Concert review: "Jazz legends: Arturo Sandoval"
The legendary Cuban expatriate trumpeter Arturo Sandoval begins his concert with one of his signature tunes, "Tunisia lues." "Tunisia lues" starts off with a swinging, lazy casual sound of a trumpet. Sandoval does not interact with the audience, introduce the piece, or tell the audience a bit about his biography and band members. He simply 'digs right in' to the music. The tone is casual and confident, that of a master at the top of his musical game. Sandoval is dressed casually in a blazer and a brightly colored shirt. He does not seem nervous or particularly desirous of interacting with the audience. He simply allows the music to 'just be.'
"Tunisia lues" has an extended trumpet solo that immediately generates the listener's attention and satisfies the audience's desire to hear Sandoval's virtuosity. The early sounds entice the listener in slowly and suddenly there is a…...
mlaBibliography
Gullard, Marie. "Sandoval remembers Dizzy." The Washington Examiner.
May 2012. [21 May 2012] http://washingtonexaminer.com/entertainment/music/2012/05/sandoval-remembers-dizzy-blues-alley/600951
"Jazz legends: Arturo Sandoval." You Tube. [21 May 2012]
Concert eview
The Asphalt Orchestra is a band with 12 musicians who play brass (horns of all kinds), woodwind (flutes and clarinets), and percussion (drums, cymbals) instruments. The musicians are very talented and the music they play makes the people listening very happy. But more than that, the main thing about the Asphalt Orchestra gets right up next to their audience. They took the word "asphalt" for their name because that is often where they play -- on the street and weaving in and out of the crowds of people listening to them. Asphalt Orchestra is a "street band" that parades around while having as much fun and creating as much sound as a marching band at half-time. And they are really, really good musicians -- it is hard to walk around through crowds and play great music at the same time.
The band has not been together for a long time.…...
mlaReferences
Asphalt Orchestra. (2011) iTunes Preview. Available at / album/asphalt-orchestra/id411958953http://iTunes.apple.com/us
Frisicano A. (2009) 2011 Bang on a Can Marathon, Bang on a Can. Available at http://www.brooklynvegan.com/tag/Asphalt+Orchestra
Langhoff J (2011) Pop Matters. Available at http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/138568-asphalt-orchestra-asphalt-orchestra
Stearns DP 2009 Asphalt Orchestra. Available at http://asphaltorchestra.com/
Concert eview
The Philadelphia Inquirer warned that Asphalt Orchestra is "not your mother's marching band" (www.asphaltorchestra.com). Those who entered Keene State College's edfern Arts Center on the evening of October 5, 2011, were in for a surprise if they had hoped to hear "Louie, Louie" or other high school halftime standards. From the opening notes, it was clear Asphalt Orchestra was on stage to bring innovative musical entertainment to an enthusiastic and mostly college-aged crowd.
Asphalt Orchestra is a 12-member ensemble of brass, woodwind and percussion players. All are excellent musicians who can coax weird and wonderful melodies and sounds from their respective instruments. The musicians hail from diverse backgrounds, including rock, jazz and classical, and come together in a street band that has no contemporary rival. The band made its debut over a series of performances at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival in New York over the summers of…...
mlaReference
Stearns, D.P. 2009, Asphalt Orchestra [online] available at http://asphaltorchestra.com/
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The Cure at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, November 21st, 2011:
ndie-goth hitmakers of the 1980s, the Cure are still out there touring. And they took their act through the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood this past month. On a Monday night, the U.K. natives showed that they are not only still a relevant band but they are a force to be reckoned with. n a show that topped out at over three hours and more than 40 tunes, lead singer Robert Smith and a gradually expanding band offered nothing short of a history of the Cure's evolution.
n sequence, the band played the first three albums; Three maginary Boys (1979), Seventeen Seconds (1980) and Faith (1981). With the performance of each album, the trio became a quartet and thereafter a quintet. The addition of one keyboard and then another helped to represent the layers of progress experienced by the band during its…...
mlaIndie-goth hitmakers of the 1980s, the Cure are still out there touring. And they took their act through the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood this past month. On a Monday night, the U.K. natives showed that they are not only still a relevant band but they are a force to be reckoned with. In a show that topped out at over three hours and more than 40 tunes, lead singer Robert Smith and a gradually expanding band offered nothing short of a history of the Cure's evolution.
In sequence, the band played the first three albums; Three Imaginary Boys (1979), Seventeen Seconds (1980) and Faith (1981). With the performance of each album, the trio became a quartet and thereafter a quintet. The addition of one keyboard and then another helped to represent the layers of progress experienced by the band during its own historical evolution. With each tune, the Cure was at its spiky and despairing best. Indeed, the reflection on its earliest recordings demonstrated that the band still has the energy and vitality to play to its punky roots. Tunes like "Fire in Cairo," "Accuracy" and its fiery take on Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady" found the band in tremendous form.
To be sure, Robert Smith is a little plumb and could really use a haircut and conditioner. But his spooky, strangled falsetto lilt is unchanged from the band's earliest recordings, now three decades old. It is also of note that in spite of the band's reputation for doom and gloom, they really do appear to be enjoying themselves on stage. And in Hollywood on this particular night, they played albums from when they were younger with all of the joy and abandon of kids.
Concert Review
The type and program of events was Lang, the pianist, who was performing live at Carnegie Hall, Chicago on Sunday, April 04, 2004 at 3:00 PM. The only performer was that of Lang at his piano. Lang's program began with Schumann's "Abegg Variations." This resulted in the performance commencing with a rather somber note, in contrast to the following Baroque Haydn's more bracing "Sonata in C Major." The latter may have been a better beginning choice to arrest the slightly sleepy Sunday afternoon audience's attention, still groggy perhaps from brunch and the early spring sunlight.
These two pieces were followed by Schubert's "Wanderer Fantasy," a delightful and multifaceted composition with many switches and tone, and Lang's newfound hold on the audience continued with a piece a completely different place, time, and composer, namely that of Tan Dun's "Eight Memories in Watercolor." This was a more sparse piece to the ear…...
Schumann's "Cello Concerto in a Minor, Op. 129" illustrates this principle. There are three movements of the piece, all of which are quite distinct, but there are none of the showy, distinctive shifts as distinguished the Hayden works. The music is lyric and tonal in quality like the Hayden, but there is a searching, introspective quality that the Hayden lacks. As is evident in the title, the voice of the cello dominates the work, and the focus on the string instruments gives the work a kind of delicacy and nuance which forces the listener to literally hang on to every note. At times, the instruments have almost a human quality, as they engage in a back-and-forth exchange or conversation throughout the piece, with the cello providing the rhythm and the other instruments exploring the themes introduced by the cello soloist.
The Classical and Romantic era works were in stark contrast…...
Rachmaninoff's symphonic poem sounds somber and fatalistic: gradually, the themes of the dirge-like opening trudge onward, creating an almost unbearable buildup of tension. Stringed instruments set the ears of the listeners on edge as they hum on, like a warning -- making the climax of the buildup all the more starling.
Shostakovich's Symphony No. 10 in E minor, Opus 93 takes the form of four distinct movements. Each movement -- the first slow and lyrical, the second swifter and more playful, the third almost bracing in its quickness, and the fourth brooding and darker -- can seem complete in and of itself, but listened to as a whole unit, Symphony No.10 conveys the full range of human emotions, from hopeful and carefree to utter despair. The performance courageously shows all of these shades of emotion, without trying to soften Shostakovich's sense of darkness and ambiguity regarding the themes he raises,…...
Part 3 - Piano Concerto #2 in G minor, Op. 22 -- Camille aint-aens (1868) -- This work is said to be aint-aens' most popular piano concerto; premiered with the composer as the soloist and Anton Rubinstein conducting. aint-aens wrote it in 3 weeks, and it is scored for a classical orchestra (1 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, cymbals and strings). More of a homage to Beethoven and Mozart, the work has three movements, but with a small twist on the tempo of the work. Typically, classical three movement sonata form is fast, slow, then very fast. In this case, aint-aens opens the piece with a melody that is in the style of Bach, but much more chromatic and harmonic than a baroque concerto. The basic them is introduced by the piano, and then taken up by the orchestra. The piece is lively,…...
mlaSources:
Adorno, T. (1996). Mahler: A Musical Physiognomy. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Keefe, S. (2004). The Cambridge Companion to the Concerto. Cambridge: Cambridge
Gault, D. (2011). The New Bruckner. Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing.
Korstvedt, B. (2004). Aspects of Bruckner's approach to Symphonic form. In John Williamson,
The fugues in particular, which are at once incredibly regular and mechanical in their construction -- scholars have noted the clean lines the many notes form on the printed page, for example -- yet achingly beautiful and religiously passionate embody many of the concepts of the Bauhaus philosophy and culture (Williams, 2007; James, 2006; Weber, 2009). With the newer orchestrations of Bach's works by these Bauhaus-affiliated composers, and with Feininger's own Bach-inspired fugue thrown in for good measure, the trajectory and relation of Bach's music to the Bauhaus school actually becomes quite clear, though the resultant sound is not necessarily the most impressive.
The Concert
All of the preparatory research completed before the concert definitely added to the anticipation this reviewer felt when leafing through the program and reading the extensive concert notes provided. The size of the hall and the crowd that filled it was somewhat intimidating, and added to…...
mlaReferences
James, K. (2006). Bauhaus Culture. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
Stapert, C. (2010) J.S. Bach. New York: Lion.
Weber, N. (2009). The Bauhaus Group. New York: Knopf.
Williams, P. (2007) J.S. Bach: A Life in Music. New York: Cambridge University Press.
This was particularly true with the masterful oboe and bassoon dialog and the grand finale -- more than hinting with classical harmony of the structure and order of the Viennese universe.
Harbison -- Another short and enjoyable piece, masterfully done featuring the HSO's brass section. This is brass playing of the highest degree -- perfect pitch, blended coloration, interesting harmonic structures, and, after the Mozart finale, one is forced to think, "how far we've come in combining harmony and structure." I am not quite sure this is evocative of a Houston landmark, but it is evocative of the power of music to celebrate and rejoice.
Poulenc -- Being a fan of the Mozart and Verdi Requiem Masses, the Poulenc takes one's breath away in its truly celestial harmonization. I sometimes wonder why composers put a soprano voice into their word (e.g. Mahler), it seems as if it is just a way…...
mla
Introduction
This paper will briefly review the opening night concerts/performances hosted on September 17, 2016, beginning 7.30 pm, by the Houston Symphony Orchestra at the Jones Hall, Houston, Texas (more precisely, the Jesse H. Jones Hall for the Performing Arts). The concert was conducted by Andrés Orozco-Estrada, the Houston Symphony’s music director. The performance venue is the Orchestra’s as well as the Houston Society for the Performing Arts’ permanent home (Houston Symphony).
Review of Sergei Prokofiev's "Peter and the Wolf"
The spectacular musical story by Prokofiev, performed by the Orchestra, features a valiant young boy, Peter, who aids his friends -- the animal of the forest -- outwit a predator. The Orchestra accompanies Sir Ben Kingsley, the famed Oscar-winner, who brings the tale to life as narrator, through a mesmerizing rendition. All characters possess musical alter egos, and the Orchestra's many instruments are used to represent Peter's animal friends. First written and composed…...
Bocklin painted numerous versions of Isle, but it is Rachmaninoff's dirgelike vision of the rowing motif, the Dies Irae of the Latin mass, that remains as constant. and, in typical Rachmaninoff fashion, the BO is perfect for the piece with its sweeping tonality, clashes of chromaticism, and simple theme, yet complex underpinnings.
travinsky studied under the great Russian pedagogue and master of the tone poem, Rimsky-Korsakoff. This is nowhere near as obvious as listening to the harmonization and almost studied use of the different sections of the orchestra in their technical glory. Indeed, the opening of the cherzo fantastique almost sounds as if a younger Rimsky-Korsakoff added on to cheherazade or Tsar ultan. Comic and tragic both, every instrument scored is left out to "sink or swim" and is exposed in the delightful character of the piece.
The story of hostakovich's ymphony #10, is quite different. Fighting for decades with the…...
mlaStravinsky studied under the great Russian pedagogue and master of the tone poem, Rimsky-Korsakoff. This is nowhere near as obvious as listening to the harmonization and almost studied use of the different sections of the orchestra in their technical glory. Indeed, the opening of the Scherzo fantastique almost sounds as if a younger Rimsky-Korsakoff added on to Scheherazade or Tsar Sultan. Comic and tragic both, every instrument scored is left out to "sink or swim" and is exposed in the delightful character of the piece.
The story of Shostakovich's Symphony #10, is quite different. Fighting for decades with the whims of Josef Stalin, Shostakovich was at times in favor, at times out of favor, depending on the whim of the Party and whether they thought his music valuable to the people. When Stalin died in March 1953, a collective sigh of relief was heard throughout the artistic community in the Soviet Union. Only four months after being intellectually free from Stalin, Shostakovich began work on this 10th symphony. By October he was finished, producing what many called the first major work of the post-Stalinist era. Rather than the preferred program music, the 10th is a personal outcry from Shostakovich for a more enlightened sense of individualism. Not broody, not triumphant, but, like many works that remain true to the repertoire, Shostakovich's 10th is a mature composer looking back, and at the same time forward.
The BSO is a pinnacle of sound, musical shape, and stunning timbre. Some find their sound too bombastic, but this reviewer would disagree, pointing to the slower, more intimate movements of the Shostakovich and the quite passages in the Rachmaninoff as proof at just what a virtuoso ensemble it remains. Truly, an American cultural treasure, laying back and having the music pour over one simply makes us long for more.
The transportation began as the first notes were played, and throughout the piece the crowd remained entirely enraptured -- and rightfully so. It is by no means an accident that this piece is as respected or as cherished as it is, and the fact that Handel's work had been re-arranged from the original to include a full modern orchestra did not detract from or degrade the original beauty or clarity of the piece in the slightest. Though it would be impossible to compare the original arrangement of the Messiah to the one played in concert that night without hearing them both in the same hall, and with the same basic surrounding of such a rapt and appreciative audience, one might even go so far as to say that the piece is dramatically improved by the larger and fuller sound that the orchestra provides.
The singing was also quite powerful and…...
mlaReferences
Burrows, D. (1991). Handel, Messiah. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lang, P. (1996). George Frideric Handel. Mineola, NY: Dover.
Luckett, R. (1995). Handel's Messiah: A Celebration. San Diego, CA: Harcourt.
Stapert, C. (2010). Handel's Messiah: Comfort for God's People. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm.
Jazz Performance eview
The author of this report has been asked to take in a jazz show and offer some information and opinion about it. The venue and artists involved will be named. There will also be other questions answered like whether the music was moving to the author, whether it was accessible or "far out," whether it was emotional or cerebral and whether the author liked the music or not. Overall, the performance taken in was very positive and high-energy and the author was not remotely disappointed. While jazz is not embraced or loved by everyone, the author of this report holds it to be a great musical form and one that all people should at least try to glom onto if they're seeking enrichment and entertainment.
Performance Information
Before getting into the reactions to the performance, the author will explain the details about the show. The name of the venue was…...
mlaReferences
NPS. (2016). A New Orleans Jazz History, 1895-1927 - New Orleans Jazz National Historical
Park (U.S. National Park Service). NPS.gov. Retrieved 21 January 2016, from http://www.nps.gov/jazz/learn/historyculture/jazz_history.htm
One of the concerts attended for this assignment took place over Thanksgiving weekend. It was entitled, suitably enough, A Mozart Thanksgiving. It featured the work of Jeffrey Kahane, who both conducted and played the piano. The concert was held over a three-day period beginning on November 25 and concluding on the 27th of November. The concert took place in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday at Jones Hall for each of the aforementioned dates. The author of this document attended the concert on November 25. It featured approximately three hours' worth of music, although this time period included an intermission as well. The majority of the music played was classical music. Specifically, the audience was treated to renditions of "Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor," "Symphony No. 38 in D Major," and "Piano Concerto No. 21 in C Major." The venue was fairly spacious and well-attended. The acoustics were credible…...
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