Sunday, May 31, 2009

Fred & Elmar

There was a great conversation on stage Saturday night, as the host of Performance Today Fred Child (right) spoke with the soloist for the San Antonio Symphony, violinist Elmar Oliveira (left) before the concert. It marked the end of the 2008-09 season at the Majestic Theater.
Be sure to check out the new season - 70th! and also relive some moments of the San Antonio Symphony's 69th season on KPAC & KTXI starting in July.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Conductors over the summer

Lots of things going on this summer, including some of our San Antonio Symphony music director candidates...
On July 21st, Napa Valley Festival del Sole, one of the world's most distinctive summer festivals, presents a unique evening of exquisite music, food and wine. A portion of the proceeds from the evening benefit the Redford Center, a year-round haven for independent thinking, inspired creativity and social change, located in the Bay Area.
The benefit evening starts off with a concert at Castello di Amorosa, Dario Sattui's dramatic medieval-style Tuscan castle and winery at 6:30pm. The concert features Antonio Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons,' performed by 14-year old wunderkind violinist Chad Hoopes and the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas under the baton of Alondra de la Parra. Robert Redford takes the stage to narrate the four sonnets Vivaldi wrote to accompany this much-loved work.
After the concert, artists and patrons are treated to dinner under the stars with Agustin and Valeria Huneeus at their home on the grounds of Quintessa winery. Their beautiful Rutherford estate includes a lake, a river, five mountains and 170 acres planted to classic Bordeaux grape varieties. The evening's menu showcases the finest in organic and local ingredients, and includes seasonal fruits and vegetables from Quintessa's gardens. The featured wines will be the 2008 Illumination Sauvignon Blanc and the classic 2006 Quintessa.
The pre-concert luncheon will be held at HALL Napa Valley and hosted by former US ambassador to Austria Kathryn Hall and her husband, investor Craig Hall. This luncheon features innovative seasonal cuisine representing the four seasons paired with three of HALL's fine wines: the 2008 HALL Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc, 2008 HALL Napa Valley Rose and 2008 HALL Darwin Red.
Also, just down the road at the ROUND TOP INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL, Saturday, June 27, at 8:00 pm in the Festival Concert Hall, you can hear Johannes Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Haydn and Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 4 with the Texas Festival Orchestra and conductor Christoph Campestrini (seen left with host John Clare).
Then Saturday, July 4,at 8:00 pm in Festival Concert Hall, hear Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 and Bela Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra with the Texas Festival Orchestra and conductor Jean-Marie Zeitouni.
See the all of the music director candidates in video interviews here, and be sure to catch the San Antonio Symphony this weekend in Strauss, Mendelssohn, and Mussorgsky! Several of the candidates return for the 2009-10 season, watch for more here.

Monday, May 25, 2009

SOLI gone mad: Picture this

SOLI Chamber Ensemble rehearsing at Ruth Taylor Recital hall last week:L to R: True, Mollenauer, Key, Garza, TorgulDavid Mollenauer and Stephanie Key.
Ertan Torgul, Allison Garza, Stephanie Key and Carolyn True.Part for Peter Maxwell Davies' Eight Songs for a Mad King.
SOLI goes Mad takes place tomorrow and Wednesday night, at Ruth Taylor Recital Hall and the McNay Art Museum. On the program is Michael Torke's After the Forest Fire, Jennifer Higdon's Dash, and Peter Maxwell Davies' Eight Songs for a Mad King.
Photos by Host John Clare

Friday, May 22, 2009

Spotlight on SOLI gone mad

This next week, it's the San Antonio premiere of Peter Maxwell Davies' 8 Songs for a Mad King. SOLI Chamber Ensemble also presents music by Jennifer Higdon and Michael Torke.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

SOLI gone mad: Webisode 1

SOLI Chamber Ensemble plays music by Jennifer Higdon, Michael Torke and Peter Maxwell Davies this next week. Tuesday night you can hear them at Ruth Taylor Recital Hall at 7:30 and Wednesday they present "SOLI gone mad!" at the McNay Art Museum at 7:30pm.
Recently host John Clare caught up with the ensemble rehearsing, see the video:

You can also hear an interview with composers Higdon and Torke with Clare on the Classical Spotlight page here.

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Picturing Leif

"Modest Mussorgsky's famous suite ‘Pictures at an Exhibition’ of 1874 is one of the most demanding pieces for solo piano. It proved so experimental that, over the years, hundreds of artists have taken the work as a starting point for new interpretations. Robin Rhode and I have joined forces and embarked on our journey – a new approach ... It’s an amazing adventure, and not without risks, but hopefully they are risks worth taking.” – Leif Ove Andsnes

Listen to an interview of Leif Ove Andsnes and host John Clare here about this project as well as his latest release. [mp3 file]

Leif Ove Andsnes embarks on a major project that marks a new departure for the internationally acclaimed pianist and exclusive EMI Classics artist. Together with South African-born visual artist Robin Rhode he has created a special program entitled “Pictures Reframed,” which centers around Mussorgsky’s epic piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition and combines music, film and still imagery. EMI Classics will release the project on both DVD and CD in fall 2009 and the world premiere takes place on November 13 (with a second performance on November 14) at New York’s Lincoln Center (Alice Tully Hall), followed by live performances in the United States and throughout Europe during November and December. StatoilHydro is the project’s commissioning sponsor and New York’s Lincoln Center is the commissioning arts institution.
Leif Ove Andsnes is usually alone and center stage in recital; however, for “Pictures Reframed” he will be flanked by an installation of five screens that will surround the piano, evoking a room within an exhibition. “There are pieces of music where you feel everything’s there, everything is said,” comments Andsnes. “Pictures at an Exhibition, however, is the opposite, making it a perfect composition to experiment with, since Mussorgsky’s music is incredibly strong but also very open and experimental. The main thing isn’t the notes themselves, but the composer’s grand vision. For me, therefore, the original version of the work remains almost as a sketch that is open for transformations and changes. You have this wild narrative of a person walking into an exhibition and he crashes into the first picture and is faced with various strong images and textures. Later in the cycle he becomes a part of the picture and it takes on so many aspects. It’s psychologically challenging.”
Leif Ove Andsnes and Robin Rhode share a fascination for Pictures at an Exhibition. Rhode had already been experimenting with images based on Mussorgsky’s work, and his 2008 digital animation “Promenade” has become the opening sequence for “Pictures Reframed”. With its colorful and constantly changing interplay between actor and drawing, it sets the scene fittingly for the musical narrative to follow. “I have always worked very closely with music,” Rhode says, “playing with the notion of rhythm and sound. This new project is not, therefore, so distant from my regular practice, although classical music has such an intense history and that will be a difficult challenge.”
Robin Rhode and Leif Ove Andsnes met for the first time in Munich in September 2007 and ideas for the program have been evolving ever since, moving from piano to studio and back to piano. One of their early meetings took place in a derelict Berlin factory where Rhode started to draw on a bare wall – a backdrop that is often featured in his work, stemming from his introduction to art on the streets of Johannesburg. As Rhode embellished the imaginary instrument, Andsnes stepped forward to perform on it, bringing another dimension to Rhode’s playful and often illusionary work.
Recently their adventure took them to Bergen where Andsnes performed in a disused shipyard as water rushed in. How a flooded piano (the same instrument that Leif Ove had previously played on top of a mountain, an image of which was used to promote his Grieg anniversary release) brings their collaboration to a climax will be revealed this fall as music and art converge on stage.
In addition to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, “Pictures Reframed” will include Andsnes playing Schumann’s Kinderszenen and a new commission by Austrian composer Thomas Larcher, with whom Andsnes and Rhode have both worked in the past.
EMI Classics will release a special luxury collector's edition of “Pictures Reframed”. It will include a DVD and CD packaged together in an exhibition-catalogue-style hardback book with a wide selection of images from the creation and final performance version of the project. In addition, EMI will release a standard CD of a studio recording of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and other solo piano works by Mussorgsky, coupled with Schumann’s Kinderszenen.
Robin Rhode's new solo exhibition in the U.S., entitled “Catch Air”, opened at the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus, Ohio on 2nd April and runs until 26 July. He will also have a large-scale solo exhibition of new work at the Perry Rubenstein Gallery in New York during November 2009, in conjunction with the world premiere of “Pictures Reframed” at Lincoln Center on 13 November.
Norwegian TV (NRK) will film a preview performance of “Pictures Reframed” in Norway this summer, to be broadcast in the fall together with a documentary about the making of the project. The documentary will be syndicated for worldwide broadcast.

Tour dates for “Pictures Reframed” 2009
13 & 14 November: Premiere at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York
16 November: Calgary, Jack Singer Concert Hall
18 November: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
20 November: Washington, Terrace Theatre, Kennedy Center
22 November: Houston, Cullen Hall (matinee concert)
24 November: Brussels, Palais des Beaux–Arts
27 November: Moscow, Tchaikovsky Hall
29 November: Stockholm, Konserthuset
1 December: Hamburg, Kampnagel
2 December: Munich, Prinzregententheater Theater
4 December: London, Queen Elizabeth Hall (2 concerts)
7 December: Naples, venue tbc
9 December: Berlin, Radial System (2 concerts)
11 December: Paris, Theatre des Champs-Elysées
13 December: Copenhagen, Koncerthuset
17 December: Stavanger, Concert Hall
18 December: Oslo, Concert Hall
20 December: Cologne, Philharmonie
2010
16 March: Beijing
29 March: Abu Dhabi

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Classical Spotlight: Native American Flute

Recently flutist Gary Stroutsos stopped by the TPR Studios to talk about his San Fernando Cathedral performance. He spoke with Host John Clare and played a selection.

Listen to Classical Spotlight, Thursday afternoons @ 2pm on KPAC & KTXI.

Artist Interview: Sharon Isbin

The latest from guitarist Sharon Isbin is a release called Journey to the New World. Besides her own arrangements, she is joined by guest artists Joan Baez and Mark O'Connor. Host John Clare had a chance to speak with Isbin about the new release.
Listen to the interview here. (mp3 file)
Be sure to listen to Classical Spotlight Thursday afternoons for more great artist insights, and check out our weekly podcasts here.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Artist Interview: Leif Ove Andsnes

The latest release by Leif Ove Andsnes is music by Dalbavie, Lutoslawski, Kurtag and Sorenson. The disc includes two concerti and solo piano music. Host John Clare spoke with Andsnes about the music and upcoming projects.
Listen to the interview here (mp3 file).

Andsnes presents a new project with Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition this fall.

Far from goldbricking!

Welsh harpist Catrin Finch makes her Detusche Grammophon solo recording debut with her own arrangement of Bach’s masterpiece for keyboard, The Goldberg Variations – arguably the most challenging project of her career. The album will be available exclusively from iTunes on May 26 and receive complete distribution on June 23, 2009.
Catrin’s meteoric rise to fame includes being named the Royal Harpist to H.R.H. The Prince of Wales from 2000 through 2004. This honored position was last held in 1873, making the appointment a truly momentous occasion for the young harpist (she was still at the Royal Academy of Music at the time). “When I re-established the ancient tradition of appointing a harpist to the Prince of Wales, little did I imagine that I would find someone with such a rare and special talent as Catrin” – H.R.H The Price of Wales
Since then, Catrin has traveled the world and worked tirelessly to expand not only the popularity of this ancient instrument but also the repertory. This was the motivation that resulted with her meticulously transcribing Bach’s monumental work, a process that took a year to complete. Though excerpts have been performed before, this is the first recording to feature the complete Goldberg Variations arranged for harp. “My hope is that my Goldberg Variations for the harp will come to occupy a respected place in the harp’s core repertoire, as always happens to good arrangements,” according to Catrin. “I hope they will be accepted by the doubters, by people who say they weren’t expecting to enjoy it, but did. I’m also doing it for my own pleasure – I’ve learned most of the harp repertoire, and my way forward is always to learn new pieces. Bach is one of my favorite composers, and the only way I can play more of him is by putting him onto my instrument.”
Catrin’s virtuoso talent is more than equal to the challenge Bach presents – a challenge that many pianists cannot even surmount. With intricate fingerings and the complexly chromatic 25th variation, there is no shortage of awe-inspiring technical brilliance in Catrin’s performance. She is just as comfortable with the subtle shadings and lyrical moments which allow her harp to sing and resonate in a manner many pianists would surely envy.
“With one touch of the strings – the opening notes of the Bach – Ms. Finch pulverized the stereotype of harpists as pretty, angelic strummers, blowing it away with a big, strong sound.” – The New York Times on a performance of Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D minor

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

5 Browns have the answer

The Five Browns recently played in Kerrville - two concerts and an outreach program for youth & seniors. Part of the outreach featured the siblings taking questions from the audience...this is what they were asked:

You can hear the Five Browns in concert at the Callioux Theater in Kerrville for KPAS this Sunday afternoon, May 17th at noon on KPAC & KTXI.

Alamo composer gets award!

ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) honored the composers and songwriters of the top box office film music and the most performed television music of 2008 at its 24th annual Film and Television Music Awards gala, held May 11th at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles, California.

A highlight of the event was the presentation of ASCAP's Henry Mancini Award to composer Carter Burwell in recognition of his outstanding achievements and contributions to the world of film music. Burwell has scored many of the most emblematic films of the past 25 years, working with such innovative directors as Todd Haynes ("Velvet Goldmine"), David Mamet ("The Spanish Prisoner"), Spike Jonze ("Being John Malkovich," "Adaptation"), John Lee Hancock ("The Alamo," "The Rookie"), and, especially Joel and Ethan Coen, the team he has been most identified with since "Blood Simple" in 1984, the first feature film for all three.

To mark this special occasion, the Coen Brothers, Jonze and Hancock sent congratulatory video messages, and directors Bill Condon ("Gods and Monsters," 'Kinsey") and Catherine Hardwicke ("Twilight") co-presented the award to Burwell along with ASCAP President and Chairman Paul Williams and ASCAP CEO John LoFrumento. Burwell also received an award in the Top Box Office Films category for his score to Hardwicke's vampire romance "Twilight."

Previous ASCAP Henry Mancini Award recipients include John Debney, Mark Isham, Quincy Jones, Michel Legrand, Randy Newman, James Newton Howard, Johnny Mandel, Marc Shaiman, Howard Shore, Alan Silvestri and Hans Zimmer, among others.

ASCAP Board members Richard Bellis, Bruce Broughton and Dan Foliart, and ASCAP executives Randall Grimmett, Nancy Knutsen, Shawn LeMone, Sue Devine, and Mike Todd presented awards to the composers and songwriters of the most performed film and television music of 2008.

ASCAP composers and songwriters whose combined works earned the highest number of performance credits on network, local, and cable television in the category of themes and dramatic underscore for the 2008 survey year were Joel Beckerman, Jeff Cardoni, Matthew Gerrard, John Keane, Jeff Lippencott, Robbie Nevil, David Vanacore, Mark T Williams, and Adam Zelkind.

Two huge Disney films – "High School Musical 3: Senior Year" and "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert" – were filled with music written by ASCAP composers and songwriters. Honorees for "High School Musical" included David Lawrence who provided the score, and Adam Anders, Nikki Hassman, Theodore Thomas, Theron Thomas, andTimothy Thomas who contributed songs for the third installment of the successful film franchise. Those honored for "Hannah Montana & Miley Cyrus" were Michael Bradford, Scott Cutler, Tamara Dunn, Ken Hauptman, Jay Landers, Jeannie Lurie, Holly Mathis, Steve Robson, and Matthew Wilder. And, those receiving awards for their musical contributions to both films were Antonina Armato, Andrew Dodd, Matthew Gerrard, Jamie Houston, Robbie Nevil, and Adam Watts.

Also honored in the Top Box Office Films category were John Powell for his scores to "Bolt," "Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears a Who!," "Hancock," "Jumper," and "Kung Fu Panda;" past ASCAP Henry Mancini Award honorees Hans Zimmer ("The Dark Knight," "Kung Fu Panda," "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa"); James Newton Howard ("The Dark Knight," "The Happening"); and John Debney ("The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor"); as well as Craig Armstrong ("The Incredible Hulk"); Jon Brion ("Step Brothers"); Ramin Djawadi ("Iron Man"); Kyle Eastwood and Michael Stevens ("Gran Torino"); Mark Everett ("Yes Man"); Michael Giacchino ("Cloverfield"); James Horner("The Spiderwick Chronicles"); Angelo Milli ("Seven Pounds"); Atli Örvarsson ("Vantage Point"); Heitor Pereira ("Beverly Hills Chihuahua"); Jason Segel ("Forgetting Sarah Marshall"); and Brian Tyler ("Eagle Eye").

The night's winning composers and songwriters who wrote the themes and underscore for the highest rated television series in 2008 were: J.J. Abrams and Michael Giacchino ("Lost"); John Adair ("The Suite Life of Zack and Cody," "The Wizards of Waverly Place"); Will Anderson ("The Moment of Truth"); Lee Aronsohn and Grant Geissman ("Two and a Half Men"); Paul Bessenbacher ("The Suite Life of Zack and Cody"); Kenneth Burgomaster, Matthew Gerrard and Robbie Nevil("Hannah Montana"); Sean Callery ("Medium," "Bones"); David Carbonara, Edwin Hayes and Ramble Krohn("Mad Men"); Jeff Cardoni ("CSI: Miami"); Jemaine Clement and Bret McKenzie ("Flight of the Conchords"); Adam Cohen, Steve Franks and John Robert Wood ("Psych"); John E. Davis, Marc "Doc" Dauer and Liz Phair ("90210"); Catherine Dennis, Julian Gingell and Barry Stone ("American Idol"); John Dickson ("Burn Notice"); Marc Fantini, Steffan Fantini and Scott Gordon ("Army Wives," "Criminal Minds"); Matthew Hawkins, Maurice "M.O" Jackson and Neil Martin ("NCIS"); Reinhold Heil and Johnny Klimek ("Without a Trace"); Paul Hepker ("Deadliest Catch"); Ken Jordan ("Bones"); John Keane ("CSI"); Russ Landau ("Survivor: Gabon," "Survivor: Micronesia"); Brian Lapin ("Gossip Girl"); Michael Levine, Franz Vonlichten and Helmut Vonlichten ("Cold Case"); Jeff Lippencott and Mark T. Williams ("The Apprentice 7"); Steven Mazur, Tom Polce and Derek Schanche ("Rules of Engagement"); Bear McCreary ("Eureka"); Daniel McGrath and Josh Phillips("Dancing With The Stars"); Trevor Morris ("The Tudors"); Blake Neely ("Brothers & Sisters," "The Mentalist"); John Nordstrom ("One Tree Hill"); Wayne Rodrigues("The Hills"); Jeff Rona ("Brotherhood"); Elvin Ross ("House of Payne"); Erik "Everlast" Schrody("Saving Grace"); Brandon Thompson ("Ghost Hunters"); David Vanacore ("Ghost Hunters, " "The Apprentice 7," "Survivor: Gabon," "Survivor: Micronesia"); and Adam Zelkind ("Rock of Love 2").

In addition to the presenters and honorees in attendance, other notable guests included screenwriter/producer/director Brian Helgeland ("LA Confidential," "Mystic River"); television and film producer Mark Gordon ("Grey's Anatomy," "Saving Private Ryan"); Ginny Mancini; Alan Bergman; ASCAP Board Members Marilyn Bergman; Dean Kay (Lichelle Music Company) and David Renzer (Universal Music Publishing Group); and Neil Portnow (The Recording Academy).

Monday, May 11, 2009

Glass @ the Symphony

No, not THAT Glass...but glass glass.

Dale Chihuly, known for glass art designs and installations worldwide, has been appointed artist in association by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
The announcement last Friday coincides with release of the symphony's recording of Gustav Mahler's 8th Symphony with cover art by Chihuly. It's from a monoprint which he's donating to the orchestra, along with 88 lithographs of a related work, "Symphony Sisters."
A New York publicist for the symphony, Amelia Kusar, said she could find no other orchestra that has appointed a visual artist as an associate.
Chihuly, a native of Tacoma, has long worked with musical groups. He designed sets for a production of "Pelleas et Melisande" at the Seattle Opera in 1992 and produced 20-foot blown glass chandeliers for the symphony's Benaroya Hall, which was opened in 1998.

Coming to your computer soon

From the Wall Street Journal:
Technology entrepreneur Pierre Schwob thinks Bach and Beethoven haven't been given their due in the digital age.

Classical Archives, a new digital store focused exclusively on classical music, is Mr. Schwob's answer to mass-market digital retailers with "a complete lack of understanding of how classical music should be offered," down to the way they often categorize recordings. "It's basically a lack of respect when you say Bach is an 'artist,' not a composer," Mr. Schwob says.

For example, when online shoppers type "Beethoven" into iTunes, the top results they get back include a rock medley by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, an uncredited recording of "Für Elise" and individual movements culled from greatest hits collections. It's not that the music seller is skimping on the composer -- customers can find complete works by browsing deeper in the iTunes classical section -- it's just that his oeuvre doesn't fit neatly on the virtual shelves with that of Miley Cyrus and the Black Eyed Peas.


Check out the rest of the article here, and don't forget James Baker's lovely post here about "record stores."

Saturday, May 9, 2009

Osvaldo Golijov on Itinerarios


He’s a writer of songs. No, he writes for orchestra. No, Osvaldo Golijov writes music which dances with Latin American rhythms. What about the film scores, the cello concerto and his work as composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra? On this week’s edition of Itinerarios we will take an overview of the multi-cultural Osvaldo Golijov. Listen this Sunday evening at 7.

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Maestro Rossen Milanov

Texas Public Radio will speak with all the candidates for the San Antonio Symphony Music Director Search and have them on Classical Spotlight. You'll get a chance to learn more about the maestros - don't forget to attend the symphony and fill out the questionaire as well!

This week we talk with Rossen Milanov. John Clare asked about the program and music.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Five Browns in Kerrville

The Five Browns performed Monday and Tuesday in Kerrville. They spoke with John Clare, and also gave an outreach concert Tuesday morning, see some of it below!

You can hear their Tuesday night concert on KPAC & KTXI on Sunday, May 17th at 12 noon!

Monday, May 4, 2009

Composer Interview: Jake Heggie

Composer Jake Heggie was in residence last week at TLU in Seguin. Host John Clare sat down with Heggie in between rehearsals and learned more about the composer, including his start in composition, the new opera for Dallas Opera and coaching young singers & composers.

Listen for more insights with musicians on Classical Spotlight, every Thursday afternoon at 2pm on KPAC & KTXI.

Time for Lang Lang

The 2009 TIME 100
In the annual TIME 100 issue, they name the people who most affect our world...
#48 - Lang Lang
By Herbie Hancock
A couple of years ago I went to Disney Hall to hear the L.A. Philharmonic play Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and to hear the new phenomenon, Lang Lang. He sounded absolutely amazing. I got to meet him backstage, and he's so warm and funny. It took me by surprise, because I think of classical music as being so serious. Soon after that, we were performing together on the Grammys.


We're doing a tour together this summer, and one day he came over because we needed to make some decisions about Rhapsody in Blue. He started playing Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, and I started improvising on top of it, and we were having a grand old time. Lang, 26, has been playing the piano since he was 2 or 3 years old, and apparently he got turned on to it watching Tom and Jerry cartoons in China. When he's just messing around — which he does a lot — he'll play comic riffs that sound like they're from cartoon music. He's having fun.

But his playing is also so sensitive and so deeply human. He has started the Lang Lang International Music Foundation, dedicated to supporting young pianists around the world. You hear him play, and he never ceases to touch your heart. And he's fearless. He's not afraid to burst the bubble of false élitism. He'll wear a new kind of tux, with tennis shoes. That's cool.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Mahler tempo markings?

From a friend on Facebook, via David Pesetsky:
Rehearsal memo to the musicians of the Orchestra for the next rehearsal:

Several weeks ago, we sent you a list of translations of the German markings in the Mahler Symphony. We now realize that this list contained many serious errors. The following contains the correct versions. So we don't waste valuable rehearsal time on this, copy these corrections into your part immediately.

GERMAN - ENGLISH
Langsam - Slowly

Schleppend - Slowly

Dampfer auf - Slowly

Mit Dampfer - Slowly

Allmahlich in das Hauptzeitmass ubergehen - Do not look at the conductor

Im Anfang sehr gemaechlich - In intense inner torment

Alle Betonungen sehr zart - With more intense inner torment

Getheilt (geth.) - Out of tune

Von hier an in sehr allmaehl icher aber stetiger Steigerung bis zumZeichen - From this point on, the spit valves should be emptied with ever-increasing emotion

Hier ist ein frisches belebtes Zeitmass eingetreten - Slowly

Haupttempo - Slowly

Noch ein wenig beschleunigend - Slowing down but with a sense of speeding up

Immer noch zurueckhaltend - With steadily decreasing competence

Sehr gemaechlich - With indescribably horrific inner torment

Etwas bewegter, aber immer noch sehr ruhig - Somewhat louder, though still inaudible as before

Alle Betonungen sehr zart - With smallish quantities of fairly mild inner torment

Gemaechlich - Intermission

Ganz unmerklich etwas zurueckhaltend - Slowly

Etwas gemaechlicher als zuvor - Slowly

Von hier ab unmerklich breiter werden - As if wild animals were gnawing on your liver
Ohne cresc. - Without toothpaste

Immer noch etwas zurueckhaltend - Slowly

Vorwaerts draengend - Slowly

Hauptzeitmass - Slowly

Allmaehlich etwas lebhafter - Screaming in agony

Ohne Nachschl(age) - Without milk (sugar)

Kraeftig bewegt - Slowly

Mit dem Holze zu streichen - Like a hole in the head

Mit Parodie - Viola solo<>

Sehr einfach und schlicht, wie eine Volksweise - Slowly

Daempfer ab - Eyes closed

Ploetzlich viel schneller - Even more ploddingly
Den ersten Ton scharf herausgehoben - Do not play until the buzzer sounds

Am Griffbrett - As if in tune

Aeusserst zart, aber ausdrucksvoll - Radiantly joyful, despite the itching

Wieder zurueckhaltend - Increasingly decreasing

Noch breiter als vorher - Better late than never

Nicht eilen - No eels

Allmaehlich (unmerklich) etwas zurueckhaltend - Much faster (slower) than conductor

Lang gestrichen - Heads up

Lang gezogen - Heads back down

Die werden allmaehlich staerker und staerker bis zum (fp) - In the event of a water landing, your seat cushion may be used as a flotation device

Friday, May 1, 2009

SA Symphony concert cancelled

The Symphony was notified Friday morning that Edgewood High School has canceled their festival this weekend due to concerns about the H1N1 flu. That means the first of three free Cinco de Mayo San Antonio Symphony concerts scheduled for tomorrow (Saturday afternoon at Edgewood High School at 2 pm) is now cancelled. The two remaining FREE Cinco de Mayo Concerts on Sunday at the Guadalupe Theatre at 6 pm and Tuesday at Highlands High School at 7 pm will be performed as scheduled.
The Symphony's Classical concerts this weekend (May 1 & 2), Ertan Plays Korngold, also will be performed as scheduled.
For more information about upcoming San Antonio Symphony concerts please visit www.sasymphony.org.

Artist Interview: Andre Previn

Conductor, pianist and composer Andre Previn has a new opera in Houston opening tonight. Host John Clare spoke to Previn about the new work, turning 80 years old, and his latest double concerto.
Listen to their conversation here.

More information from Houston in this video:

Welcher Fifth: complete interview

Tonight the Austin Symphony premieres Dan Welcher's Fifth Symphony. Host John Clare went to UT-Austin to speak with the composer about the new work.

You can also hear more about the concert, and other happenings in and around San Antonio on Classical Spotlight.