three (3) reviews
Mar. 28th, 2014 10:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacI attended three concerts to review last weekend. That wasn't my original plan. I was going to cover the Peninsula Symphony doing clarinet and cello concertos, for the Daily Journal, on Friday, and Symphony Silicon Valley, doing Carmina Burana, for SFCV, on Saturday.
Then I got this press release from the Masterworks Chorale, asking for coverage of their concert this weekend for the Daily Journal. I actually got the release before I made my commitment to the Peninsula Symphony, but at first I ignored it, because I took a quick look and said, "Oh, Carmina Burana on Saturday and Sunday; I'm already doing that for SFCV," not noticing that it was a different performance of C.B. at almost exactly the same performance times.
I felt so guilty about having made that mistake that I got permission from my Daily Journal editor to review both concerts in one weekend. I felt less happy after I told the publicist I was to do this, and got showered with a series of e-mails that came across something like "Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou! Can we get covered by SFCV as well? Canwecanwe? Huh, huh, huh? Oh, here, have some photos. Have some more photos! Have a few zip files full of photos!!" Never mind that we'd publish one photo, if any, with a review; I just forwarded them all on, by electronic shovel, to the office. Better too many than too few.
So on Friday, I heard the Peninsula Symphony play those concertos, and wrote this. It was better-performed than the typical Peninsula Symphony concert, and it'd been so long since I'd heard the Lalo Cello Concerto that I'd forgotten how much I enjoy it (more than the Dvorak, that's for sure), despite the fact that it sounds exactly like every other work by Lalo I've ever heard.
Then on Saturday and Sunday two different, and differing, performances of Carmina Burana. SSV's I've already linked to; it was a truly crisp text-oriented performance that got a standing ovation from me, something I'm a lot charier of than most people. The observations in the review about the lack of over-acting from the soloists was a result of my having already seen the Masterworks performance by the time I finished it. It's the best-written of the three, I think, and I wrote most of it in a notebook by hand while waiting for the Masterworks concert to start.
The Masterworks review was the hardest to write, because I had to work without the program book or any of my notes, which I realized I'd left in my mother's apartment when I was over there, and didn't have time before the deadline to go fetch them and still write the review. I hope I didn't treat the chorus too badly. Their formal, slightly distant sound would have been fine for a pompous 19th-century oratorio, but just wasn't the best approach for the stark, naughty Carmina Burana, and especially not when the soloists behaved like they were starring in a semi-staged opera and going for it up to the teeth. It clashed.
And, um, I knew I'd have two reviews in the DJ in one weekend, but wasn't expecting them both to appear on the same day. Yikes!
Then I got this press release from the Masterworks Chorale, asking for coverage of their concert this weekend for the Daily Journal. I actually got the release before I made my commitment to the Peninsula Symphony, but at first I ignored it, because I took a quick look and said, "Oh, Carmina Burana on Saturday and Sunday; I'm already doing that for SFCV," not noticing that it was a different performance of C.B. at almost exactly the same performance times.
I felt so guilty about having made that mistake that I got permission from my Daily Journal editor to review both concerts in one weekend. I felt less happy after I told the publicist I was to do this, and got showered with a series of e-mails that came across something like "Oh, thankyouthankyouthankyou! Can we get covered by SFCV as well? Canwecanwe? Huh, huh, huh? Oh, here, have some photos. Have some more photos! Have a few zip files full of photos!!" Never mind that we'd publish one photo, if any, with a review; I just forwarded them all on, by electronic shovel, to the office. Better too many than too few.
So on Friday, I heard the Peninsula Symphony play those concertos, and wrote this. It was better-performed than the typical Peninsula Symphony concert, and it'd been so long since I'd heard the Lalo Cello Concerto that I'd forgotten how much I enjoy it (more than the Dvorak, that's for sure), despite the fact that it sounds exactly like every other work by Lalo I've ever heard.
Then on Saturday and Sunday two different, and differing, performances of Carmina Burana. SSV's I've already linked to; it was a truly crisp text-oriented performance that got a standing ovation from me, something I'm a lot charier of than most people. The observations in the review about the lack of over-acting from the soloists was a result of my having already seen the Masterworks performance by the time I finished it. It's the best-written of the three, I think, and I wrote most of it in a notebook by hand while waiting for the Masterworks concert to start.
The Masterworks review was the hardest to write, because I had to work without the program book or any of my notes, which I realized I'd left in my mother's apartment when I was over there, and didn't have time before the deadline to go fetch them and still write the review. I hope I didn't treat the chorus too badly. Their formal, slightly distant sound would have been fine for a pompous 19th-century oratorio, but just wasn't the best approach for the stark, naughty Carmina Burana, and especially not when the soloists behaved like they were starring in a semi-staged opera and going for it up to the teeth. It clashed.
And, um, I knew I'd have two reviews in the DJ in one weekend, but wasn't expecting them both to appear on the same day. Yikes!
