SUTS 2010!
Oh hello again! Resuscitatin' the old LJ to talk about the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra's Symphony Under the Sky festival. My mom and I have been going to this festival together since it first began! We missed only 2006, when I moved to Boston over the long weekend. Speaking of my mom, you can follow her on Twitter for her opinions of Symphony Under the Sky - and sometimes curling as well. And if you want my opinion, but in a shorter form, you can follow me on Twitter too!
And now that we're all settled in, let's talk about last night's concert! The Friday concert in the Symphony Under the Sky series is usually reflective of what the ESO would program in a typical Masters' Series concert throughout the regular season. They did not disappoint! I was completely thrilled to hear some Bach on the program. Bach is rarely heard in orchestral settings, unless it's like, an entire, enormous Bach piece like the St. Matthew Passion, which would take up a whole concert in itself. If you were there (and even if you weren't!) you may have noticed that the Bach pieces were arranged by other composers - Gustav Holst, well-known for his concert band and brass band works and for writing the best dang euphonium lines ever, and Leopold Stokowski, who some of you might know best as the conductor of Fantasia. Best example I can give you for what they did is this: Bach's music doesn't fit any orchestras of today. His music and our orchestras are just shaped a little differently - so Holst and Stokowski tailored Bach's music to fit a modern orchestra. I definitely think that Bach is a lot cooler than a pair of trousers you're getting hemmed, but hey, it's just a metaphor.
Next, we had Prokofiev's Violin Concerto #2, performed by the incomparable Karen Gomyo. Now, I myself am a professional musician - and you've never heard of me because I'm not famous. You don't have to be to make your living playing music! BUT, I play jazz, pop, rock, gospel, musical theatre, funk, blues... you name a contemporary genre, I play it. I'm classically trained, but that's not what I do so much anymore. Anyways, the point of this story is that as a musician who's not making her living playing classical concert music, I don't ever get to wear a ballgown to work. And that's sad. Ballgowns are AWESOME. If you really wanted to convince me to play classical music again, you could probably succeed with the lure of a pretty ballgown :)
Oh wait, I was talking about Prokofiev. A few things I noticed about this new-to-me concerto: it wasn't a super virtuosic piece. I mean, clearly Ms. Gomyo is a phenomenal violinist. We've heard her a few times now at Symphony under the Sky, and in the Winspear Centre, and the fact that we keep inviting her back is a testament to how amazing she is. The piece itself didn't sound like it really meant to show off the violin's technical side (though I don't know a lot about the violin - it may be a really difficult piece, I just would have no way of knowing) - to me it really sounded more like a tone poem or something, with the violin there as a leading voice, and not a show-off. It was atmospheric, textural, unique, beautiful. I'd love to hear it again.
Then we had Beethoven. The illustrious Bob Bernhardt introduced this piece as being one of Beethoven's lesser-known symphonies. As much as I love Bob Bernhardt (and I do love Bob Bernhardt!! There is simply NO better person to conduct this festival than Bob Bernhardt!!) I have to disagree with him. I'm quite familiar with Symphony 1 - as I listened to it, it all sounded familiar to me, and I know I've heard it several times before. And I know all the rest of the odd numbers - 3 is the Eroica, 5 is "only two NOTES", 7 is the best slow movement EVER WRITTEN, and 9 is, well, BEETHOVEN'S NINTH. Ode to Joy, O Freunde, nicht diese Töne, and all that. And I know 6, too, the Pastorale (You know that one too, it was in Fantasia, with the little baby winged horses. So dang cute!!!). It's 2, 4, and 8 that I don't think I've ever heard before. Now that would be an interesting concert to program - the Unknown Beethoven Symphonies!
The Brahms was a lovely way to end the evening! Though, in my mind, if you've got a lineup of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms on a program (which we did!) the Brahms that was chosen isn't really comparable to the selections from the other two we heard. The Hungarian dances were kind of like his greatest hits... and nobody really likes to be remembered for their greatest hits, unless they're one-hit wonders, which Brahms was NOT. I like to think of Brahms as dark chocolate. There's so much richness and texture and depth to his music, and I wish we heard a piece last night that showed all that!! Ah well, there's always next year... :)
And now, after my review, I have a question for everyone in Edmonton - where the heck is Colin Lay? For those of you not in the know, Colin Lay is kind of the go-to sound guy for most large concerts here, and he is the head of the recording department at MacEwan University (and their website still lists him as such). Colin's NOT running sound at Symphony Under The Sky this year, and he has for as long as I can remember. He also wasn't either at FolkFest, either. I feel like the sound on both of these concerts was not nearly as good as it's been in the past - bear in mind, outdoor concerts are really hard to set up and make sound good, especially with an orchestra, which we're used to hearing unamplified in one of the best concert halls in the world. Whoever's doing sound this year has some big shoes to fill. But... I want Colin back! He's just the best at live sound. I can really hear the difference this year.
And that's it. Gettin' ready for Movie Night tonight - always one of my favourite shows of the year, and this time it's going to be ALL John Williams! The KING of movie music. See you there!
And now that we're all settled in, let's talk about last night's concert! The Friday concert in the Symphony Under the Sky series is usually reflective of what the ESO would program in a typical Masters' Series concert throughout the regular season. They did not disappoint! I was completely thrilled to hear some Bach on the program. Bach is rarely heard in orchestral settings, unless it's like, an entire, enormous Bach piece like the St. Matthew Passion, which would take up a whole concert in itself. If you were there (and even if you weren't!) you may have noticed that the Bach pieces were arranged by other composers - Gustav Holst, well-known for his concert band and brass band works and for writing the best dang euphonium lines ever, and Leopold Stokowski, who some of you might know best as the conductor of Fantasia. Best example I can give you for what they did is this: Bach's music doesn't fit any orchestras of today. His music and our orchestras are just shaped a little differently - so Holst and Stokowski tailored Bach's music to fit a modern orchestra. I definitely think that Bach is a lot cooler than a pair of trousers you're getting hemmed, but hey, it's just a metaphor.
Next, we had Prokofiev's Violin Concerto #2, performed by the incomparable Karen Gomyo. Now, I myself am a professional musician - and you've never heard of me because I'm not famous. You don't have to be to make your living playing music! BUT, I play jazz, pop, rock, gospel, musical theatre, funk, blues... you name a contemporary genre, I play it. I'm classically trained, but that's not what I do so much anymore. Anyways, the point of this story is that as a musician who's not making her living playing classical concert music, I don't ever get to wear a ballgown to work. And that's sad. Ballgowns are AWESOME. If you really wanted to convince me to play classical music again, you could probably succeed with the lure of a pretty ballgown :)
Oh wait, I was talking about Prokofiev. A few things I noticed about this new-to-me concerto: it wasn't a super virtuosic piece. I mean, clearly Ms. Gomyo is a phenomenal violinist. We've heard her a few times now at Symphony under the Sky, and in the Winspear Centre, and the fact that we keep inviting her back is a testament to how amazing she is. The piece itself didn't sound like it really meant to show off the violin's technical side (though I don't know a lot about the violin - it may be a really difficult piece, I just would have no way of knowing) - to me it really sounded more like a tone poem or something, with the violin there as a leading voice, and not a show-off. It was atmospheric, textural, unique, beautiful. I'd love to hear it again.
Then we had Beethoven. The illustrious Bob Bernhardt introduced this piece as being one of Beethoven's lesser-known symphonies. As much as I love Bob Bernhardt (and I do love Bob Bernhardt!! There is simply NO better person to conduct this festival than Bob Bernhardt!!) I have to disagree with him. I'm quite familiar with Symphony 1 - as I listened to it, it all sounded familiar to me, and I know I've heard it several times before. And I know all the rest of the odd numbers - 3 is the Eroica, 5 is "only two NOTES", 7 is the best slow movement EVER WRITTEN, and 9 is, well, BEETHOVEN'S NINTH. Ode to Joy, O Freunde, nicht diese Töne, and all that. And I know 6, too, the Pastorale (You know that one too, it was in Fantasia, with the little baby winged horses. So dang cute!!!). It's 2, 4, and 8 that I don't think I've ever heard before. Now that would be an interesting concert to program - the Unknown Beethoven Symphonies!
The Brahms was a lovely way to end the evening! Though, in my mind, if you've got a lineup of Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms on a program (which we did!) the Brahms that was chosen isn't really comparable to the selections from the other two we heard. The Hungarian dances were kind of like his greatest hits... and nobody really likes to be remembered for their greatest hits, unless they're one-hit wonders, which Brahms was NOT. I like to think of Brahms as dark chocolate. There's so much richness and texture and depth to his music, and I wish we heard a piece last night that showed all that!! Ah well, there's always next year... :)
And now, after my review, I have a question for everyone in Edmonton - where the heck is Colin Lay? For those of you not in the know, Colin Lay is kind of the go-to sound guy for most large concerts here, and he is the head of the recording department at MacEwan University (and their website still lists him as such). Colin's NOT running sound at Symphony Under The Sky this year, and he has for as long as I can remember. He also wasn't either at FolkFest, either. I feel like the sound on both of these concerts was not nearly as good as it's been in the past - bear in mind, outdoor concerts are really hard to set up and make sound good, especially with an orchestra, which we're used to hearing unamplified in one of the best concert halls in the world. Whoever's doing sound this year has some big shoes to fill. But... I want Colin back! He's just the best at live sound. I can really hear the difference this year.
And that's it. Gettin' ready for Movie Night tonight - always one of my favourite shows of the year, and this time it's going to be ALL John Williams! The KING of movie music. See you there!