This year marks the 51st season of the Grand Teton Music Festival. In celebration of their 50th season, they commissioned Pulitzer and Grammy Award winning composer Jennifer Higdon. Now that world premiere performance, along with Beethoven's Pastorale Symphony, is available as a DVD/CD set from the festival.
The Grand Teton Music Festival is one of the most prestigious and finest musical gatherings in the world. Musicians from around North America come together by invitation and play under maestros ranging from (music director) Donald Runnicles to Bernard Labadie, and soloists such as Lynn Harrell, James Ehnes, and Stephen Hough.
So when you mix excellent new music to this fun and eclectic band of musicians, it is completely inspiring, for both the listener and the orchestra!
Clare and Higdon
All Things Majestic is about 20 minutes long and is in four movements. Teton Range sets the mood perfectly, mostly relying on the brass, but using the full orchestra to good use, for a true "maestoso." Not since Hovhaness' Second Symphony have chords struck so true for such a landscape! The second movement, String Lake, aptly features the string section, and even outdoes Smetana (Moldau) and Debussy (La Mer) for colors with a water theme. At this point, I have to mention the images from the dvd. They are spectacular scenes from Henry Holdsworth, Thomas Mangelsen, and Edward Riddell! Pictures run the gamut, and range in season, color, wildlife, day, night, and everything in between. Snake River continues the charming score by Higdon, using percussion and woodwinds to begin and returning to full orchestra, a scherzo for this all but in name symphony. Cathedrals, the finale, returns musically and visually to the mountains -and serves as a perfect peak to this modern masterwork.
Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 "Pastorale" is given a fine reading by the orchestra and Runnicles. This time for the dvd, steady video is shown of various nature scenes - far less compelling visually than All Things Majestic's awesome photos - but musically moving.
Here is a link to an interview and the entire All Things Majestic performance from Wyoming PBS. We recommend this new release highly with the chance to see and hear the music on dvd and cd (http://www.gtmf.org/merchandise/). Bravo!!! - host John Clare
Lots to like from Valentina Lisitsa - her debut on Deccais a live concert from Royal Albert Hall. “Of course it’s a concert” she says, “but it’s also a celebration.”
She will perform in the US this winter and next spring - if you get a chance, see her in concert, but we can't recommend enough to check out her new cd and dvd. Fans of Russian repertoire will melt at the Rachmaninoff, and be stunned at her Scriabin. Chopin and Liszt devotees have floating, touching, and incredibly moving performances of Nocturnes and Etudes. Most impressive and powerful is Lisitsa's Beethoven. Here she is most expressive, spinning the Moonlight Sonata with grace, and at times, perfect momentum.
Bonus for the DVD includes Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 and Valentina speaking, items you really should consider! It will be available August 7th.
On the 4th of June, 2009, Daniel Barenboim and the Vienna Philharmonic presented a free open-air concert on the grounds of Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. Over 100,000 visitors were present in the audience for this charming occasion. Recorded and filmed by Austrian Television (ORF), the concert will be broadcast world-wide in more than 50 countries and will be released on DVD tomorrow, Tuesday August 25th. The US Broadcast on PBS is currently scheduled for September 16th (KLRN in San Antonio). In the audience that evening were composer Richard Danielpour and KPAC host John Clare (seen before the concert left) who were in Vienna for the world premiere of Danielpour's Souvenirs on Philippe Entremont's 75th birthday (June 7th). The concert shared a theme: Night. So we heard Mozart's Eine kleineNachtmusik; de Falla's Nightsin the Gardens of Spain; Mussorgsky/Rimsky-Korsakov's A Night on Bald Mountain; and Strauss II's Thousand and One Nights Waltz; plus encores Josef & Johann Strauss and Mariano Mores. All in all, a wonderful 93 minutes with one of the world's greatest ensembles! Besides the concert, views of the Schoenbrunn grounds and palace are seen, as well as gorgeous shots of the moon, fireworks and eerily appropriate fog/smoke (we're sure it was artifically made via dry ice). You also get a wonderful sense of how many folks were there, and just how large the grounds are with stunning camera work. Check out this video from that night of a large robotic crane camera in action. You can even spot Danielpour & Clare in the audience, especially just after Barenboim announces the encores! Of course, the real magic comes from the Vienna Philharmonic in music they were born to play. (Danielpour is pictured in b&w with Christian Buchmann introducing him to Barenboim after the concert). You can purchase the DVD of the concert here, or here (after 8/25/09). Here's an extra bonus as well, composer Richard Danielpour set the scene at the VIP party after the concert: Next year's concert is earlier, May 20th, 2010 with Maestro Seiji Ozawa.
In 2005, a Los Angeles Times reporter stumbled upon a unique sight in the middle of downtown L.A. on his way back to the office. There was a lone man, in his mid fifties, playing a violin with two missing strings. Something about the man intrigued Lopez, and after some conversation and a little digging, Lopez found out the man, Nathaniel Ayers, was a former Julliard student whose schizophrenia led him to life on the streets for over 30 years. Through a series of columns in the Los Angeles Times, Lopez told Ayers’ story, and how the two men developed a friendship that went beyond the typical journalist/subject relationship.
Sounds like a great idea for a movie, right? In a special feature included on the DVD of the film “The Soloist,” Lopez himself talks about how Hollywood producers came knocking on his door soon after the story began to develop in the paper. But what works well on the page doesn’t always translate to the screen.
Robert Downey Jr. plays Lopez in the film “The Soloist,” and Jamie Foxx stars as Ayers. Both men deliver solid, compassionate performances. But even though it seems like all cylinders are firing in “The Soloist,” there’s a curious lack of emotional connection to the story and characters. I’ve tried to think what it is that is keeping this story at arm’s length. Downey Jr. does well in portraying the determination to get the story that feeds the reporter’s soul, and nothing about Foxx’s role as Ayers is syrupy or over-the-top as one might fear. Maybe it’s something about the disease itself. Ayers’ schizophrenia led him to distance himself from family and friends, fearful of the voices in his head. And if even family members had a hard time connecting to Ayers, that means there’s an extra challenge in store for the filmmakers when all you have is a two-hour movie.
I haven’t read Lopez’ columns or the subsequent book that “The Soloist” is based on, but I suspect that the story reads better than it plays on screen. The printed word may be better at conveying the emotional heft of Ayers’ relationship with Lopez (and Beethoven); or, at least it may allow for more time for the audience to develop an understanding of Ayers and schizophrenia in general.
“The Soloist” is not without its merits, though. By illustrating that Nathaniel Ayers’ story is one of many on L.A.’s Skid Row, this movie fulfills an important mission. In another of the DVD’s special features, volunteers and staff members from LAMP (Los Angeles Men’s Project) and Midnight Mission in Los Angeles speak in plain truths about the homeless problem in L.A. Casey Horan, LAMP’s Executive Director, points out the astonishing statistic that Los Angeles has more homeless persons than New York City, Chicago, Houston, Portland, San Francisco and Philadelphia combined. If the only thing “The Soloist” does is raise greater awareness of the homeless population, and the need for humanitarian and financial aid, then it has succeeded.
“Sleeping Beauty” is celebrating 50 years this fall with a new DVD release featuring an incredible restoration of this animated classic. It was unlike any Disney movie before or since. Tchaikovsky’s balletic setting of the classic fairy tale inspired the whole production. George Bruns adapted the Tchaikovsky ballet score for the film, and the popular song “Once Upon a Dream” was written to the tune of the waltz from the ballet. It’s impossible now to divorce Tchaikovsky’s music and the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty.
Filmed widescreen in 70mm, the striking, stylized images and backgrounds in “Sleeping Beauty” are among the richest and most colorful the studio ever produced. From the magnificent castle interiors to the final showdown between Prince Phillip and the evil Maleficent in her dragon form, Sleeping Beauty is a joy to experience.
The DVD is of course chock full of special features like documentaries and art galleries, but again for classical music fans, one of them stands out. “Grand Canyon” is a 35-minute long CinemaScope widescreen film that utilizes Ferde Grofe’s “Grand Canyon Suite” as its soundtrack. Never mind that the movements are played out of order. The music is a splendid accompaniment to footage of the canyon and the Colorado river below, and the various animals that inhabit the area, from big cats, to birds, snakes and spiders, but shockingly – no mules!
Sleeping Beauty is available on standard DVD, and also in high definition, on a Blu-Ray disc. If you have a Blu-Ray player, high def is the way to go. This DVD is a most welcome treat for animation fans, lovers of classical music, and kids of all ages.
Texas Public Radio is celebrating 25 years - and there is a dvd being made for this fall. Wednesday there was some filming going on around the station with the classical hosts, and here are a few snaps of the action.
Seen left, Deirdre programs music in the library.
On the right, James announces a selection.
Randy takes notes of the production, seen left.
Ron looks for a cd in the library, as pictured right.
