Category Archives: Music

SPCO

Music

Wow. The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra performed on campus this evening, and it was absolutely mind blowing. Not only is the SPCO really good on its own, but the guest conductor (who also played violin on a piece) was the former concermaster and assistant conductor of the Boston Philharmonic, and the solo violinst was Sarah Chang, who was really incredible.

The started with a Mozart symphony (k. 319, if anyone cares). I’m not usually the biggest fan of Mozart, but I find that I like his work infinitely better live, and this was definitely an excellent rendition. The precision of the orchestra was amazing, and the sections truly sounded like one instrument at times.

Following that several of the players (including the guest conductor) played a Mendelssohn Octet. It’s always fascinating to see really great players peform chamber music – you can literally see the performers communicating with each other. At one point the young second violinist looked over at the (old) conductor/first violinist and just smilled, as if to say that he was just really excited to play with such an great experienced musician. The old violinist, for his part, kept looking at his music with a sort of quizzical look on his face (He looked sort of like a turtle) while playing magnificently. It was awesome.

After an intermission, Sarah Chang came out and played the Dvorak Violion Concerto (in A Minor). To say that it was impressive would be something of an understatement. She obviously has an incredible technical mastery of the violin, and she knows it, so she plays with the sort of confidence that you only really see in virtuosos. And it worked, I don’t think she missed a note, and the audience was riveted the entire time.

So anyway, it was an amazing concert, and I’m really glad I got to go. Unfortunately Northfield doesn’t exactly draw a lot of world class performances, but this was definitely one of them.

Jesus Christ Superstar

Carleton, Music

Just got back from seeing Jesus Christ Superstar, one of my absolute favorite musicals. I had the chance to play in the pit orchestra for a production of it a few years ago, and I’ve loved the music ever since. There are also a lot of interesting questions about the classic story of Jesus’ death. I’m not particularly well versed in the Bible, so perhaps I’m not the best person to judge the religious questions, but the portrayals of Judas and Pilate in particular seem to question where exactly the blame lays. The importance of fate and the fickle nature of the crowd seem to be the real culprits in the musical, which is certainly an intersting comparison to some of the other presentations of the story around these days.

The Carleton production was fairly though it certainly not flawless. I get the impression that the music is very difficult to sing. I’d really like to see a professional production of the show and see how things go with a cast that doesn’t have to worry about others things like homework.

Orchestra, etc.

Carleton, Music

I’ve had some problems with Blogger over the last few days, but they should be fixed now, and my ever-so-insightful posts from the last several days should be available for your browsing pleasure :).

The first orchestra rehearsal of the term was this evening. We’re playing some Dvorak dances (I don’t think the conductor has decided on which one), a piano concerto, and Schumann’s Symphony No. 4. I have a particular fondness for this last piece, as it was the first major challenging work I played in the OAYO youth symphony back in sophomore year of high school. I remember that the idea of playing a 30 minute piece was rather overwhelming at the time, and the fact that those 30 minutes were filled with an awful lot of notes didn’t make things any easier. That said, that particular OAYO concert was also one of the most exciting musical experience of my life. After spending so much time practicing the thing, the thrill of a good performance was exhilarating. I suppose it didn’t hurt either that the bombastic conclusion brought the audience (admittedly comprised of enthusiastic parents) to their feet. I’m not really expecting any life changing musical experiences the second time around, but I’ve come to love the piece, and I would very much like to do it justice.

In other news, I survived my first day of classes for the term! I’ll post more in this vein sometime later in the week.