February 28 - Happy

Wrote the Marin Symphony review, below. Recorded Mice and Men, Act I, J ("No, look, Lennie"), plus Waiting for Godot, Act I, XII-XIV.

Harriet's birthday tonight, so heading out soon. We'll celebrate at home, since inadvertently we have a DSL guy showing up sometime this evening. Then H off to Modesto for a job... No rest for the artistic....

***

Dance Pop at Marin Symphony

by Mark Alburger

Dance may have been the unifying thread in the Marin Symphony's most recent
outings on February 25 and 27 at Veterans Auditorium in San Rafael. Beginning
with Zoltan Kodály's "Dances of Galanta" and concluding with Ludwig van
Beethoven's "Symphony No. 7," which Carl Maria von Weber once described as "the
apotheosis of the dance" -- the program sandwiched a new version of Osvaldo
Golijov's "The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind," which itself provides many
lithe moments.

"Galanta" is one of the highpoints of its composer's career, considerably
gentler than the rowdy "Hary Janos," and sweet to the ear in its exploration of
many things native Hungarian. As has been typical over the past few years
under music director Alasdair Neale, the ensemble allowed the music to shine.

The orchestral strings were joined by multi-clarinetist Todd Palmer in
"Dreams and Prayers," a dashing work first heard by this reviewer on January 19,
1996, with the Kronos Quartet and Klezmer clarinetist David Krakauer at
Berkeley's Hertz Hall. At that time, Golijov was a relatively new voice on the
scene, in a program that also featured "John [Adams]'s Book of Alleged Dances,"
against which "Drams" certainly held its own. Here, as before, the clarinet's
prominent downward halfstep motive and wide vibrato set the stage for sudden
high octave snake-charmer leap out of the sonic basket of strings. There was a
George Crumb abruptness and a post-minimal sensibility to the mesmeric
figurations which suggested a kind of updated Bartókian "Contrasts" -- nicely
connecting Golijov with Kodály's Eastern European compatriot, Béla Bartók. Palmer
wailed and trilled and traded for a blustery bass clarinet which soon ascended
into a Bronx cheer -- like an E-flat castrato clarinet on steroids tugging at
the emotions. A Morton-Feldman-tinged section was a machine-gun marriage of
"The Godfather" and "Fiddler on the Roof," a classical crossover extravaganza,
with fragments of folk song violently broken off. There were glassy trills,
Crumb-accelerando one-note passages, and sheer joy.

Sheer joy was also the order of the evening in a resounding performance of
the Beethoven Seventh. From rhapsodic opening oboe arpeggiation and bumptious
Siciliana rhythms of the first movement, through the heartbreakingly poignant
counterpoint and snap-rhythm absurdities of the interior sections, to the manic
close -- this was a performance that captured the spirit.

February 27 - Arrivals and Departures

Orchestrated Waiting for Godot, Op. 128: Act I, XII On our hands through

 XIV. I'm hungry!, off to Marin Symphony in eve.

February 26 - Apocryphal of Lies

Orchestrated XI. What Exactly from Act I of Godot and wrote the sfcv article below.

Will add sound clips to early Mice and Men excerpts plus record above orchestration.

***

Jon Russell's Up to Some Fine Music

First there was the legendary "Hat's off gentlemen, a genius," said to have
been said by Robert Schuman, in reference to the young Johannes Brahms. Then
there was the apocryphal "Keep your hats on gentlemen, an idiot," bestowed on
the spurious P.D.Q. Bach. The truth lies much closer to the former with regard
to Jonathan Russell, whose dynamic music was heard on February 24, at the
beautiful Recital Hall in the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's impressive
new home at 50 Oak Street.

Russell is a welcome new voice in Bay Area music who has been "focused on
integrating . . . vernacular music of various sorts and minimalism" into his own
endeavors. The results were very happily displayed in an engaging recital
that enlisted many of the SFCM's circle of talent in addition to other first-rate
performers.

As a single-reed performer of note, Russell's music is, like many
composer-instrumentalists, informed by his hands on experience, in terms of timbres and
virtuosity. He began in home territory (although foreign to many) with a
sensitive yet pugnacious duet entitled "...and the Beast..." (2006), where he was
joined by fellow bass clarinetist Jeff Anderle as the Sqwonk Duo. Through five
motivically-linked movements, Russell found the beauty in the Beast, as well
as the malevolence and passion, in an essay that seemed to evoke the mysteries
of John Gardner's "Grendel" and other beasties. The interest in evoking
perfectly-tuned intervals of the fifth reflected at once a nice minimal (La Monte
Young, Philip Glass) and medieval consciousness.

"Three Lonely Piano Pieces" (2006) ushered in the highlight of the evening's
enterprises: "Techonobabble" (2007), one of the finest
Pierrot-ensemble-and-percussion pieces that has been heard in quite some time. Aiming to combine
"Latin American dance music, techno dance music, and Minimalist textures" in the
first movement, the composer largely succeeds. This is large-scale, ambitious
music that pleases and finds a balance that neither trivializes nor
de-vitalizes its various influences. Commendations are due all around to flutist Laura
Snodgrass (as our lady of perpetual dancing motion in the third movement);
clarinetist Anderle (who was provided by the composer with the most distinctive
and knowing colors); substantial percussionist Erika Johnson (proving equally
adept at trap set and mallets); and violinist Claude Halter, cellist Hanna
Addario-Berry, and pianist Kate Campbell for overall excellence. Russell proved
a capable conductor of his work in this capacity, and we look forward to his
future activities in this arena as well.

"Runion" (2006) proved to be another basso single-reed outing, in this case
upping the ante by doubling up to four bass clarinetists. The ensemble is
known as Edmund Welles, and consists of group founder Cornelius Boots, plus Aaron
Novick, Anderle, and the composer. They played like they have played for a
time together, and they have -- evincing that kind of ensemble-tightness that
comes from many happy hours in consort. "Runion" rollicked and burped its way
through a variety of territory, yet opened and closed with sustained beauty in
a chorale derived from Charles Mingus. J.S. Bach smiled gently over it all,
despite a title derived from a melding of "red onions" and "Rupelstiltskin."
"Reunion" and "rutting" also came to mind.

The second part of the program was given over to "Night Songs" (2007), which
despite the title and Federico Garcia Lorca settings, called to mind not so
much Bela Bartok and George Crumb, but Russell's own alternative musical
universe. Starting up, and often continuing appropriately enough, in the dark, this
is a dramatic piece that calls for commitment among its various players by
requiring memorized performances and hazardous performer processions in the half
light. It is perhaps a piece only its composer could pull off, being a rather
heterogeneous collection of his various ensemble enthusiasms, that being the
aforementioned Edmund Welles Bass Clarinet Quartet, in addition to Oogog
(Russell's alto sax, joined by electric guitarist Ryan Brown, Josh Campbell, and
electric bassist Damon Waitkus), Duo Fuoco (flutist Snodgrass and guitarist Jacob
Kramer), plus other new-music experts Eric Carter (baritone), Kelcey Gavar
(contralto), Johnson (percussion), Halter and Nicola Drake (violin), Matthew
Davies (viola), and Addario-Berry (cello), all conducted at times by Joseph
Gergorio.

If the piece really didn't add up, perhaps it wasn't supposed to. The drama
of the differently-placed ensemble members (Edmund Welles initially in the
balcony, for instance) was intriguing, the opening "Prelude/Chant" evocative.
Various groups were set against each other, but even more convincing were the
more heterogeneously-blended moments, where virtually the entire membership was
allowed to soar or shriek. The composer otter stayed one step ahead of
listeners in terms of setting up and delightfully surprising or thwarting
expectations.

We look forward to many more works from this fine young composer.

February 25 - Colorful Music

Wanted to stop by Diablo Valley College late Saturday night on way back from San Francisco but resisted.

Spent the morning organizing the chaos of CD's that has arisen since starting to record complete works two years ago, then some time getting ready for the composer-performer get-together at Goat Hall in SF.

Event was great -- fine-to-excellent singers, plus presentations from Steven Clark,

Dave (D.C.) Meckler,

Brian Holmes,

John Partridge, and moi.

Steven's Dionyus sounds in fantastic exotic Grecian-tweaky form, while

Dave's Albion Deity is hilarious and beautiful in its language distortions (a computer attempting to interpret Robert Schumann's Dichterliebe into English by sheer analogous sounds alone).  Also amusing and energetic material from Brian and John.  Took a number of pics, but the camera does leave a bit to be desired re clarity and focus.

Performed the one-singer version of Two Thieves from Waiting for Godot plus  

Nobody in There from The Playboy of the Western World, and gratified to have enthusiastic and talented casts lined up.

On a whim, driving in with Harriet, happened on a notion to perform Godot parody in all-female high-fashion version as Waiting for Bardot (thanks, Steven), with Vladimira and Estragonetta waiting for job interviews at an emporium, Pozzo as a Meryl-Streep-type in The Devil Wears Prada, Lucky as Ugly Betty, and the Boy as the Girl (maybe as the Boy).

Late to beautiful and peaceful U.C. Davis Library for research on orchestration of Igor Stravinsky's The Rake's Progress, for use in Bardot/Godot, since the I.S. is the troping source.

February 24 - Progress

As it turned out, didn't record any Antigone vocals. Instead, added a few sounds to Cats, Dogs, and Divas: XVI. The Proposition, since Doug Michael liked the recording so much that he wanted to play it in class.  Initially resisted, but, as I'll do just about anything for a performance, found a way.  The deal was that for the presentation, the work had to utilize six audio files, and Maggie and my vocals only amounted to three.  The solution here was to add three slide whistles from the BBC sound effects Comedy folder -- erased the ascents, and merely utilized contrapuntal descents.  That was to be about all, but then happened upon the same collections' same folders' file entitled "Orgy."  Couldn't resist.  In truth it's rather jovial and tame, but certainly adds a certain licentious edge.  Harriet cautions that it may not be in the spirit of the piece, and she's right....

Spent most of the day preparing Act II of The Playboy of the Western World, printed out a rough of III, then off to San Francisco in the eve to review John Russell's San Francisco Conservatory composition show for SF Classical voice.

Beautiful new building for SFCM -- 50 Oak Street -- in the heart of things musical in SF (Sym, Opera, Gr Rm in Veterans) -- fair walk in the rain with a hole-in-the- shoe from up Page Street, across from the Buddhist Center known from year's past w/ Darcy, now D'Arcy....

Recital Hall beautifully compact, simply as a legit grand hall on a miniscule level, holding c. 100.  Nice to see the unflapable Harry Bernstein from SF Composers Orchestra and Steve Ettinger (and his brother, also a composer, who is studying with John) from NACUSA and Monterey composers group.  Harry's chamber music for multiple alto flutes and Steve's Mihara Castle have been highlights in the last few years.  John's show was great -- full report in sfcv.org and here soon.

Finished Tacitus's Histories (AD 105) somewhere in there -- intriguing writing re the seige of Jerusalem....

February 23 - Good Times, Under the Circumstances

Feverishly preparing at least first act of The Playboy of the Western World at home this morning, and more tonight, for publication.  Score was left in a complete, but not polished, state, several years ago.  Have to have something ready for the composer/performer get-together at Goat Hall, this Sunday at 2pm, which is open to the public.  Perhaps also Lot in Life, Waiting for Godot -- we'll see...

At lab now adding a few sound effects for beginning selections of Act I Mice and Men.  Perhaps recording a bit of Antigone, too....

February 22 - Who Knew?

Emeryville ensemble proved to be a delightful and expert group -- had a great time conducting a read-through of the Bohuslav Martinu Nonet (a very late work), which they will perform on March 10 and 13 -- SFCCO will prevent my attendance at former date, of course, but perhaps I can attend the latter.

Ted Rust's studio, where the deeds were done, is in a warehouse almost directly under Powell Street in Emeryville -- intriguing -- somewhat akin to Paul Dresher's impressive space in Oakland....

In lab today to record Mice and Men, Act I, H ("I don't want no ketchup") -- full score still in manuscript, but planning to use Cubase keyboard entry to prepare a MIDI score, which would be pretty much a first for me...

Just heard from friend Eric Mitchko -- one of my former students at Westtown School -- who is brand new to myspace and now with Atlanta Opera.  Wow!