After Hours: Thursday Edition
Your turn, Thursday crowd. Let us hear your thoughts on the show, the series, the orchestra, and anything else that's on your mind in the comments, and don't forget to check out the Cutting Room Floor for more on Mozart, the other Mozart, and prodigies in general. Also, keep on coming back to the blog throughout the year - Sarah and I are pretty much always writing...
Our next Inside the Classics shows come up at the end of January, and I can tell you without hesitation that this is a program I've been looking forward to writing and performing for well over a year now. Felix Mendelssohn have been the greatest musical prodigy of all time, and his music, whether written at age 15 or 30, is full of childlike energy and the kind of inner drive that you can't help but get caught up in. It certainly ought to be enough to make you forget momentarily about the long, dark winter we'll undoubtedly be slogging through at that point. I hope you'll be with us, and as always, bring a friend along!
Our next Inside the Classics shows come up at the end of January, and I can tell you without hesitation that this is a program I've been looking forward to writing and performing for well over a year now. Felix Mendelssohn have been the greatest musical prodigy of all time, and his music, whether written at age 15 or 30, is full of childlike energy and the kind of inner drive that you can't help but get caught up in. It certainly ought to be enough to make you forget momentarily about the long, dark winter we'll undoubtedly be slogging through at that point. I hope you'll be with us, and as always, bring a friend along!
Labels: after hours, audience feedback
posted by Sam at
9:30 PM
5 Comments:
Hi Sarah and Sam,
Thursday was my first Inside the Classics concert and I just want to say goob job and a big thank you for a thoroughly enjoyable evening. I have been a big fan of your blog (thanks for updating it so frequently: I know it's never easy) for a few months now since I discovered it in the summer. I was very happy to see you guys in person last night, at last!
Orchestra life (rehearsals, competitions, performances) was a major part of my life in high school, but since I left home for college I have been disconnected with music. Last month when work got very stressful I decided to try something new (or old, maybe?). Thanks to your student discounts, your concerts are very affordable. (Yeah, I'm a 20-something grad student, if that proves your blog's success in drawing younger audiences!) I felt at home instantly when the musicians started tuning their instruments on stage.
I love your conversational format since, let's admit it, finding a friend who is equally enthusiastic in classical music in my age group is not easy (unfortunately I'm not in the School of Music). The admosphere alone made the subject very approachable, and this really made Inside the Classics unique. Sarah's music theory part was informative and made the concert more rewarding: I knew what to look for during the performance. (As a side note, I also find it fascinating that counterpoint played a role in Mozart's courtship with Constanze, who, according to one of Mozart's letters to his sister, fell in love with Baroque counterpoint at that time. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constanze_Mozart)
Thank you, also, for staying behind after the concert for Q&A. I appreciate your effort to really approach and engage the audience in conversation even after a potentially draining performance.
Please keep up the good work, both the concerts and this blog! I look forward to seeing you guys again in January.
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
With my warmest regards,
Wonderful program! This was my first "Inside the Classics" but as soon as I got home I ordered tickets for the next one.
I would love to hear more music theory -- I think this is accessible even for people who are only minimally musically literate. Having Mozart's themes/melodies played independently made me enjoy the performance even more, listening for each melody and appreciating the way they sounded together.
Keep up the great work, and I look forward to the next one!
Sam and Sarah,
Outstanding job, as usual. I do love Sarah's detour into music theory, done in a way everyone can understand and appreciate.
One question: Sarah, you mentioned that this was perhaps the 20th time you've conducted the Jupiter. And, I suspect, if you add up all the times it's been conducted since Mozart wrote it, it's probably in the six-digit range.
So what is your personal goal when you approach conduction a great, but oft-performed piece like this? Do you try to do it differently that you have before? Do you try to hit a par on the piece set by one of the big-name conductors who recorded it? How do you get pumped up when anticipating conducting a piece done so often, including by you?
And, Sam, same question for you: How do you avoid, as a musician, "mailing it in" when it's a piece you've done so much and know so well?
(And, by the way, you guys definitely didn't mail it in last night; it was a really good performance. I loved it and was glad to see the night was a sellout.)
Don
Thanks, everyone, for the comments so far! I'm glad to hear that the music theory stuff makes sense because I'm always a little reticent to get into the technical nitty-gritty of composition (retrograde inversion, anyone?).
Don, to answer your question, it definitely can be tricky to keep things fresh. But the thing about working with an orchestra as great as the MO, I know I can play around with ideas in a concert and actually react to something I hear, and the orchestra will react again in kind. There's always a give-and-take onstage, and that prevents any two performances of anything from being identical.
I don't really think about the great recordings of a piece, because, really, I wouldn't agree with everything another conductor is doing - because everything is a matter of perspective, and what you yourself, individually, see a particular piece. Music is so subjective, and I feel like the further I study a piece, the more subjective the choices become!
As for getting pumped up, it takes energy, for sure, but I've always loved the performance aspect of what I do, because at that moment it's do-or-die up there. I've often said I'm most happy on the podium during a concert - it's when I'm most focused and most in the moment, so it's hard not to get enthused for that!
Dear Sarah and Sam,
This is the second Inside Classics my son and I have attended (we saw the Appalachian Spring last April and became subscribers to the series this year). We thoroughly enjoy your format and all of the information (including the music theory). I am a private music teacher but it was many years ago for my music theory and history classes so I appreciate the refresher. I also loved watching Serena Lu play - she is a very talented pianist - sitting in the front row I was able to appreciate her fine touch on the piano. And, Sam, as a fellow violist it's nice to see one of us out front!
One last comment from my son. He is a mentally challenged 22 year old who loves coming to the concerts - but especially ones where Sarah and Osmo are conducting. His obsessive and repetitve behaviors disappear when he is listening to your beautiful music. It has taken this long to find a venue we can attend together which is relaxing and calming for him. Because of this, he has also been able to attend concerts where I am performing and sit on his own without supervision. Thank you so much for your artistry! We are looking forward to the rest of the season!
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