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May. 3rd, 2011
My DW backup is finally coming in useful, as I can't get into LJ. LJ is still there; there's nothing wrong with my password; I just can't read or directly write in LJ. If this keeps up, I'll have to think of something else.
This entry was originally posted at http://calimac.dreamwidth.org/453.html.
This entry was originally posted at http://calimac.dreamwidth.org/453.html.
As I was trying to say before I was interrupted ...
1) The rare chance to hear one of Schumann's non-canonical symphonies, Op. 52, drew me to a concert by the Mission Chamber Orchestra. And I got to review it, too. This is one of the obscurer and less adept local groups: their conductor appears to hold them under a reign of terror regarding rhythmic exactitude, which they execute with military precision (and military artistic sensitivity as well, unfortunately), and let everything else go hang, including phrasing and intonation. Their guest soloist was far too good for them. Still, with the tiny auditorium to help concentrate the blast, they gave out sound which was extra-strong condensed essence of Schumann and Beethoven in turn, like a snocone with twice the usual amount of syrup.
2) Schultz Hall (or the Oshman Center, which appears to be the venue's official name) has finally gotten itself an acoustical shell, and about time. It abruptly turns a sonic environment of "utterly dreadful" into one of "pretty darn good, just a little distant." Nestled before it, Garrick Ohlsson (pf), Jorja Fleezanis (vn), and Anthony Ross (vc) played piano trios. A very nice Haydn No. 27 - so few can play a Haydn piano trio as if Haydn had written it - a strong if somewhat overemotive Dvorak Op. 65, and an exquisite Beethoven Op. 70/2. The repeated passage of stealthy group chords in the minor mode from the cantabile movement was as beautiful as music gets. Ohlsson as a light and pearly pianist was well-suited for this and the Haydn. Ross was a late substitute - I expect brought in by Fleezanis, who knows him from her days at the Minnesota Orchestra, where he's still principal cellist - with a firm mature tone. He plays fast music with his jaw set and his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth, and slow music looking as if he's about to cry, a la John Boehner.
3) The uniform-format series of U.S. Presidential biographies that I've been seeing on public library shelves have mostly been not more than basically informative, and a couple have been worse than that. A few, though, have been outstanding, and among those is the latest and one of the last published in the series, Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reed, the Harvard historian who wrote the biography of Sally Hemings. As you might expect, she's not at all fond of the racist pig who is her current subject, but instead of spending her space denouncing him, she seeks to understand the cultural and personal context that made him what he was, why many hoped that acceding to the presidency might produce an epiphany in his attitudes, and why it didn't. Nor has she forgotten the corresponding strengths of his weaknesses (absolute obstinacy can be a virtue if you're a Southerner minded to stick with the Union), nor her biographer's remit to cover all of his public life and major events of his presidency, even those irrelevant to her thesis.
4) While I was in the library, a DVD titled History of the Joke jumped into my hand, probably because the cover said it was hosted by Lewis Black. It was a History Channel special of a couple years ago. Black says he's in search of the greatest joke of all time, but never claims to find it, and the occasional historical landmarks are quietly inserted into corners of what it mostly a smartly-edited melange from interviews with stage comedians (and one hapless college professor) about the nature and theory of humor. The interviewees include George Carlin (who claims he doesn't tell jokes) and Robin Williams along with many others I mostly hadn't heard of. But they're good, and the jokes they tell in and amongst talking about them include several I want to remember and add to my repertoire, two silly jokes about pirates among them.
1) The rare chance to hear one of Schumann's non-canonical symphonies, Op. 52, drew me to a concert by the Mission Chamber Orchestra. And I got to review it, too. This is one of the obscurer and less adept local groups: their conductor appears to hold them under a reign of terror regarding rhythmic exactitude, which they execute with military precision (and military artistic sensitivity as well, unfortunately), and let everything else go hang, including phrasing and intonation. Their guest soloist was far too good for them. Still, with the tiny auditorium to help concentrate the blast, they gave out sound which was extra-strong condensed essence of Schumann and Beethoven in turn, like a snocone with twice the usual amount of syrup.
2) Schultz Hall (or the Oshman Center, which appears to be the venue's official name) has finally gotten itself an acoustical shell, and about time. It abruptly turns a sonic environment of "utterly dreadful" into one of "pretty darn good, just a little distant." Nestled before it, Garrick Ohlsson (pf), Jorja Fleezanis (vn), and Anthony Ross (vc) played piano trios. A very nice Haydn No. 27 - so few can play a Haydn piano trio as if Haydn had written it - a strong if somewhat overemotive Dvorak Op. 65, and an exquisite Beethoven Op. 70/2. The repeated passage of stealthy group chords in the minor mode from the cantabile movement was as beautiful as music gets. Ohlsson as a light and pearly pianist was well-suited for this and the Haydn. Ross was a late substitute - I expect brought in by Fleezanis, who knows him from her days at the Minnesota Orchestra, where he's still principal cellist - with a firm mature tone. He plays fast music with his jaw set and his tongue sticking out of the corner of his mouth, and slow music looking as if he's about to cry, a la John Boehner.
3) The uniform-format series of U.S. Presidential biographies that I've been seeing on public library shelves have mostly been not more than basically informative, and a couple have been worse than that. A few, though, have been outstanding, and among those is the latest and one of the last published in the series, Andrew Johnson by Annette Gordon-Reed, the Harvard historian who wrote the biography of Sally Hemings. As you might expect, she's not at all fond of the racist pig who is her current subject, but instead of spending her space denouncing him, she seeks to understand the cultural and personal context that made him what he was, why many hoped that acceding to the presidency might produce an epiphany in his attitudes, and why it didn't. Nor has she forgotten the corresponding strengths of his weaknesses (absolute obstinacy can be a virtue if you're a Southerner minded to stick with the Union), nor her biographer's remit to cover all of his public life and major events of his presidency, even those irrelevant to her thesis.
4) While I was in the library, a DVD titled History of the Joke jumped into my hand, probably because the cover said it was hosted by Lewis Black. It was a History Channel special of a couple years ago. Black says he's in search of the greatest joke of all time, but never claims to find it, and the occasional historical landmarks are quietly inserted into corners of what it mostly a smartly-edited melange from interviews with stage comedians (and one hapless college professor) about the nature and theory of humor. The interviewees include George Carlin (who claims he doesn't tell jokes) and Robin Williams along with many others I mostly hadn't heard of. But they're good, and the jokes they tell in and amongst talking about them include several I want to remember and add to my repertoire, two silly jokes about pirates among them.