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concerts in review
Every once in a while, one of those meme questions erupts: what's the first record you ever bought for yourself? The answer is always some pop album of the era, except from me. I still have the first album I ever bought right here: RCA Victrola VICS-6023, a two-LP set of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos, an original instrument performance by the Collegium Aureum. I would have been 13 or 14 when I bought this at a small record shop in a nearby mall, because by my 15th birthday I was already well-established as a classical collector.
Much of my early record collecting was done by the principle of hearing and liking something with a number on it, and then buying more works in the same series. You like Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, there's eight more to choose from. Well, one such work I'd heard was the First Brandenburg, and here I found the complete collection on just two cut-price LPs. So that's why this was my first purchase.
Strangely, after all these years of knowing the works, I'd never heard all six Brandenburgs in concert until last Thursday, when my editors sent me down to the Carmel Bach Festival. Does my review read as if I had fun? It's slightly whitewashed. Oh, the evening concert was no worse, and no better, than I described it, but my day was full of small frustrations that were mostly not the Festival's fault - in fact, one that was my fault, they solved - and that weren't relevant to the review, so I left them out.
Start with the fact that I was late arriving. I'd wanted to be there by noon for the start of the vocal master class, but I didn't want to eat in Carmel, which is all yuppie and expensive and probably slow, so I stopped at my favorite seafood place in Moss Landing, but that took longer than expected, and I arrived at noon on the dot. But first I wanted to pick up my comp tickets. The box office didn't have them; I had to run over to the business office, halfway back to where I'd parked. Good thing I hadn't brought a guest with me, because to my surprise (and, subsequently, my editor's), they only provided one ticket per reviewer this year. I'd intended to ask if I could turn in the second ticket in exchange for one to the afternoon Brahms concert, so instead I just bought one from them.
Then, rush over (again by foot) down Carmel's narrow streets to the church where the master class was being held, arriving 20 minutes late. Great session, though. The teacher's best line was his dismay at historical-performance advocates who try to be "earlier than thou", but I couldn't find a good way to fit that in the review. And when that was over, rush down several more blocks to another church where the Brahms was. This church rejoices in the strange (to me) name of "Church of the Wayfarer." On arriving, I asked the ticket-taker for directions to the Restroom of the Wayfarer.
The Brahms concert, about an hour's worth mostly of songs for four singers, was not particularly good - the soprano was fine and the alto OK, but the tenor squeaked and the bass was abysmal - and then it was off again to another venue for the 4 pm Q&A session. I stopped at a small market on the way for badly needed refreshment, finding after some searching something non-alcoholic in the drinks case that 1) had electrolytes, 2) would taste good, and 3) was not made entirely of high-fructose corn syrup. It was after this that I discovered to my horror that the small pile of loose pieces of paper I'd accumulated at my various stops no longer included the envelope with my evening ticket. Uh-oh. Back to the Church of the Wayfarer, to learn the house manager had retrieved it and sent it to the box office. Back to the box office, which again knew nothing about it. Back to the business office, which did have it but had to jump through some hoops of paperwork to give it back to me.
After all this extra rushing around, I was becoming very sorry that I hadn't brought a change of shirt with me, so I used the scheduled dinner break to leave Carmel and drive to Seaside, the working-class sprawl part of the Monterey area, to find a department store where I could buy a shirt, and to pick up something fast-foodish to eat. Back to Carmel in time for the pre-concert lecture, full of Well-Known Facts about the Brandenburgs which, according to Malcolm Boyd's scholarly study of the works, are not actually true. Finally, the concert itself. And then, the two-hour drive home while trying not to fall asleep. More of an exhausting and rushed day than an enjoyable one, i'truth.
The Music@Menlo Festival has also been going on at the same time, but I've not heard a lot of it. On Wednesday I got to one of the free Prelude concerts, with a peculiar and unsatisfactory performance of Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" Quartet. The first violinist's notes slipped all over the place, rarely landing on the right spot, and the crucial high A in the finale was simply out of his range. The cellist liked nothing better than to thunk his strings against the fingerboard. And the second violinist forgot to shave and played with his mouth hanging open, like a fish. Last night I went on review assignment to the Romantic period concert: again to my surprise, Menlo, who usually only give one ticket, gave two, so I was able to draft![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
athenais in to sit with me; more on that after I review it. And tonight I plan to hear more Brahms at another Prelude concert. Busy week.
Much of my early record collecting was done by the principle of hearing and liking something with a number on it, and then buying more works in the same series. You like Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, there's eight more to choose from. Well, one such work I'd heard was the First Brandenburg, and here I found the complete collection on just two cut-price LPs. So that's why this was my first purchase.
Strangely, after all these years of knowing the works, I'd never heard all six Brandenburgs in concert until last Thursday, when my editors sent me down to the Carmel Bach Festival. Does my review read as if I had fun? It's slightly whitewashed. Oh, the evening concert was no worse, and no better, than I described it, but my day was full of small frustrations that were mostly not the Festival's fault - in fact, one that was my fault, they solved - and that weren't relevant to the review, so I left them out.
Start with the fact that I was late arriving. I'd wanted to be there by noon for the start of the vocal master class, but I didn't want to eat in Carmel, which is all yuppie and expensive and probably slow, so I stopped at my favorite seafood place in Moss Landing, but that took longer than expected, and I arrived at noon on the dot. But first I wanted to pick up my comp tickets. The box office didn't have them; I had to run over to the business office, halfway back to where I'd parked. Good thing I hadn't brought a guest with me, because to my surprise (and, subsequently, my editor's), they only provided one ticket per reviewer this year. I'd intended to ask if I could turn in the second ticket in exchange for one to the afternoon Brahms concert, so instead I just bought one from them.
Then, rush over (again by foot) down Carmel's narrow streets to the church where the master class was being held, arriving 20 minutes late. Great session, though. The teacher's best line was his dismay at historical-performance advocates who try to be "earlier than thou", but I couldn't find a good way to fit that in the review. And when that was over, rush down several more blocks to another church where the Brahms was. This church rejoices in the strange (to me) name of "Church of the Wayfarer." On arriving, I asked the ticket-taker for directions to the Restroom of the Wayfarer.
The Brahms concert, about an hour's worth mostly of songs for four singers, was not particularly good - the soprano was fine and the alto OK, but the tenor squeaked and the bass was abysmal - and then it was off again to another venue for the 4 pm Q&A session. I stopped at a small market on the way for badly needed refreshment, finding after some searching something non-alcoholic in the drinks case that 1) had electrolytes, 2) would taste good, and 3) was not made entirely of high-fructose corn syrup. It was after this that I discovered to my horror that the small pile of loose pieces of paper I'd accumulated at my various stops no longer included the envelope with my evening ticket. Uh-oh. Back to the Church of the Wayfarer, to learn the house manager had retrieved it and sent it to the box office. Back to the box office, which again knew nothing about it. Back to the business office, which did have it but had to jump through some hoops of paperwork to give it back to me.
After all this extra rushing around, I was becoming very sorry that I hadn't brought a change of shirt with me, so I used the scheduled dinner break to leave Carmel and drive to Seaside, the working-class sprawl part of the Monterey area, to find a department store where I could buy a shirt, and to pick up something fast-foodish to eat. Back to Carmel in time for the pre-concert lecture, full of Well-Known Facts about the Brandenburgs which, according to Malcolm Boyd's scholarly study of the works, are not actually true. Finally, the concert itself. And then, the two-hour drive home while trying not to fall asleep. More of an exhausting and rushed day than an enjoyable one, i'truth.
The Music@Menlo Festival has also been going on at the same time, but I've not heard a lot of it. On Wednesday I got to one of the free Prelude concerts, with a peculiar and unsatisfactory performance of Schubert's "Death and the Maiden" Quartet. The first violinist's notes slipped all over the place, rarely landing on the right spot, and the crucial high A in the finale was simply out of his range. The cellist liked nothing better than to thunk his strings against the fingerboard. And the second violinist forgot to shave and played with his mouth hanging open, like a fish. Last night I went on review assignment to the Romantic period concert: again to my surprise, Menlo, who usually only give one ticket, gave two, so I was able to draft
athenais in to sit with me; more on that after I review it. And tonight I plan to hear more Brahms at another Prelude concert. Busy week.