Hall. It went well, and despite Nancy's (John and I call her Cruella, hehe) best efforts, we enjoyed ourselves. My family came to see the concert, and I got to show them some of my favorite New York places (including the best pizza place ever), and I showed them the glory of student rush tickets! We saw "110 in the Shade" starring AUDRA MCDONALD, and the whole production was absolutely beautiful... not to mention that we got tickets for only $26.25. My parents were very impressed with my knowledge of the student rush system, hehe.
When I first got to the city for the weekend, it was about 90 degrees, and I was supposed to be staying with Jenny, but she had to work until late. Therefore, I spent a couple of hours wandering around in the blistering heat as a homeless person with only my pink fake Vera Bradley suitcase to keep me company. Once Jen got off work and her sister arrived, we went to Seredipity for dessert and had the famous froooozen hot chocolate and the forbidden broadway sundae... yummy! Let's see... more highlights from the weekend... Well, Jenny lives off of Canal Street, so we shopped there for a little while, and she managed to bargain her way from paying $80 to $35 for some cute sun dresses. Now THAT is some serious skill, let me tell you.
Anyway, the concert went well, and we even got a New York Times review (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/arts/music/29yout.html)!! I'll post it under the cut because in a week or so, you won't be able to see it anymore.
Music Review, New York Youth Symphony
Players Not Yet Mature, Sounding Old and Young
By BERNARD HOLLAND
Published: May 29, 2007
It is always a question whether the talented young should be turned into little adults, wise before their time, or allowed to dawdle a while and just be children. The New York Youth Symphony, whose members range in age from 12 to 22, sounded both old and young at Carnegie Hall on Sunday afternoon. In the right music its strings sections are startlingly beautiful, with a sheen and trueness a lot of grown-up orchestras would envy. Brass and winds showed a simpler kind of
enthusiasm and forwardness.
Intermission served as a dividing line. Before it came Dan Visconti’s “Some Day the Sun Won’t
Shine” and a three-way hybrid called “Matthew Says.” The first provides a cheerful and colorful assault on the senses. The Symphony Singers, directed by Evan Wels, create crowd-scene yells and murmurs set against swooping instrumental glissandos.
The music turns to an older-style choir music before single-file parades of musicians take to the aisles and generate over-the-top loudness. A quiet wisp of phrase ends the piece. I’m never quite sure what postmodern means, especially in music, but if it is the appropriation of this and that, regardless of historical continuity, the word describes Mr. Visconti’s vivid if hardly subtle music.
In “Matthew Says” the orchestra’s departing music director, Paul Haas, has strung together bits of Bach and Telemann and added his own thoughts on the passion of St. Matthew as well. The Telemann segments are lovely, the work of a master musician. Mr. Haas’s cloudy, ambiguous and slow-moving arrangements are very nice as well. But neither comes close to the devastating concision of Bach’s chorale harmonizations, whose harmonies about harmonies about other harmonies moved Anton Webern to call them the first 12-tone music.
Mr. Haas likes space and light in his performances. Here the stage was semi-lighted, with the chorus - beautifully trained and tuned, by the way - joining wind ensembles and emanating from different parts of the hall.
The other piece, after intermission, was Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. The talented Mr. Haas seemed to revel, as any young conductor would, in a chance to do a big piece with a big orchestra. I admit to having heard a quartet of 20-ish young women play late Beethoven with considerable depth recently, but expecting Mahlerian world-weariness from near-children did them no great favor. These young people worked hard and honorably, albeit at music beyond the capacities of both their hearts and bodies.
Aaaand now there's nothing for me to do except pack for LONDON because I'm leaving on Sunday. I still can't quite grasp the fact that I'm going to be living and working in London for the summer... it's just too surreal! I really can't wait. :)
When I first got to the city for the weekend, it was about 90 degrees, and I was supposed to be staying with Jenny, but she had to work until late. Therefore, I spent a couple of hours wandering around in the blistering heat as a homeless person with only my pink fake Vera Bradley suitcase to keep me company. Once Jen got off work and her sister arrived, we went to Seredipity for dessert and had the famous froooozen hot chocolate and the forbidden broadway sundae... yummy! Let's see... more highlights from the weekend... Well, Jenny lives off of Canal Street, so we shopped there for a little while, and she managed to bargain her way from paying $80 to $35 for some cute sun dresses. Now THAT is some serious skill, let me tell you.
Anyway, the concert went well, and we even got a New York Times review (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/arts/music/29yout.html)!! I'll post it under the cut because in a week or so, you won't be able to see it anymore.
Music Review, New York Youth Symphony
Players Not Yet Mature, Sounding Old and Young
By BERNARD HOLLAND
Published: May 29, 2007
It is always a question whether the talented young should be turned into little adults, wise before their time, or allowed to dawdle a while and just be children. The New York Youth Symphony, whose members range in age from 12 to 22, sounded both old and young at Carnegie Hall on Sunday afternoon. In the right music its strings sections are startlingly beautiful, with a sheen and trueness a lot of grown-up orchestras would envy. Brass and winds showed a simpler kind of
enthusiasm and forwardness.
Intermission served as a dividing line. Before it came Dan Visconti’s “Some Day the Sun Won’t
Shine” and a three-way hybrid called “Matthew Says.” The first provides a cheerful and colorful assault on the senses. The Symphony Singers, directed by Evan Wels, create crowd-scene yells and murmurs set against swooping instrumental glissandos.
The music turns to an older-style choir music before single-file parades of musicians take to the aisles and generate over-the-top loudness. A quiet wisp of phrase ends the piece. I’m never quite sure what postmodern means, especially in music, but if it is the appropriation of this and that, regardless of historical continuity, the word describes Mr. Visconti’s vivid if hardly subtle music.
In “Matthew Says” the orchestra’s departing music director, Paul Haas, has strung together bits of Bach and Telemann and added his own thoughts on the passion of St. Matthew as well. The Telemann segments are lovely, the work of a master musician. Mr. Haas’s cloudy, ambiguous and slow-moving arrangements are very nice as well. But neither comes close to the devastating concision of Bach’s chorale harmonizations, whose harmonies about harmonies about other harmonies moved Anton Webern to call them the first 12-tone music.
Mr. Haas likes space and light in his performances. Here the stage was semi-lighted, with the chorus - beautifully trained and tuned, by the way - joining wind ensembles and emanating from different parts of the hall.
The other piece, after intermission, was Mahler’s Ninth Symphony. The talented Mr. Haas seemed to revel, as any young conductor would, in a chance to do a big piece with a big orchestra. I admit to having heard a quartet of 20-ish young women play late Beethoven with considerable depth recently, but expecting Mahlerian world-weariness from near-children did them no great favor. These young people worked hard and honorably, albeit at music beyond the capacities of both their hearts and bodies.
Aaaand now there's nothing for me to do except pack for LONDON because I'm leaving on Sunday. I still can't quite grasp the fact that I'm going to be living and working in London for the summer... it's just too surreal! I really can't wait. :)