Steven Douglas Maloney

Archive for the ‘Classical Music’ Category

This time at the Minnesota Orchestra!! Program notes here.

I’m going to see Joshua Bell play Barber’s Violin Concerto with Minnesota Orchestra on Thursday.   I like to be familiar with pieces before I go to hear them, so I went to download the piece.  I didn’t see a Bell recording, but there was on by Hilary Hahn who is Baltimore trained, world class, and was essentially traded by her record company for Joshua Bell.   I’ve listened to the piece twice, and then I noticed something funny about the recording on my playlist.  It is not just Hilary Hahn instead of Joshua Bell, it is Hilary Hahn and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.  Strictly speaking, Hahn and Bell are not really rival performers, and the MO and the SPCO are not either… but I found it a strange coincidence that I was preparing to listen to a concert by listening to recording by the colleagues that both the soloist and the group are probably compared with most frequently.  The nice thing about the rivalry is that, in the end, all four parties presumably  got a share of my money, and they are all good value for it.

Here’s the most unconventional inauguration day post you’ll probably read.  I was absolutely thrilled to see the performance of the John Williams arrangement.  When Senator Feinstein was reading the performers names for the piece, Itzhak Perlman (of course), Yo Yo Ma (do they get any more famous), Anthony McGill (don’t know him, but I don’t know ANY clarinet players), and Gabriela Montero… wait - Gabriela Montero?   I saw her in Nashville last year and I had the pleasure of being last in line for autographs during the intermission for the show.  I got to spend four or five minutes talking with her and it was very strange to see her at the inauguration.

I’m listening to Dvorak’s 9th Symphony.  Some thoughts on musical borrowing come to mind.  

• large parts of this piece sound an awful lot like Beethoven’s 9th.
• certain movements of this piece are familiar to me as part of James Horner’s Star Trek music scores (also heavily influenced by Britten’s Four Sea Interludes from Frank Grimes, and Vaughan William’ Sea Symphony I would gather.)
• the beginning of John Williams’ “Duel of the Fates” sounds an awful lot like the beginning of the third movement.  

Handel’s “Messiah”! Joshua Bell! “Missa Solemnis”!  Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Project!  Steven’s new Minnesota Orchestra Season ticket package has been confirmed!  Oh, and in case you thought I had forgot:

It is 199 days, 16 hours, 2 minutes and 20 seconds until the Leila Josefowicz show, and I have tickets!  She will be playing this:

In nine minutes, we will be 321 days from my next Leila Josefowicz concert! Here’s a little taste of what it will be like:

I really hope so, I love the Scheherezade.  Here’s a clip of it from youtube, be amazed by the performance of the young soloist!

Beat ! Beat ! drums !—blow ! bugles ! blow !
Through the windows—through the doors—burst like a ruthless force,
Into the solemn church, and scatter the congregation,
Into the school where the scholar is studying;
Leave not the bridegroom quiet—no happiness must he have now with his bride,
Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing his field, or gathering in his grain,
So fierce you whirr and pound you drums—so shrill you bugles blow.
Beat ! Beat ! drums !—blow ! bugles ! blow !
Over the traffic of cities—over the rumble of wheels in the streets;
Are beds prepared for the sleepers at night in the houses?
No sleepers must sleep in those beds,
No bargainers’ bargains by day—would they continue?
Would the talkers be talking? would the singer attempt to sing?
Then rattle quicker, heavier drums—you bugles wilder blow.
Beat ! Beat ! drums !—blow ! bugles ! blow !
Make no parley—stop for no expostulation,
Mind not the timid—mind not the weeper or prayer,
Mind not the old man beseeching the young man,
Let not the child’s voice be heard, nor the mother’s entreaties,
Make even the trestles to shake the dead where they lie awaiting the hearses,
So strong you thump O terrible drums—so loud you bugles blow.

Walt Whitman
(Second Movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams’ Dona Nobis Pacem)

I expressed some disappointment that WGMS in DC had given its classical library to a public station, WETA.   However, I am currently listening to  the Saturday Metropolitan opera program, and it’s fantastic!  Right now, they are at intermission in Madame Butterfly, and they are interviewing director Anthony Minghella, and performers Cristina Gallardo-Domâs, and Maria Zifchak talking about the production of   the Opera, and talking with opera critics about what is working about the performance.  It’s a great, great program. 

It seems like only yesterday that the Leila Watch was at 108 days.  Well, turns out that it wasn’t yesterday, but was, in fact, 95 days ago.  Now, here we are, a ere 13 days away from the glorious violin aweosmeness that is Leila Josefowicz.  I got orcestra view seats for Christmas, and I will not lie, I believe it will prove to be one of the all-time great Christmas presents in Steve Maloney history.