Where I've been

It’s been a pretty busy past couple of weeks, which is why there hasn’t been more on here lately.
Some highlights: A concert with Trio Medieval performing works specially written for them. Sometimes the tuning was so tight that it made your head throb...in a good way. The week after was a visit from avant-garde early music group Joglaresa in concert celebrating the diverse musical traditions of Spain in the middle-ages. The day after that was my all-German second degree recital featuring Beethoven’s ‘An die ferne Geliebte’. In the end the barrage of strophic songs in German (yes, the song cycle as a whole is through-composed, but each song within it is strophic) proved to be a bit much for me and I resorted to using music for the cycle. The policy on memorization is very loose here and I still felt like I was able to give a convincing performance with the music. There is something about a singer giving a performance from memory, but some of us aren’t the world’s best memorizers. Plus, when I do oratorio or chamber work I use music and nobody has a problem with it. I think if a singer feels more confident with music and can use it without being locked to it, then they should by all means use it. I think this is probably the most intense practicing I’ve done in a few years. It was kind of nice to feel like a real singer again, taking the time to really work through every piece getting it well-placed in my voice. Hopefully I can ride this momentum for awhile. Following the recital was a concert this weekend of anthems by Purcell and John Blow. Gotta love that tortured chormaticism and those snaky vocal lines. I have a few weeks until any other concerts, and I hope to start my next research project. After descending into the abyss of contemporary musicology with my music theatre and Bjork projects, I’m very ready to do something more traditional this time. The plan is to investigate French song and the Franco-Prussian war of 1870. I’m intrigued by the idea of an inter-disciplinary paper which can incorporate elements of politics, history and sociology. We’ll see how long this enthusiasm lasts...

R.I.P. Floyd Patterson

I was sad to read the news that boxer Floyd Patterson passed away this week. In addition to being two-time heavyweight champion, he was also a prominent figure in my little upstate New York town. I only saw him on a few occasions, but he did come to talk to our class one time. My impression of him was of a humble, quiet, hard-working man. New Paltz and the world will miss him.

You can read his obituary in the New York Times here:

Fun in Leeds

Went to a lovely concert last night in Leeds as part of the FuseLeeds new music festival. I don’t know why it’s taken me this long to realise that there is a lot more going on in Leeds (only ½ hour away by train) than York. Ah well, at least I know it’s there now.

The concert was the BBC Symphony playing Britten, Debussy and John Adams conducted by James Conlon. My primary reason for going was to hear Britten’s ‘Les Illuminations’ sung by John Mark Ainsley, a singer I’ve been interested in for awhile now. The voice was as beautiful as I expected, if a little smaller than it seems on recordings. Ainsley is a probing, thoughtful performer and a commanding figure with a serious bearing (helped no doubt by his height and bald head – seems like kind of a bad ass if you ask me). "Les Illuminations" always seems like a bit of a novelty, being the youthful Britten’s first excursion into the French language (and bravely setting Rimbaud - most French composers don’t even attempt that). I’ve always liked the piece and it has a great youthful energy, even if it doesn’t achieve the depth of some of his later song cycles and operas. I was reminded in this piece and the "Four Sea Interludes" from Peter Grimes that opened the program of how skilled an orchestrator Britten was. It’s certainly more illuminating (yes, pun intended) to hear his music live than on CD. But then again, what orchestral music really sounds better on CD anyway...

I regret that I am relatively unfamiliar with John Adams’ music. Last night’s piece "Harmonium", for choir and orchestra, was full of throbbing intensity, subtle rhythmic variation and at times lush stacked harmony. Listening to this piece, I could hear where Eric Whitacre learned some of his tricks (Whitacre’s unbelievably beautiful harmonic language is all his own though.) I’d be interested in hearing more Adams, in particular the new opera Dr. Atomic which premiered last summer. I’m curious to hear how he uses all of his tools in the context of a dramatic work.

The rest of the festival looks really good, with a mixture of contemporary classical music, multi-media and cross-genre collaboration. Particularly mouth-watering is Wednesday’s London Sinfonietta concert which features a group of songs by Antony (of Antony and the Johnsons) and Nico Muhly (worked with Bjork) sung by Antony. For me it’s a toss-up between this concert and a concert by (friends-of-York Uni) Trio Medieval. I think I will probably go to the Trio Medieval concert because the London Sinfonietta concert will be broadcast on Radio 3 later in the month. Nice to have too many concerts to go to rather than not enough!