My Musical Moments

Arthur Rubenstein

Arts critic Anthony Tomassini (he of the infamous list of greatest composers) has begun a new series in the New York Times, found here.  In it he discusses (in print and with a continuing video) those musical moments forever etched in his mind and heart.  His first example is a brief phrase in Chopin's G-minor Ballade (as performed on LP by Arthur Rubenstein):

"The ballade opened with a forceful line that began in the low register of the piano and rose up the keyboard in octaves, as if making some grim declaration. At the peak of the ascent the line twisted into a soft plaintive turn, delivered in two halting phrases.

Then something stunning happened, just for a moment: a short gesture, a softly sighing three-note melodic fragment landing on a dissonant-seeming chord that at first sounded as if it were wrong. Yet the harmony lingered, and the pungency of the clashing notes was strangely beautiful, almost comforting. This led into what seemed the saddest melody I had ever heard. The main business of the ballade had started.

I remember how powerfully I reacted to that moment with the sighing phrase. I still get shivers when I hear it or play it."

Tomassini goes on to state (and I completely agree) that these moments do not have to be viscerally thrilling or climactic.  In fact, it might very well be the absence of these factors that more completely imprints in our psyche.

For me, I can never forget the first time I ever heard Guiseppe Giordani's Caro Mio Ben.  Of course, it had yet to become a kind of classical "top 40" hit then.  I remember the performance as if it was yesterday, sung in our old choir room at Grand Ledge High School.  I fell in love with that singer that day.  I never told her of it, even though we did date for a little while our junior year.  I acted like an idiot; she found another and they're still very happily married today.

But from my own conducting experiences I can recount at least two moments that, for me, are monumental musical moments.

Gustav Holst's E-flat Suite (Op. 28a) is one of the cornerstones of the band literature.  There remains a fair amount of debate in the wind world about which of his two suites is better.  I believe that the E-flat is, due in no small part to the composer's manipulation of a tiny motive in structuring the themes in each of the three movements.  In the third movement, the opening theme of the march and the tune of the trio come together in astounding counterpoint.  At measure 130, I conduct the passage differently than almost any other performance I've heard, allowing the "Land of Hope and Glory" tune to shine through without a break in the phrase.  I've led the work dozens of times (at least) but this moment gives me shivers--and sometimes before the fact.

My other "moment" (at least for today) is from Richard Strauss's Serenade, Op. 7.  At m. 71, he writes an awe-inspiring climactic phrase to begin to close off the work's exposition.  The kicker is that he employs only seven of his thirteen instruments:  four horns, two bassoons, and contrabassoon.  The combination of sounds cannot be described....

Perhaps I will write as Tomassini has and make this a continuing series.

A view of the forest....

Everyone involved in making art for a living (or as an avocation) needs to read this piece by Henry Peyrebrune that just appeared in Drew McManus' Adaptistration blog.  I have never read a more convincing argument for what we do, how we do it, and why it is vital to humanity.  Read here; you'll be glad you did. 

It's going to come crashing down....

Indianapolis--locked out.  No apparent end in sight.

Atlanta--locked out.  Musicians cave on $5.2 million in concessions.

Minneapolis--locked out.  Management unwilling to talk.  On a much better note, former conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski will lead members of the orchestra in an October 16 (the original starting date for the new season) concert, to be held at the Convention Center.

Richmond--players reject management's offer (7% wage cut).  Players continue to perform.

Jacksonville--on the brink.  Musicians continue season on a "play and talk" basis.

Mitt Romney--threatens assassination of Big Bird.

A recent story in the Chicago Tribune reports that the vaulted CSO--coming off a "micro strike" by its players--may be in for financial troubles down the road.  The organization is apparently carrying a large debt load, due to the 1997 renovation of the Symphony Center, combined with operating deficits that are expected to reach over one million dollars this year.  Lest this outstanding organization be forced to go the way of the orchestras in Detroit (which will take years to recover from horrible management decisions related to facilities) or Philadelphia (crawling out from under Chapter 11 bankruptcy), the time is now for management to take hold of runaway expenditures.

There's much more, but--to say the least--our culture is in big trouble....

The domino effect

The facts are hard and chilling but point to the fact that classical music--and the organizations that present it--are in dire straits.  While this calamity has been predicted before (see Time magazine, 1969), this time it is for real.  Some of the victims include the orchestras, musicians and--most of all--the communities served by:



Atlanta Symphony Orchestra:  musicians locked out; concerts cancelled.  This was after the musicians agreed to a 11% pay cut.

Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra:  ibid, after musicians agreed to a temporary extension of the current contract in order to avoid canceling concerts.

In Minnesota:

Minnesota Orchestra:  Running nearly $4 million deficit; announced 28% pay cut for musicians while engaged in a $50 million renovation of the lobby areas of Orchestra Hall.
St. Paul Chamber Orchestra:  In a "significant stretch" for the organization, has offered players a two-tiered system of minimum salaries resulting in a 15% pay reduction.

San Antonio Symphony:  no approved budget, no contract with its musicians and no date set to come up with a new plan.

AND, Boston is still without a music director.

AND, Philadelphia is crawling out of bankruptcy proceedings that benefitted few but the attorneys.

MEANWHILE:

In Louisville, things still appear tense, but the show is going on.

Detroit Symphony: recovering from a six-month-long strike two years ago, has hired a new concertmaster, lured a principal flutist away from the "Dude's" LA Phil, and filled a number of the gaps brought about by musicians' exoduses.

The New Mexico Philharmonic has risen from the ashes of the bankrupt New Mexico Symphony.

The Hawaii Symphony (formerly the Honolulu Symphony) has no current program information on its website.

The Syracuse (NY) Symphony is dead, but former members of that organization (down to 40 players of the original 61) are attempting to revive an ensemble under the name Symphony Syracuse.  They face an uphill battle.

JUST IN FROM THE JACKSONVILLE (FL) SYMPHONY:  The Board has declared an impasse and will impose the stipulations of their most recent contract offer, which include a base salary decrease of 20% and a 45% decrease in health insurance coverage--in addition to a season that is four weeks shorter.

Sean Andrew Chen writes in the Next American City that the fate of the contemporary symphony orchestra may be tied to the community it serves:

Is it possible that the fate of our orchestras is tied more to the fate of our cities than to the preferences of our ears? While some cities have come back from the brink, bringing with them great orchestras like the New York Philharmonic (and raising new ones like the Los Angeles Philharmonic), smaller, regional cities have been left struggling along with their orchestras. And to survive, orchestras like Philadelphia’s will have to not only keep their heads above water, but reinvent themselves just as recovering cities have done.

A program of 20th century chamber pieces sells out!

Waterloo Elks Lodge

Some people are aware that I am the program annotator for the Waterloo-Cedar Falls (Iowa) Symphony Orchestra.  Therefore it may be inappropriate to place my imprimatur on the orchestra's programming as the most original and/or exciting in my immediate vicinity.  However, a writer is entitled to his opinions, but I will offer these few words with a grain of salt; I am an employee--albeit a very minor one--of the organization.  While they pay me for my research and literary knowledge, that is the end of it.

I usually complete the full season's set of notes in one sitting over the summer months, but that didn't happen this year.  So harm done; my first deadline arrived and I delivered on time.  (I am currently finished with the fall in toto and about 30% finished for the spring; once I get working on these projects, I get more than a bit of tunnel vision and simply want to get it done so I do not have to think of it anymore.)  But as I was preparing the copy for the November concert, I really became enthralled with the program.  It includes:

• Walter Piston:  Divertimento:  written in 1946 for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, string quartet, and contrabass, this piece marks Piston's departure from his earlier works.  Joseph Stevenson writes,  “It is not a change of style or technique; the music remains contrapuntal and chromatic. It is a question of tone and mood: There is more optimism, less cynicism.”
• John Harbison:  North and South, a six-song cycle based on the poetry of Elizabeth Bishop (1911-1979).  The author herself had wished that someone would set her poetry to music and Harbison has done an amazing job, crafting six evocative poems into a set written for the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson.
• Morton Gould:  Benny's Gig, a set of duos for clarinet and double bass, written for the legendary Benny Goodman.
• Bohuslav Martinu:  the wacky ballet score, Le Revue de Cuisine.
• Samuel Barber's popular (and rightly so) Knoxville, Summer of 1915, written on a commission from soprano Eleanor Steber (performer of the title role in the 1958 Met production of Barber’s Vanessa) who premiered it in 1948, with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Serge Koussevitzky. Barber’s compositional imagery has been described as rhapsodic as the music is such a poignant accompaniment to the text.

Now comes the hard part.  The concert, slated for November 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the Waterloo Elks Lodge 290, is sold out.  Even I can't get in!

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The jewel of St. Paul loses its luster

America's only full-time chamber orchestra joins the seemingly-unending list of ensembles teetering on the brink of disaster.  This from a member of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.  I live in a community that has outsourced for its musicians, resulting--interestingly enough--in huge increases in musician costs primarily due to mileage (it's a long way to Tipperary, or Chicago for that matter).  On the other hand, the salary cuts proposed by management will surely end the SPCO as anyone knows it.


And here is the latest new from Atlanta.

Not again, Mitt

Artists support these guys?  Tell me you're kidding.

Whenever I read of a colleague supporting the Romney/Ryan candidacies, I honestly have to shudder.  Mr. Romney, who once urged Washington to let Detroit (the largest city in his home state) "go bankrupt," has recently indicated that, among his first initiatives, he would dissolve the National Endowment for the Arts, PBS, and other governmental-supported cultural entities.  Of course, this is from the guy who tied his dog to the top of the car and just recently, shared a poorly timed "birther" joke with a crowd in Michigan.

The miniscule amount dedicated to the NEA (somewhere in the neighborhood of $155 million--compare that to our defense budget of $711 BILLION) would have no impact on the budget deficit.  None.  In the world of trillion-dollar budgets, $155 million is chump change.  It may not seem that way to people living on, say, $50 thousand, but everything is relative.

However, the negative impact of these cuts would be dire:  kiss good-bye to all but the most well-heeled symphonies (and there is no guarantee there), opera companies, museums, state arts councils, etc.  All would vanish, and our nation would be much poorer for it.

A most interesting commentary on the nature of our democracy was penned by H. L. Mencken in his Notes on Democrary, published in 1926.  A contemporary review appears here.  A most interesting examination of Mencken's time and a reflection upon ours.

As for support for the arts, I'll still go with the guy who can belt out a mean Sweet Home Chicago as opposed to the other guy who attempts to croon an off-key America the Beautiful.