concerts in view, oh the joy
Jul. 1st, 2008 12:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacSeveral weeks ago my editor asked me if I had any ideas for upcoming feature articles. I suggested a round-up of the concert year down at this end of the world. What I was thinking was that we'd reviewed only two of this year's concerts by the local orchestra, and this would be an easy opportunity to draw from my LJ reviews of various local concerts.
Actually, what my editor had in mind seems to have been more an overview of the economic state of the concert industry, but to my mind that's ancillary to the artistry, and a fair judgment of that would require investigative ferreting by someone with pretensions to being an actual reporter. I'm just a concert reviewer.
So what I came up with was a survey of the current public state of the orchestra and local concert life, with a little reviewing salted in. Considering that working on it was derailed by a week of car shopping, and I finished it at about 2:30 Monday morning, it came out OK. The title was the editor's idea, and I think is rather brilliant.
It's a little hard to describe this orchestra artistically, in terms of how to recommend it to people. The style is constant, but the quality is inconsistent. Sometimes they let you down, but sometimes they turn in performances equal to anything you'd hear in the big city. A couple years ago they did a Berlioz Symphonie fantastique for the ages, and then a Tchaikovsky Second Symphony that was as charming as could be, but while several works this year pleased me - I was not much expecting to like the David Amram commission, but I did, and there were some solid renditions of Beethoven and Elgar - the only performances that really impressed me were the baritone soloist in Beethoven's Ninth, and Joseph Silverstein's unaccompanied Bach encore after he conducted himself in some violin concertos. (Remember, though, I missed two concerts.)
Tonight I'm reviewing a concert in another direction, one which I'd suggested to the editors that we cover. We being on a strict budget, I was surprised to get an enthusiastic yes.
Actually, what my editor had in mind seems to have been more an overview of the economic state of the concert industry, but to my mind that's ancillary to the artistry, and a fair judgment of that would require investigative ferreting by someone with pretensions to being an actual reporter. I'm just a concert reviewer.
So what I came up with was a survey of the current public state of the orchestra and local concert life, with a little reviewing salted in. Considering that working on it was derailed by a week of car shopping, and I finished it at about 2:30 Monday morning, it came out OK. The title was the editor's idea, and I think is rather brilliant.
It's a little hard to describe this orchestra artistically, in terms of how to recommend it to people. The style is constant, but the quality is inconsistent. Sometimes they let you down, but sometimes they turn in performances equal to anything you'd hear in the big city. A couple years ago they did a Berlioz Symphonie fantastique for the ages, and then a Tchaikovsky Second Symphony that was as charming as could be, but while several works this year pleased me - I was not much expecting to like the David Amram commission, but I did, and there were some solid renditions of Beethoven and Elgar - the only performances that really impressed me were the baritone soloist in Beethoven's Ninth, and Joseph Silverstein's unaccompanied Bach encore after he conducted himself in some violin concertos. (Remember, though, I missed two concerts.)
Tonight I'm reviewing a concert in another direction, one which I'd suggested to the editors that we cover. We being on a strict budget, I was surprised to get an enthusiastic yes.
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-02 02:25 am (UTC)Meanwhile, I have a story to pitch, but it would take a lot of reportage and I have to figure out if SFCV's pay is worth the effort.