A release for the 2009 Tanglewood season arrived in the OM Inbox the other day and after a bit of a perusal, these are the ten Miss Mussel would attend. Click those affiliate links folks and it just might happen.

Friday, July 10, 8:30 p.m. Shed
BSO | Herbert Blomstedt, baton | Emanuel Ax, piano
NIELSEN Helios Overture | BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 4 | BRAHMS Symphony No. 4

Sunday, July 12, 2:30 p.m. Shed
BSO | Herbert Blomstedt, baton | Joshua Bell, violin
BEETHOVEN Egmont Overture | BRUCH Violin Concerto No. 1 | DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 8

Tuesday, July 14, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Le Concert des Nations | Jordi Savall, director
LULLY Suite from Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme | BIBER Battalia à 10 | CORELLI Concerto IV in D | HANDEL Concerto grosso in G minor, Op. 6, No.6 | SCARLATTI/AVISON Concerto IX in Seven Parts | BOCCHERINI La Musica notturna di Madrid

Friday, July 17, 8:30 p.m. Shed
BSO | James Levine, baton | Leon Fleisher, piano
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 23 in A, K.488 | MAHLER Symphony No. 6

Saturday, July 25, 8:30 p.m. Shed
BSO | James Levine, baton | Soile Isokoski, soprano | Matthias Goerne, baritone | Tanglewood Festival Chorus
BRAHMS A German Requiem

Sunday, August 2, 2:30 p.m. Shed
BSO | Thomas Dausgaard, baton | Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 3 | RACHMANINOFF Symphony No. 2

Monday, August 3, 8 p.m. Shed
Tanglewood Music Center Vocal and Conducting Fellows and Orchestra
Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, baton | Peter Serkin, piano
STRAVINSKY - Pulcinella (complete) | Concerto for Piano and Winds | Suite from The Firebird (1919)

Thursday, August 6, 8 p.m. Ozawa Hall
Mark Morris Dance Group | Tanglewood Music Center Fellows
Mark Morris, choreographer | Emanuel Ax, piano | Colin Jacobsen, violin | Yo-Yo Ma, cello

New work (world premiere) — IVES Trio for piano, violin, and cello | ‘A Lake’ — HAYDN Horn Concerto No. 2 | New work (world premiere) — BEETHOVEN Sonata No. 4 in C for cello and piano, Op. 102, No. 1

Friday, August 7 – Tuesday, August 11
Festival of Contemporary Music | Augusta Reed Thomas, director

Sunday, August 9, 2:30 p.m. Shed
BSO | Julian Kuerti, baton | Yo-Yo Ma, cello
PERLE Sinfonietta No. 2 | SHOSTAKOVICH Cello Concerto No. 1 | FAURÉ Elégie, for cello and orchestra | BIZET Symphony in C

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Maybe it’s the snow; maybe it’s the new speakers on which an inordinate amount of Christmas carols will be played or maybe it’s the thrill of discovering one of the most original marketing idea/Christmas gift she’s ever seen.

Well, for classical music people at least. The inevitable knick-knack featuring some sort of super-lame pun or horrific incorporation of a french horn is a thing of the past, folks. Be the coolest nerd on the block with this:

For some reason, the construction of the Elbphilharmonie Hall in Hamburg has captivated Miss Mussel’s attention. It’s a combination of excellent design and one of the most well-executed marketing campaigns she’s ever seen that has made sure this project has stayed on her provincial Canadian radar for over a year.

In case it’s unclear, the idea is that you can personalize the poster with your name, kind of like the Adopt-A-Highway program only better because….well…it just is. Plus, because the text is in German, the recipient will feel even more cool in a Stuff White People Like/Euro sort of way.

The poster is roughly 2 by 3 feet, comes in either blue, pink or green and costs €75. ($95US/$116CDN). A bit steep for a poster, but way cooler than that tired old print of Starry Night you were going to get.

The order form is auf Deutsche but is fairly standard, so you should be able to guess what’s what.

Miss Mussel will leave it to the experts to discuss other possibilities for this sort of marketing idea but from where she’s sitting, a more general ownership of the local symphony/opera company [both literally and figuratively] can only result in good things.

Note to City Opera of New York: You need personalized posters, STAT.

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Tracks: Sling Shot | Axis | Kaleidoscope | Transition | Tug of War | Dervish | Ink Blot | Blue Kite | Livre | Waiting | Rainkids | Air & Angels | Vermont Rules | Trottola |

LISTEN TO AXIS | BUY THIS RECORD

Although widely recorded as a member of the Kronos Quartet, Strange Toys is cellist Joan Jeanrenaud’s first solo disc comprised of pieces entirely of her own composing.

The tracks are short, with only three of the 14 creeping over the five minute mark, and heavily influenced by the patterns and tonality of the Reich et al. Cellists looking for something more listener-friendly to accompany Kodaly, Britten or Hindemith on a recital program might consider Vermont Rules.

Transition, the longest piece on the disc by far, is also head and shoulders above the rest in terms of original execution of ideas. Scored for two cellos and two violas da gamba, this piece is a study in colour and texture that is engaging right from its neo-Baroque opening. The structure is similar to Pachelbel’s Canon in the sense that it starts with a ground and each added voice is at half the note value the previous line. The wooly tone of the gamba is haunting and creates the interest in what would be a pretty but forgettable composition exercise.

After five minutes, a more ominous, improvisatory section begins hesitantly at first and then settles into a solo line over what sounds like a phase-shifted accompaniment. The canon returns briefly before the piece ends without harmonic resolution.

As I was listening, many of the pieces reminded me of something else: Air on a G String, Pachelbel’s Canon, Bach’s C major prelude, Shostakovich’s 8th String Quartet. The similarities were more in sensibility rather than a straight borrowing of themes. Whether this reveals Jeanrenaud’s influences or my own prejudices is a question that will have to stay unanswered for the moment. At any rate, this disc provides a peek inside a curious musician’s mind and a welcome respite to the heavy-hitters that populate cello repertoire.

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Basically, the message is if you’re planning to buy your nephew an iPod Nano, why not do it through the link on this page or in the sidebars. The affiliate links mean you get the same service you would get if you went directly to the site with the added bonus being that Miss Mussel gets a small percentage of the sale. You could say that she is now accepting kickbacks from the Internet Marketing Mafia.

Any income will be used to fund trips to hear and review orchestras or summer festival concerts throughout this country.

The following are the companies with which Miss Mussel is affiliated and short summary of the wondrous deals that await, should you decide to click. Some obnoxious Christmas music has been selected to help make your shopping experience more authentic.

DVDs: The Office, Keeping Up Appearances, Allo, Allo et al for the funny bone and for the Sir David Attenborough fan in your life: The Complete Natural History Series in HD, The Wildlife Specials, Planet Earth/Blue Planet Collectors’ Edition. And finally, for the person who has everything or has a terminal case of the nerds: the essential Doctor Who Dalek Voice Changer Helmet

You may have to put up with some zealous use of the letter u in the text but American shoppers will enjoy bargains galore at this Canadian version of Barnes and Noble. The Canadian dollar is low, plus you avoid state sales tax. Also, orders of $39 or more qualify for FREE SHIPPING and the top 50 bestsellers are 45% off.

Tis the season to be calling your relatives on the cheap. Skype can help. All of the continental USA and Canada [just in case you have to call customer support for the North Pole] is just 2¢ per minute. A quick dig down the back of the couch, and presto change-o you now have you now have enough coin to listen to Aunt Mabel detail her entire list of health problems.

All the magazines you could ever want. Even the ones that come in brown wrappers. Steep discounts and a three month trial make this gift a top ranker on the givee satisfaction v. price index. For those of you with more intellectual tastes, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Harper’s and The Atlantic are also there.

iPhones, iPods and various other Apple accoutrements.
Free shipping on orders of $50 or more plus free engraving on the back of any iPod.
Guaranteed increase in your coolness quotient by a factor of 3.

As always, your support is much appreciated.

All the best,
Miss Mussel

PS Tell all your friends. There’s no pyramid scheme/MLM marketing going here, so you’ll have to take payment in karma or similar. IT’S NOT TO LATE TO GIVE SANTA A REASON TO CHANGE HIS MIND.

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John Matthias | Nick Ryan | Thom Yorke | Neil Grant | John Fisher | Gabriel Prokofiev | Marcas Lancaster | David Prior | John MacLean | Simon Tong | Dominic Murcott | Andy Prior | Marcus Coates

Paring down the scientific rationale for this disc into 200 words of intensely riveting copy is proving to be quite difficult. According to composers John Matthias and Nick Ryan, the appeal was “the [...] idea of generating melodies and textures using neuronal network firing events, which might form rhythmic patterns or ‘cortical songs’.” *

Cortical Songs is scored for solo violin and string orchestra with the ensemble parts being determined in part by signals from a computer brain. The first and second movements are melody base and show some promise as concert pieces. The asymmetrical pizzicato bass line of the second movement is most appealing and the piece would have benefitted from a more thorough exploration of that idea.

The final two movements are based “directly on the neuronal firing times of groups of artificial cortical neurons” and therefore sound much more like a contemporary music cliché.

The 11 remaining tracks are mostly forgettable remixes of the material. Thom Yorke and Simon Tong are the most immediately recognizable names on the roster but they aren’t responsible for the most imaginative tracks. That honour goes to Marcus Coates and Gabriel Prokofiev, the man behind the NonClassical label and concert series at The MacBeth in London.

Coates’ track, titled ‘0.2 - 20,000%’ is the only one of the bunch to play with the melodic material. Everyone else, including Yorke, went for a far more ambient approach, which results in a weak connection between source product and remix. Prokofiev’s track sounds as if he used the volume knob to create a rhythm with the various samples. It’s a brilliant effect that is oddly disorienting even after beats are introduced.

This disc would good for someone who is already quite familiar with the electronica and contemporary classical music worlds. Those looking for a gateway disc will have better luck elsewhere.

*Matthias and Ryan’s detailed rationale

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Baroque and early Classical music, that is to say music composed between roughly 1600-1800, offers many rewards to those that are willing to take the time to really get to know the repertoire. For those of us that aren’t able to devote a significant part of our lives to studying the 17th and 18th centuries, the next best thing is to listen to someone who has.

Tania Miller, currently the conductor of the Victoria Symphony on Vancouver Island, is just such a person. Although she is known for her innovative approach to programming, much of her early experience was with Baroque orchestras. Wednesday night at First United Church in Waterloo, she led the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony in cracking program centred on Joseph Haydn (1732-1809).

Miller’s conducting is fluid and expressive without being showy, a style that, if their performance was any indication, was a hit with the orchestra. The opening piece of the concert was the fantastic Concerto No. 12 in G major by Georg Muffat (1653-1704). Although most Baroque music unfolds at a steady tempo, Miller gave the music plenty of room to breathe, so the movements never felt like they were on autopilot. The Ciacona alone is enough to warrant adding this bit of Muffat to your record collection.

Hadyn’s Cello Concerto in C major is one of his most cheerful works. All the cello’s open strings are native to the C major scale as well as its dominant and subdominant, which results in an appealing ringing sound. After a promising opening, soloist Andrea Herzog unfortunately never quite settled in.

I wasn’t convinced by her rather leisurely tempo choices, however I did very much like the cheeky quote of the opening theme of Haydn’s more popular D major cello concerto in the first movement cadenza. The second movement lost significant momentum along the way and while the third movement was suitably peppy it would have been nice to hear a little more of the mid-register busywork that makes the finale so exciting.

Miller has a gift for addressing to the audience and the short introductions she gave before each piece were a delight, striking just the right balance between lecture and causal chat.

Although there were two pieces preceding it, Haydn’s Symphony No.59 was far and away the highlight of the second half, if not the evening. It is in large-scale works like symphonies that conductors can really make their mark and Miller was, in a word, brilliant.

Haydn wasn’t much of a tunesmith as compared to say, Mozart or Schubert and his legendary wit is very much a product of its time, so doesn’t always translate to 21st century sensibilities. For these reasons, I often find his pieces to be a lot of work to fully appreciate.

Wednesday night, I finally understood why Haydn fans love him so much. The music was alive, full of joy and sparkled in all the right places. Even the first and last movements, which by Miller’s own admission don’t even have a proper melody, were completely engaging from the opening chords to the final cadence. Top drawer horn playing by Martin Limoges and Deborah Stroh in the last movement was the icing on the cake.

The concert repeats tonight at Harcourt United Church in Guelph and tomorrow at Central Presbyterian, Cambridge. Both concerts are at 8pm.

Next Concert
Le Mozart Noir with Anita Walsh and Linda Melsted, violins and Simon Streatfield, baton.
January 7th — First United Church, Waterloo
January 9th — Harcourt United Church, Guelph
January 10th — Central Presbyterian, Cambridge
All concerts at 8pm

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In the interests of starting off with a bang, in this inaugural TechTalk installment, Marcia will free all non-US residents from internet tyranny and discrimination by showing you how to access Pandora, NBC.com and Hulu gratis. Ascertaining whether this sort of thing is legal where you live is your responsibility.

These sites work on the premise of IP address, so if you are trying to access them from an address that is not based in the United States, you’re S.O.L. Until now. There are several IP masks available for a monthly subscription but just yesterday I stumbled across one that is that most magical of adjectives: FREE. After intensive testing over the last three hours, I can say that so far my computer has not melted down and last week’s episode of 30 Rock was very amusing.

It’s a browser plug-in, so it uses negligible memory and can be turned off and on manually from your desktop toolbar.

The downside is that there is an ad frame on every page but once you find what you’re looking for, you can simply close the frame and view or listen without obstruction.

You can read more about the Anchor Free Hot Spot Shield plug-in and download it here.

Unfortunately, the folks in charge of the BBC iPlayer are a step ahead and require the connection to come from UK-based service providers. Proxy servers are a way around this, but it’s a bit more complicated to hook up and not very reliable.

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Nota Bene Period Orchestra

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Basically, this is all you need to make an ordinarily non-startlable Miss Mussel jump about 8 feet in the air. For reals. She had a series of mini-panic attacks just searching for a good photograph but if you had one too, it was 100% worth it.

Other things Miss Mussel finds scary are marching and wind ensembles, so you can imagine the terrification quotient of a marching band. Now, add Mussorgsky.

If your idea of scary involves vision of “the day the world will dissolve into ashes”…this little number might be just the ticket

This one is a bit more weird than actually run-to-the-closet terrifying but it does combine four things that have extraordinarily high terrification quotients: sopranos, dominatrices, clowns and easy listening. You’ve been warned.

Do you know of anything else that should be added to the list? Pop a link in the comments so everyone else can join in the scarefest.

Helpful Hallowe’en Hint: If you’re off to a party tonight and desperate for a costume, why not go as static cling? Simply tape socks, dryer sheets, pantyhose and a few pairs of your raciest underwear to your person and tease your hair. Granny pants are a no go for this costume. It’s the 5 minute intellectual costume concept….much better than going as a ghost or your evil twin. If you want to take it one step further, tape a balloon or two to yourself as well.

You’re welcome.

The OM will resume in full force on Monday with something other than program notes dug up from the archives. Promise.

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In 1816, when Symphony No.5 was written, Schubert was 19 years old. He was a prodigious but not precocious youth, composing many pieces but producing little of any real originality.

For the most part, he output was a rather able mimicking of Haydn and Mozart with a healthy dash of Rossini and Bach thrown in for colour. Indeed none of his teachers would ever have predicted that Schubert would create anything that would distinguish him from the multitude of composers working in Vienna at the time.

For some reason, in the autumn of 1814, Schubert’s yet untapped talent burst on the scene and, over the next 15 months, resulted in one of the most intensely creative periods of any Western artist’s life.

During his 18th year, he composed 150 songs, which works out to more than one every three days. He wrote more than songs during this time and when all his output is added up, it works out to roughly 65 bars of music per day, much of it for full orchestra.

This is all well and good for a focused, full time composer but when his day job as a school teacher, private teaching, vigorous concert attendance and enthusiastic socializing are taken into consideration, this output is simply mind-boggling.

The pace of 1815 tapered a little the following year but only just. Schubert still found time for 110 songs, a mass setting, two-thirds of an opera, Symphonies 4 and 5, a string quartet and three sonatas for violin and piano.

Despite this massive amount of material and large circle of friends, neither Schubert or his supporters had enough money to hire the musicians necessary to perform most of it. As such, very little of his work was performed during his liftetime. His fifth symphony was an exception and received its first performance in August of 1817 as part of a house concert series put on by Otto Hatwig, a prominent violinist in whose amateur orchestra Schubert often played viola.

ABOUT THE SYMPHONY
Although considered by musicologists to still be a juvenile work of Schubert’s the fifth symphony represents a significant advancement in originality and style from the fourth even thought they were composed in the same year.

A heavy debt is still owed to Mozart, particularly in the third movement where he essentially quotes the corresponding movement of his colleague’s Symphony No. 40. Teenagers are not the most subtle of creatures, so the obviousness of this tribute is not entirely surprising.

It is easy to point to Schubert’s influences and conclude that his early symphonies are not really of any consequence. That, however, would be a mistake. Symphony No.5 is full of good humour, good tunes and in places, sparkles with the promise of things to come.

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“I am not a famous artist or singer; I’m simple a civil engineer with a strong musical background.

Back to 1977; a piano recital in my home town theatre, all XX century compositions; the piece (I had never heard before) was Igor Stravinski’s Sonata (1924):

First movement’s theme enters darkly, the two hands playing the same melodic line….then continues nervously, joking, until the last measure: here, the last three chords suddenly open the doors of Heaven in front of me; breath-taking!

Now, my senses are alerted and ready to be surprised again…..but the mechanic precision of the second movement, unfortunately, leaves no emotions at first impact….

The third movement starts, even more nervous than the first; the left hand plays its difficult continuous “non legato”, very near to a “staccato”…..a fast ride lead us to the pre-final…..and finally the miracle is repeated! THE LAST THREE CHORDS reach the perfection!

I shared this moment with my friend and colleague Cesare; the morning after, separately, we both went to buy the score and, 4 years later, we both included this wonderful sonata in our final examination concert program.”

Do you have an experience to share? Pop it in an email along with a photograph of yourself (if you have one) and the OM team will get it posted.

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On the whole, Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) did not write pretty music. Tormented, terrifying, subversive and embittered, most definitely, but rarely ever pretty. His pieces are not devoid of beauty, it’s just that you have to wade through a lot of darkness to find it. Shostakovich is well known for his sarcasm and double meanings, so when a ray of sunshine does appear, you can never trust it. Often the sun’s warmth symbolizes the oppression of the Jews, the death of a loved one or the hypocrisy of Stalinist propaganda.

Shostakovich in small doses, contrasted with pieces that are a little less foreboding is entirely manageable but a full string quartet cycle such as the one presented last week by the Aviv Quartet at the Music Room requires a girding of loins almost unmatched in the chamber music repertoire.

Often symphony or string quartet cycles are just a collection of a single composer’s efforts in that genre, meaning there is not actual thematic link between the pieces like there is in a song cycle. While there no such link exists in Shostakovich’s quartets, he did conceive them as a cycle, aiming to write on in each key like Bach and Chopin did for keyboard. Including major and minor, there are 24 in the set but he only made it to fifteen before becoming too ill to continue. Spanning 36 years and varying in shade from partly cloudy to black tornadic storm, they are some of the most often played 20th century quartets.

Listening to 15 quartets in seven days means that the individual details of each piece are subsumed into the larger whole but the advantage of such intensive study is that you are able discover the nuances of the composer’s idiom. Hallmarks of Shostakovich’s quartet writing include extensive use of pizzicato; scoring the violins as a pair against the viola and cello; prominent use of the viola; short, repeated rhythmic motives and sardonic use of waltzes and marches.

Canadian cellist Rachel Mercer joining the Aviv Quartet in 2002 but the other three members, Sergei Ostrovsky (Violin I), Evgenia Epshtein (Violin II) and Shuli Waterman (Viola) have been playing together for 11 years. It shows.

The Aviv have a fantastic ensemble sound, distinctive in its robustness. Mercer’s cello growls on even the shortest notes while Epshtein can make her violin sound terrifying without getting out of control. Waterman had more than the usual number of chances to show her skill and musicality and she did not disappoint. Her sound is warm and full even in the upper register.

There are many moments in the cycle where Shostakovich trades in aggressiveness for unsettlingly bleak pianissimi. The Aviv took the decision to play without vibrato in these passages and although risky, it paid off in spades particularly when the violins were in the stratosphere.

On the rare occasions when prettiness was required, Ostrovsky was in his element, producing a sound that can only be described as an old-fashioned sweetness.

After such a monumental event, it seems unnecessary to point out flaws and even if I were in the mood to, there is little to choose from. Aside from occasional intonation slips, there was some sloppy ensemble pizzicati throughout the week however neither of these quibbles were a consistent problem and rarely distracted from the bigger picture.

In the quartets I knew well, the overall tempi were slower than expected however each time the Aviv made a strong case for a more relaxed pace.

One of the challenges of presenting a cycle, is deciding on the order of the pieces. Chronological seems the most logical but practically it doesn’t work. Trying to keep each concert at 120 minutes while making sure each individual concert is enjoyable requires a bit of juggling and every quartet has their own order. The Aviv chose to start with one and end with 15 but jumbled up the rest

In his pre-concert address, Ostrovsky said that although the quartet liked all of the pieces, 9 and 3 were Aviv favourites. For my money, the third evening with 6, 9 and 3 was the most balanced of the five nights.

This cycle was a big event for The Music Room the house was comfortably full each night. There were several regulars who attended each concert as well as sizeable cohort of newcomers.

As fantastic as the cycle was, it was a bit of a shame to hear the Aviv play only one part of the repertoire. A return visit to The Music Room with Brahms or Mozart on the program would be a treat indeed.

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Pulcinella Suite
Overture: Sinfonia
Serenata
Scherzino - Allegro - Andantino
Tarantella
Toccata
Gavotta - Variation I &II
Vivo
Minuetto - Finale

Igor Stravinsky

Neo-classicists were generally interested in combining the forms and structure of the 18th century with their own stylistic and harmonic ideas. Brahms was a pioneer in this field and relied heavily on traditional forms to create the framework up which he could layout his ideas. Other composers gave the style a go, of which Tchaikovksy’s Rococo Variations and Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony are fine examples.

Sergei Diaghilev

Stravinsky makes the music his own by spicing up the 18th century harmony and combining instruments to create new timbres. Prominent solo passages are given to the flute, oboe and trumpet. He also got excellent mileage out of his work and created Suite Italienne as well as the Pulcinella Suite from the full ballet score.

Pulcinella

All girls are attracted to Pulcinella’s magnetic charm, which, naturally, enrages their lovers, who plot to kill him. They seem to have succeeded until a magician appears to revive the corpse. In the end, the corpse was not Pulcinella at all but rather his friend Fourbo who impersonated him and feigned death. The magician reveals himself to be Pulcinella, who then promptly settles the marriages of the enraged lovers and marries his girlfriend while Fourbo assumes the guise of the magician.

The ballet was premiered on 15th May, 1920 and was heralded as the restoration of Russian ballet to its former glory. With sets by Picasso and choreography by Léonide Massinee, it was a true masterpiece, meaning it excelled in all areas. Some critics challenged the ethics of Stravinsky’s liberal appropriation of the original works but even they were not immune to the infectious wit and charm of the final production. Critic Reynaldo Hahn, a sceptic, was forced to admit that, “M. Stravinsky has never given proof of greater talent than in Pulcinella, nor of a surer taste in audacity.”

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Archduke Rudolph

The difference is noticeable immediately at the beginning of the first movement. Traditionally, the orchestra outlines the initial thematic material and the soloist enters after a lengthy wait. In this case, the piano begins with material that sounds as if it is being made up on the spot before the orchestra gently takes over and develops it. In the second movement, the calm piano line is the counterfoil to the gruff and restless strings.

Franz Liszt likened the soloist’s role to the legend of Orpheus taming the wild beasts with his lyre. Eventually, the piano’s serenity does prevail only to be overtaken by an energetic final-movement rondo. Wit rather than boisterousness is the name of the game although the brief coda does manage to break free and bring the piece to a rambunctious close.

Beethoven gave the premiere performance in a private concert at the palace of his patron Prince Lobkowitz in March of 1807. Acutely aware of his seriously diminished hearing, Beethoven scoured Vienna for a replacement to premiere the work in public. The first pianist he contacted said the piece was too difficult to learn quickly. The next soloist agreed to perform it but then, at the last minute, played another of Beethoven’s concertos. The composer was furious and despite his auditory difficulties, he took matters into his own hands and added the piece, with himself as soloist, to an already mammoth concert on 22 December, 1808.

The concert was put on at the Theater an der Wien in Vienna with his Fifth and Sixth symphonies and the Choral Fantasy being premiered along with the Concerto and some movements from the Mass in C major.

The ambitious concert ended up being a comedy of errors lasting over four hours. Even though the concert took place in the dead of winter, the hall was unheated and Beethoven’s difficult personality meant that the orchestra was fatally under rehearsed. The final piece on the programme, the Choral Fantasy, was acknowledged by all present to be a terrible mess. Predictably, the Concerto and most of the other premieres received lukewarm appreciation for the audience.

Op. 58 languished into obscurity until it was rescued by Felix Mendelssohn in 1836. A young Robert Schumann heard this performance and was so transfixed that he later reported, “I sat in my place without moving a muscle or even breathing.” Patrons at the premiere concert likely would have said the same thing although their reaction would more likely have been caused by hypothermia than musical ecstasy.

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Bartók’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste is one of his most well known pieces along with the Concerto for Orchestra and the 6 string quartets. It was commissioned to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Basel Chamber Orchestra and premiered 21 January 1937.

In the score Bartók stipulates that the strings are divided antiphonally.

Although the piece was written 15 years before Gyorgy Ligeti’s Romanian Concerto, it sounds quite modern in comparison. Bartók fled Hungary for the United States in 1930 and was free to compose as he wished. Also, Bartók was a much older man, so his compositional style had already matured.

It is well known that folk music was Bartók’s great love. He and Zoltan Kodaly were responsible for an enormous folk music collection project and co-founded the academic discipline of ethnomusicology. As you might expect, elements of folk music are omnipresent in Bartók’s work, whether it be rhythm, melody, tonality or form.

Bartók was writing while Schonberg was developing his system of atonal serialism. Rather than being a reactionary, Bartók wanted to show Schonberg that “one can use all 12 tones and still remain tonal”. He did this by writing pieces that were polytonal. Playing in more than one key simultaneously is a feature of some Eastern European folk music.

A slow fugue is the basis for the first movement. Rather than use a melodic subject like Bach, Bartók uses a chromatic motive centring on the pitch A. He further rejects the formal key structure traditionally associated with fugue by writing the score without any key signature at all. The idiom is much closer to his later string quartets than his violin rhapsodies or early piano works.

Bartók stipulates in the score that the strings be arranged antiphonally, which results in a stereo sound experience. The opening of the second movement uses this to full effect with fragments of the tune being tossed back and forth across the orchestra. This technique was exploited to the extreme by American radio orchestras in the early 1950s when stereo speakers were a new invention.

Often referred to as Bartók’s night music, the third movement is punctuated by imaginative use of percussion. It opens with a solo xylophone and goes on to feature tympani glissandi, an effect created by adjusting the tuning pedal after the drum head is struck.

Tympani and pizzicato strings get the final movement off to a lively start. Folk rhythms and melodies are interspersed with episodes of the first movement fugue, most notably near the end, where what appears to be a final frenzied climax is interrupted by the languid return of the fugue.

Like this? Why not try:

• Gyorgy Ligeti: Romanian Concerto
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Clint Eastwood composes the scores for some of his films. Who knew?

According to teh intertubes, Eastwood began writing music for his own films as early as 1980, penning songs for Bronco Billy, City Heat and Heartbreak Ridge. In 1992, he wrote the main theme for Unforgiven.

Eastwood is a longtime jazz fan and piano player and contributed simple piano-based themes for each project. His friend Lennie Niehaus then fleshed out the idea and wrote the rest of the score based on the theme.

Mystic River was the first film he wrote the entire score for and his work on Million Dollar Baby earned him a Golden Globe nomination.

Eastwood told Lilian Ross that, “[This score] was a difficult one, because I couldn’t find a theme to that, so I finally looked at—I started thinking about the three main actors—the three boys, played by Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, and Kevin Bacon. They all formed this triangle, so I started writing a triad, playing with that on a piano. And all of a sudden I developed this theme based on this triad, which is nothing terribly complicated, but to me—in a movie, the music shouldn’t be terribly complicated. It should be supporting, not overriding.”

Other films he has contributed music to include The Bridges of Madison County, Absolute Power, True Crime, Space Cowboys and Flags of Our Fathers.

The New Yorker blog has a brief video of Eastwood at the piano.

Now that this information has come to light, The Met should be falling over itself to commission an opera. If Brokeback Mountain can make it on the big stage, why not Dirty Harry?

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• Quiz #22: Second Clues

There have been some concert hall events that have certainly reached the spirit but nothing quite like this. For Miss Mussel, the reasons for this are twofold. The first is that the liturgy hasn’t changed much for 1800 years, so there is a strong sense of connection to those that have come before and as well as a reminder that our allotted 80 years are merely a heartbeat in the grand scheme of human endeavour.

The second attraction is that this is working music that does not aim to entertain but rather to facilitate transcendence. That the music accomplishes this within an aesthetic that is now considered to be austere, makes it all the more beautiful.

There is a new leader in the quiz standings but still plenty of time to get some points up over the next 6 weeks. A strong finish just might get you the top prize, which is, in case you have forgotten, a $100 gift voucher for Arkiv music. Second and third prizes are nothing to sniff at either.

The full rules are here. Clues on Tues and Weds. Guesses that include some combination of composer, title of piece and date of composition are sent in before midnight EST Weds qualify. Points are given for each component, so partial guesses still count.

Like this? Why not try:

• Quiz #6 Pencils Down Everyone
• Quiz #6: Clue Two
• Quiz #6: Clue One

The photograph would be less horrific if Miss Mussel’s computer had a viewfinder and her landlord had finished the kitchen repairs, but you should get the gist of what went down this afternoon.

In case you don’t recognize it, the disc in question in Hilary Hahn’s Schoenberg/Sibelius pairing. The cookie recipe, which Miss Mussel must point out is one of the best she’s ever used, is here.

Not-as-random-as-it-might-first-seem-kitchen-advice: When storing cardamom, do so in an airtight container that is not near anything else. Although delicious, cardamom is a very strong spice that can flavour nearby ingredients if left in a plastic bag. Like M&Ms, for instance. That being said, chai tea flavoured chocolate chip cookies turn out to be a rather pleasant confection.

Anyone else have a favourite music/food pairing?

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Reader Daniel passed along this news clip:

Daniel also drew Miss Mussel’s attention to a bit of marching band humour courtesy of the Mr Show.

In high school, Miss Mussel’s music teacher was obsessed with marches despite the fact that in Canada we don’t march. Ever. For any reason. So we played them all the time. Army of the Nile, Colonel Bogey, Blaze Away, you name it, we played it. It was during this time that Miss Mussel developed a pathological hatred of the euphonium and its countermelody stardom while the lowly horns were stuck on off-beats and doubled by the alto saxophones. Ugh.

About 15 years ago, a 3 cd set of 100 Greatest Marches or similar ended up in Miss Mussel’s possession, most likely due to the fact that you could get 100 SONGS FOR $6.99!!! and that’s how Lassus Trombone got on the radar.

While we’re on the topic of marching bands, this little video is absolutely hilarious. Yes, it has been posted before here but it never fails to amuse.

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• Boo etc
• Quiz #25 Second Clue Set
• Quiz #25 Left, Right, Left

Here are the final set of clues for this week’s Quiz.

• The composer attended CCM in Cincinnati
• The title of the piece contains the name of the featured instrument
• One of the composer’s legacies was the invention of the smear.
• He was not a gynaecologist.

Have another listen and don’t forget to send in your guess by today at midnight EST. [composer, name and date of composition or some combination thereof.]

Like this? Why not try:

• Quiz #25: Drumroll Please
• Quiz #25 Left, Right, Left
• Quiz #25 First Clue Set

When he wrote this piece, Ligeti was a harmony and counterpoint professor at the Budapest Conservatory, the school from which he graduated in 1949. It would still be four years before he and his wife would escape from Hungary by hiding under postbags on a train bound for Vienna. He later moved to Cologne and became, along with Stockhausen, a crucial member of the avant-garde movement.

Those familiar with Ligeti’s later work could certainly be forgiven for thinking Bartók wrote this piece. The Concerto does owe a debt to Bartók, it’s true, but a much larger one is owed to the communist Hungarian government. Much like Shostakovich, Ligeti was cut off completely from all things Western and under obligated to compose the tonal, folk-influenced pieces the government favoured. The Romanian Concerto is one of the few works from this period that Ligeti did not consign to juvenilia.

This piece very rarely programmed, likely because it is so different to Ligeti’s later works. It is a shame really, as the Concerto is an imaginative setting of Romanian folk music as well as a promise of the Ligeti to come. The first complete UK performance was in 2003, at the Barbican for the composer’s 80th birthday celebrations.

Ligeti’s skill at orchestrating for a precise colour is immediately evident in the first movement. The opening unison cello melody is shaded with a pair of clarinets and later on Ligeti scores a flute and bassoon duet.

An exuberant dance melody bursts in on the tranquil country scene established in the Andantino as it heralds the beginning of the second movement. It’s as if a rambler has stumbled upon a village fête with the fife and drums, gypsy fiddler and brass band out in full force. A final unison figure echoes the liveliness of the opening.

The opening clarinet dissonances and solo horn in the third movement are the first moments of this piece to really sound like Ligeti. He makes use of string techniques such as tremolo and sul ponticello, bowing at the bridge, in order to create an ethereal background for the solo cor anglais. These effects, along with many others, are used extensively in Ligeti’s later work.

Once again, serenity is shattered as a pair of trumpets announce a change of pace, recalling the final movement of Dvorak’s eighth symphony. A folk melody soon emerges from frenetic orchestral murmuring and it is taken in turns throughout the band. This frantic pace is maintained until finally solo instruments begin to play themes on top of each other halted only by a fortissimo trumpet outburst. 10 unison chords are not enough to extinguish the solo violin and it continues playing while the solo horn reprises its third movement melody. The orchestra gets the last word in however and one final, diatonic chord brings the piece to a close.

It is easy to attach meaning where there is none, however it does not seem too much of a stretch to think of the ending as an aural illustration depicting the suppression of the individual and creative ideas. Even though the soloists were assimilated in the end, the Hungarian government was not impressed and these final dissonances, which seem mild to modern ears, resulted in the Concerto being banned.

Like this? Why not try:

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I think many people are still under the impression that because many modern compositions don’t follow traditional forms the composition process must be basically throwing random notes together on a page. How does it work for you?

Thinking about it’s hard the actual writing is pretty mechanical.

It depends on what it is really. For the most part, every piece has a specific goal and usually that goal is incredibly simple. For instance in So To Speak, the goal was ecstatic speaking in tongues music. That was the destination. The secondary goal was that I wanted to treat the Tallis motet [Loquebantur Variis Linguis] that I remembered from being a kid. So basically ecstatic music that contains Tallis.

And I map out how I want it to go, what the highs and lows are in terms of activity. It’s more just a graph of content…there’s going to be a lot of stuff here, not a lot here, relaxed here, excited here….so basically the notes are the last thing that happens.

In our post-modern collage culture, do think that there is no longer a need for categories?

It’s not that there is no need for [them], it’s just that I find it really boring to think about. Either it’s so obvious that is doesn’t require comment or it’s so deliciously gray that to even pretend like it can be categorized is stupid.

Either your eating something that is so specifically Chinese that no one is going to argue with you otherwise, or you doing something that is more gray, your eating at someone’s house who is mixed race and random people are coming over and the ingredients are from 18 different stores the minute you start think about, oh, what genre is this you’re not enjoying yourself, you’re just wasting time.

The other day on your blog, you were talking about The Working Song from Disney’s Cinderella. In terms of source material or things that influence you, does that have the same value as, say, an Orlando Gibbons motet?

I think so…well it depends with how it fits with me. For instance if I’m thinking honestly about what I’m listening to and it is meaningful to me, then yes, it does all have the same value. I think.

I’m not making a point about pop art, just because it’s Disney, it’s just as good as Gibbons. It ‘s more like as a 7 year old, before I understood what was going on with Orlando Gibbons, I totally understoond what was happening in that movie. That was an important moment then and that is not to be discounted.

In the past, modern music has been presented as a sort of a spoonful of cod liver oil that must be taken before audiences can get to the good stuff. Do you feel that this is changing?

I feel like the attitude is changing about how contemporary music works but sometimes