A tale of two concerts (but not really)
No concert
Talk about your anti-climax: Number One Son's senior recital will not be happening today after all. It's postponed, not canceled, but we're still feeling let down. The problem was something to do with the jury's not being notified of the date -- the boy says he wasn't told that he was the one who had to do that. Oops! And I had moved heaven and earth to clear my calendar for today! See, I have a terrible schedule (or perhaps you've noticed), and the odds that he'd choose a day that was good for me were always slim. Now we have to try again, only with tighter constraints (like, only five weeks left in the school year!), and I have some unbreakable commitments coming up...
Oh, well. I'd gotten special permission to miss today's B-minor Mass dress rehearsal, and now I guess I will go. (And that, I suppose, puts the lie to my cut-tag's "not as music-saturated a weekend" comment, but I guess I meant there wouldn't be as much musical *variety* in my weekend as I'd thought -- B-minor today, B-minor tomorrow.)
Concert
Took the boys to see Fantasia "Live in Concert" last night. We hadn't known in advance, but rather than being a straightforward showing of the 1940 movie of that name (with live orchestra accompaniment, of course), it was instead a special program made up of selections from both the original film and Fantasia 2000. I don't know how anyone else felt about that, but Two & Three and I were quite pleased, especially when we saw that our very favorite 2000 sequence (can you guess?) was included.
The program opened with 2000's abstract/non-programmatic interpretation of Beethoven's Fifth. It mainly served as an appetizer -- I mean, you've got to start with something, and I was just as happy it wasn't Bach/Stokowski. Then came two well-loved longer sequences from the original movie: Beethoven's Pastoral (gosh, olden-days studios thought nothing of jokey animated depictions of drunkenness -- so different from today's ethos) and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite (whose adorable Asian mushrooms also struck me as, er, out of sync with contemporary sensibilities). After that they presented a selection which had been recorded and fully animated before being edited out of the 1940 film -- a Stokowski arrangement of Debussy's Claire de Lune, over a quiet nature scene with, I think, cranes (the birds, not the machines). The cut visuals were subsequently recycled into the studio's 1946 effort. Make Mine Music (a sort of Fantasia-lite), where they were married with the slushy choral "tone poem" Blue Bayou. Having just looked at that version, I pronounce Debussy the winner. And finally, in fiery contrast to the preceding, Stravinsky's Firebird (from 2000 -- it was Rite of Spring that was included in the original), rounded out the first half of the concert.
After intermission came the boys' and my favorite, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, the concept behind whose animation I still think is pure genius. The Sorcerer's Apprentice (from 1940, but also included in the 2000 version) was next, followed by 2000's Pomp and Circumstance -- that is, an arrangement by Peter Schickele incorporating parts of four of Elgar's P&C marches, to which Donald Duck plays (wait for it) Noah (or possibly Noah's assistant ... anyhow, he has to load the ark). Plenty of sly humor in that one. The concert wrapped up with Respighi's The Pines of Rome, beautiful music chosen by Roy Disney for Fantasia 2000 and accompanied by surreally computer-animated, er, flying whales.
Yes, I suppose somebody's favorite Fantasia segment was omitted (Dance of the Hours, perhaps?), but I think it would have been hard for anyone to leave on anything but a happy note after the exuberant encore number, Bumble Boogie (as featured in 1948's Melody Time). Between that and Rhapsody, the orchestra's pianist really got a workout!
The "Fantasia Live" concert is a pre-packaged thing that makes the rounds, and if it comes to your city and you have a soft spot for Disney animation, you should go. I do wish our organization had sprung for a narrator and a script instead of just letting the (guest) conductor make his own at-times-erroneous, off-the-cuff comments from the podium; maybe yours will. Still, I thought that Rhapsody in Blue by itself, with live music and the animation on a big HD screen, was worth the price of admission.
Talk about your anti-climax: Number One Son's senior recital will not be happening today after all. It's postponed, not canceled, but we're still feeling let down. The problem was something to do with the jury's not being notified of the date -- the boy says he wasn't told that he was the one who had to do that. Oops! And I had moved heaven and earth to clear my calendar for today! See, I have a terrible schedule (or perhaps you've noticed), and the odds that he'd choose a day that was good for me were always slim. Now we have to try again, only with tighter constraints (like, only five weeks left in the school year!), and I have some unbreakable commitments coming up...
Oh, well. I'd gotten special permission to miss today's B-minor Mass dress rehearsal, and now I guess I will go. (And that, I suppose, puts the lie to my cut-tag's "not as music-saturated a weekend" comment, but I guess I meant there wouldn't be as much musical *variety* in my weekend as I'd thought -- B-minor today, B-minor tomorrow.)
Concert
Took the boys to see Fantasia "Live in Concert" last night. We hadn't known in advance, but rather than being a straightforward showing of the 1940 movie of that name (with live orchestra accompaniment, of course), it was instead a special program made up of selections from both the original film and Fantasia 2000. I don't know how anyone else felt about that, but Two & Three and I were quite pleased, especially when we saw that our very favorite 2000 sequence (can you guess?) was included.
The program opened with 2000's abstract/non-programmatic interpretation of Beethoven's Fifth. It mainly served as an appetizer -- I mean, you've got to start with something, and I was just as happy it wasn't Bach/Stokowski. Then came two well-loved longer sequences from the original movie: Beethoven's Pastoral (gosh, olden-days studios thought nothing of jokey animated depictions of drunkenness -- so different from today's ethos) and Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker Suite (whose adorable Asian mushrooms also struck me as, er, out of sync with contemporary sensibilities). After that they presented a selection which had been recorded and fully animated before being edited out of the 1940 film -- a Stokowski arrangement of Debussy's Claire de Lune, over a quiet nature scene with, I think, cranes (the birds, not the machines). The cut visuals were subsequently recycled into the studio's 1946 effort. Make Mine Music (a sort of Fantasia-lite), where they were married with the slushy choral "tone poem" Blue Bayou. Having just looked at that version, I pronounce Debussy the winner. And finally, in fiery contrast to the preceding, Stravinsky's Firebird (from 2000 -- it was Rite of Spring that was included in the original), rounded out the first half of the concert.
After intermission came the boys' and my favorite, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, the concept behind whose animation I still think is pure genius. The Sorcerer's Apprentice (from 1940, but also included in the 2000 version) was next, followed by 2000's Pomp and Circumstance -- that is, an arrangement by Peter Schickele incorporating parts of four of Elgar's P&C marches, to which Donald Duck plays (wait for it) Noah (or possibly Noah's assistant ... anyhow, he has to load the ark). Plenty of sly humor in that one. The concert wrapped up with Respighi's The Pines of Rome, beautiful music chosen by Roy Disney for Fantasia 2000 and accompanied by surreally computer-animated, er, flying whales.
Yes, I suppose somebody's favorite Fantasia segment was omitted (Dance of the Hours, perhaps?), but I think it would have been hard for anyone to leave on anything but a happy note after the exuberant encore number, Bumble Boogie (as featured in 1948's Melody Time). Between that and Rhapsody, the orchestra's pianist really got a workout!
The "Fantasia Live" concert is a pre-packaged thing that makes the rounds, and if it comes to your city and you have a soft spot for Disney animation, you should go. I do wish our organization had sprung for a narrator and a script instead of just letting the (guest) conductor make his own at-times-erroneous, off-the-cuff comments from the podium; maybe yours will. Still, I thought that Rhapsody in Blue by itself, with live music and the animation on a big HD screen, was worth the price of admission.