After Hours: Thursday Edition
Annnnd let's hear from the Thursday crowd. If you were with us tonight, let us know in the comments, along with any suggestions for future shows. Thanks so much to everyone who's showed up to any or all of our concerts this year - Sarah and I have had a blast, and we're already looking forward to next season! We'll keep updating the blog all summer long, so be sure to come back regularly...
Labels: after hours, audience feedback
posted by Sam at
9:15 PM
13 Comments:
The Sarah and Sam patter was great - also informative as always. Any chance we can get Osmo to do a Q&A barefoot as did Sarah. P.S. Nice pedicure.
Great show for ending the season. Looking forward to the next (already ordered my tickets).
I really enjoyed the quote by the newspaper review that mentions that Copelands America is like the little white church that is not there yet.
I would love to hear the quote again. It really sums up this piece of music.
The quote, which is from Alex Ross's new book, The Rest Is Noise, goes like this: "Copland conjures a perfect American Sunday… when the music of all peoples streams from the open doors of a white-steepled church that does not yet exist."
There seems to be a lot of interest in that last bit of the first half of the show, when I read the Ross quote and then ruminated a bit on America and Copland's place in it before the last musical excerpt of the night. A number of people actually asked if we would post the script on the blog, and while I'm not sure about that (the writing is really meant to be spoken, not read,) I'm hoping to post one or two audio excerpts from the show once I have them. (It usually takes a week or two for our library to get me a CD of the show, so it'll probably be mid-May before this happens...)
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Anonymous 1, thanks, I try to keep my toes well-polished. I grew up in Hawaii, where we spent a majority of our time shoeless, so I enjoy padding around barefoot as much as I can.
Sam is too modest. He spends an extraordinary amount of time scripting these concerts, and I think he does an extraordinary job. I hope we can get some podcasts up for you all to listen to - the end of the first half of the show almost made me cry both nights...
Wonderful concert, thanks everyone. I attend all three in the series and have renewed for next season. It was a refreshing way to present the works and I thoroughly enjoyed the format. I do like hearing the complete piece in the second half after learning about it during the first.
I second the appreciation for Sam's comments just before intermission - I found them very moving. And at least a couple of us in the audience knew that Sam had spent all morning making music with a couple hundred preschoolers - not an easy task.
Sam, I hope you found time for a nap between Kinder Konzerts and ItC - I know I did.
I would like to give some feedback on last night's concert (May 1,2008). I brought my 13 year old oboe playing teanager; we went to the pre-concert event on the oboe, which she enjoyed. We ate there and were looking forward to a "mom and daughter" evening. Although the performance itself was wonderful, the first half was much much too long. Way too much talking. By the time the piece was actually played after intermission, she was restless, bored and sleepy. I got the impression that you were trying to fill up the time since the piece itself is relatively short. My daughter also commented that what was the point of staying to hear the actual performance, since the first half had played so much of it?
We also have tickets to Galway this Saturday; she also plays the flute. She is now completely disgusted with going to the Orchestra and doesn't want to go on Saturday evening.
I realize that this is the reaction of only one teen, but even I have to say that 1/2 hour of "talking" should be the absolute maximum, and, the evening should be as advertised: 90 minutes.
Somehow I doubt that Osmo has a great pedicure like Sarah. ;)
We were at the Violin Concerto concert as well as the Copland and thoroughly enjoyed them both. Thank you.
We took our 10 and 8 year olds to them, and while I'm sure they didn't catch on to nearly everything, they were not bored or restless...and they are very typical little boys! During the excerpt from Rodeo last night, the 8-year-old said, "That sounds like it's from 'Fievel Goes West!'" So, he was already making connections with things he knows.
I confess, I didn't "get" what Mr. Steinberg was saying beyond what Sam had already said, but my dad's a musicologist and I don't get what he says some of the time, either! :)
Sam, well done on the scripts, although the language might stay a little more family friendly. ;)
Sam and Sarah, thanks for two very enjoyable concerts!
I attended the Copeland concert Thursday night as well as the other three in this series. All of them have been wonderful. Since I do not have a background in music, I really appreciate the indepth comments regarding the pieces played and the way the composer developed his music. I have learned much by attending this series and hope to attend at least two of these concerts next season. Bravo to Sarah and Sam!!!
This was my first time at this type of concert format and was thoroughly enjoyable and informative. As I shared my enthusiasm with a friend who loves music but doesn't know where to begin I realized that this would be perfect to bring her to.
I attended with a friend and we both enjoyed the format, especially the information about the historical influences on the music and the inclusion of excerpts from other pieces.
I suppose, Mr. Bergman, I am curious as to where in rural Pennsylvania you grew up as I seem to run into ex-Penns in the strangest of places!
Happy to oblige, Nickel, although I should stress that I said "semi-rural." I grew up in central Bucks County, Buckingham Township, about halfway between Philadelphia and Allentown on the Jersey border. The nearest town of any size is called Doylestown, and while the whole area is becoming decidedly suburban these days, it was mostly open farmland when we moved there in the mid-1980s.
If you're familiar with the singer-songwriter John Gorka, who was originally from New Jersey, lived for a long time in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley, and now lives here in the Twin Cities, you may remember that he once wrote a song called "Houses in the Fields," about endless sprawling development taking over rural areas. That song pretty much describes where I'm from perfectly.
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