Really straight ahead & unpretentious - but
they played a super modern program. Berio,
Hindemith, Schoenberg, Revueltas. Dawn
Upshaw sang the Schoenberg cabaret songs
& the Berio pieces. There were beautiful &
difficult solo passages for many instruments,
including a wind trio in the Hindemith & a
viola cello duo in the Berio.

What a great group, the guest accordionist - GUY KLUCEVSEK -
is the reason I went but the group itself was
amazingly good, not at all stylish either. They
are definitely better than anything in MPLS
for this kind of thing.

Anyway, it's going to be broadcast on 99.5
tomorrow (saturday) & I recommend tuning
in if you don't want to pay $10 to see the
crazy faces the musicians made while they
strained to get their Hindemith parts right.

That sounds sexy

I didn't know Guy K. was playing with this!
Is he playing tonight, too?!

I saw their schedule earlier this season, and pretty much
wanted to go to all of them. I wonder why I dropped the ball.

Maybe I will try to go to this tonight.

Going to see the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra is 10,000 x better than going to the Minnesota Orchestra.

I also was super excited about their season this year but I still haven't been to a performance in over a year.

Hey, I was also there. The second half of the program was astonishing. Especially the folk songs. I discovered I like music with the word 'sorrow' in the title.

Gratuitous use of concert percussion sprinkled throughout the evening. It was a St. Paul Chamber Neubauten.

wow, i take heed of these recommendations, and I wanna go now.

we'll get them to open for us at v's. problem solved.

ordered mine

I saw the SPCO a little while ago doing a program of minimalist compositions--Glass, Reich, and Adams. It was my first time seeing something like that and I really enjoyed it. I believe I spotted justn there as well.

This was great. I didn't care for the Stravinsky piece that opened the show, at all really,
but for the Hindemith alone, man, the violinists really earned their salaries on this show.
And the clarinet player. It was some sick and frantic shit going on at this show. Workin'
`em like dogs!

I also didn't care for about half of the folk songs, but the Sicilian, Italian, and Sardinian
ones blew me out of the water. It really seemed to be right in Upshaw's suit, as well.
There was a cello-heavy French folk song that was really lovely, too. ...After reading
about the lil' flap with DeStijl yesterday, I'd listened to "Black Is The Color of My True
Love's Hair" already, and this one, honestly, felt pretty tepid in comparison; so did the
Azerbaijani tune, etc.

And the cabaret songs were fun. Bring back cabaret!

I was surprised to not see Guy K's name anywhere in any of the materials whatsoever.

Super fun night. Well worth my measly $11. Ridiculous.

i really wanna go see Dawn Upshaw sing

Anybody picked out what they're gonna go see this season?

I've been getting mail from the SPCO but haven't looked closely at the schedule yet.

I need to look at the season still. I wish I hadn't missed the concerts they did last season.

i haven't looked super hard but i didn't see anything that threw me into a tizzy
ain't they doing something with london sinfonietta this year?

let's see

god, navigating their website is fucking obnoxious.

Anybody know this Berg six-movement suite, coming in April?


engine408: SPCO Solo Night
10/16/08 - 10/18/08
Astonishing virtuosity combines with musical intimacy in some of the greatest modern masterworks written for solo instruments. Featuring members of the SPCO, this program focuses on Luciano Berio’s legendary Sequenzas, paired with Argentine-American composer Mario Davidovsky’s Synchronisms.


Upshaw and Prutsman
10/17/08 - 10/18/08
Dowland/Prutsman: Four Songs for Soprano and String Quartet
Golijov: Lúa Descolorida for Soprano and String Quartet
Bartók/Tognetti: Hungarian Folk Songs for Soprano and String Orchestra
Various: American Folk Songs for Soprano and Piano
D. Bruce: Piosenki, Polish Folk Songs for Soprano, Baritone and Ensemble


this one could be kind of rough, maybe:
Landscapes of the Americas
11/14/08 - 11/16/08
Martínez Y Compañón: Colección de Música Virreinal
Frank: Elegía Andina [Not Performed on Jazzed-Up Friday]
López: Fiesta! for Chamber Orchestra
Ives: Symphony No. 3, The Camp Meeting
Villa-Lobos: New York Skyline Melody [Not Performed on Jazzed-Up Friday]
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (original jazz band version)


engine408: Pierrot Lunaire
02/5/09 - 02/7/09
Schoenberg: Pierrot Lunaire


Bohemian Delights (ugh, great name)
03/20/09 - 03/22/09
Dvorák: Five Bagatelles for Two Violins, Cello and Harmonium
Martinu: Serenade No. 11 in E-flat for Wind Octet
Francaix: Trio in C for Violin, Viola and Cello
Dvoøák: Sextet in A for 2 Violins, 2 Violas and 2 Cellos


Abbado, Upshaw and Haydn 04/24/09 - 04/26/09
In the final installment of his exploration of Haydn Symphonies and twentieth-century classics, Roberto Abbado pairs the six-movement version of Berg’s Lyric Suite, rendered for full strings by Theo Verbey, with Haydn’s Clock Symphony. The two SPCO Artistic Partners—Abbado and Upshaw—also perform Haydn’s dramatic Scena di Berenice, a new addition to Upshaw’s repertoire.

KoM:

do you go to these things a lot?

i have never seen any sort of orchestra IRL and i'm thinking i really should....if you go on a regular basis and wanna classical newb tagalong i'd be down.

ohhhh that berio would be fuckin fly
i totally missed it when i was looking at their site.
that pierrot lunaire is a great fucking piece as well

Hindemith is brutal for winds.

I'd be interested in the Bohemian show in March. Er, um, bump this closer to March.

i go to lots of shit as well mags. if theres anything you really wanna see or some shit just lemme know.

I go to at least one SPCO concert per season. This year an early favorite is the 10/4 Beethoven/Debussy/Ravel/Ives program.

I go to the occasional one, and I'd definitely be happy to have you along w/ me, mags!
justn! anybody!

My soft spot for gypsy type of stuff is bigger than my soft spot for minimalist stuff. Will do
either/both for sure.

I hear you cBass, I was eyeing that 10/4 one--the Americas one I was interested in for the Ives,
mostly--you've gotta ask yourself, how bad could the program possibly be? And sadly, the answer
can be, pretty rough--maybe I'd hit that 10/4 one instead.

yeah i'm far more of a minimalist guy.
i've seen plenty of the "classics" and can't really say taht seeing many of them again is on the top of my list.
i'll be at teh berio for sure

yeah we should figure something out. i figured i've been a nerd to long to have not seen a classical concert.

check out the minneapolis orchestra too they play more of the classics than spco, but i love that setting.

honestly i should probably just go to some squaresville "classic" classical too, seems like a person ought to have seen some mozart or bach in their lifetime.

but the more modern stuff is probably more exciting to me.

Go see what you like, mags.

IRT: Mozart: you aint missin' much. But that's just me.

The French church in D.T. St. Paul has some free lunch time pipe organ recitals on Wednesdays. They often times throw in some of Bach's Fugues and Trios as crowd pleasers.

are bach fugues like the classical equivalent of when a club DJ throws on an old favorite like "get ur freak on" or something? OOOOOH GIRL BACH'S FUGUE IN C MINOR THAT'S MY JAM!

pretty much mags
i mean that shits gonna get the audience all hyped.
WHEN I SAY SO YOU SAY NATA
SO
NATA

SO
NATA

hahahahahahahahaha

So, any y'all know this?

Roberto Abbado pairs the six-movement version of Berg’s Lyric Suite, rendered for full strings by Theo Verbey,

that berg piece is really good imo. i THINK kronos did a performance of it with upshaw? i'd have to check though. but yeah, i wouldn't mind seeing that

I am guessing that the folk songs one is gonna be tits.

I'm maybe a little sick of Golijov being the go-to contemporary "ethnic enough" composer
not that there's anything wrong with him, but spread the wealth around a little, you know?

yeah, but my understanding of the spco is that pieces are chosen by orchestra mostly. so... if the players like it....

Gotcha--didn't know that.

step your piece election game up, playboy

God, between justn and mags, I feel like the square Philip Drummond of this thread.

I'd love to go to the SPCO with these two dudes talkin in hip-hop lyrics the whole time
while I push up my glasses on my face every two minutes. SOLD

i've been to so many damn orchestras...
when mags and i go we usually get bottle service
roll with the winners KOM

Speaking of rolling...

I see they'll be rolling out the pump
organ for the Dvorak, too. Tiny feet.

And that Dawn Upshaw is great, her
onstage manner is completely informal
& she manages to sing hard stuff well
but in a non operatic style.

Great great group, I think the Americas
program looks good, too - like they'll all
actually enjoy playing it.

patti, I dunno--doesn't "Jazzed Up Friday" concern you, maybe even a tiny bit?

HA no, it just doesn't sound like my thing.

I'd even go on a Friday, except they made
the programs shorter & left out too much.

They have to do something to make $$ at
the bar, I guess "jazz" is it. It's a mistake
to try & appease people who leave concerts
& visit the bar, though.

I took magma on a gentlemen's date to the SPCO today. It was a good time, even though
there were many, many speeches. (It was a retirement sendoff for Coppock, the outbound
president of the SPCO). It was a little on the conservative side, but there were some winners,
particularly the opening piece by Adams. I learned today that I like Adams a lot more when
there's not a horrible libretto in the way. Dawn Upshaw sang and was great as per usual.

Mostly it just made me excited to see the stuff that I *actually* want to see this year. Yeeeeah!

I will go to this

I went Saturday night, they have this 20/30 club thing were young people (in their 20's & 30's) can get $10 tickets. Kate & I saw the Enso quartet play Schumann and Haydn.

That Upshaw/Prutsman bill looks tempting.

was a great man-date

my first time ever seeing an orchestra, so it was pretty cool for me...

like king said, it was sorta weird because i got the sense most of the ppl there were big boosters and members of the classical music community....coppock must be VERY respected in that world, seemed like a real gracious and funny gentleman....

yeah the adams thing was amazing i thought...i also like the beethovan piece and the schubert string quintet

This was the closest I could get to getting over to the Sex In the City movie (until Tom mans up and sets the date with me).
The event had many "womanly" aspects to it, like there was a lot of talking, and romantic strings, and people talking about
their feelings and loving this guy and on and on and on. It was a lot like a chick flick.

I thought the SPCO also had a space in the Hamm Building in St. Paul. What happened to that?

Anyway, I just bought 4 passes for $40 for the next year. If anyone else wants them, let me know. I'm buying them from someone in a community band and it raises funds for them.

Tonight! And Saturday night!

engine408: spco Solo Night
10/16/08 - 10/18/08
Astonishing virtuosity combines with musical intimacy in some of the greatest modern masterworks written for solo instruments. Featuring members of the SPCO, this program focuses on Luciano Berio’s legendary Sequenzas, paired with Argentine-American composer Mario Davidovsky’s Synchronisms.

That looks awesome. ok and I have tix to the other program this weekend, which, to my mind, also looks awesome.

The Berio sequenza for clarinet was wonderful. Their clarinetist is a very sensitive player. All the Davidovsky pieces were problematic though. I just really don't like the way he uses electronics, too plink-plonk. The Berio sequenza for flute was good, and the one for cello would be really beautiful if it didn't have so much body poppin'. Basically it's totally worth paying $10 to see the sequenza for clarinet, and worth sitting through the lesser moments of the Davidovsky to witness the greater moments of the sequenza for cello.
I'm just so happy this series exists.

Was it Timothy Paradise? He's just amazing.

Yes it was. The man plays a mean licorice stick.

So... the folk songs program was The Show That Could Have Been.

Due to a cold, Upshaw cut her involvement back--some of the program was replaced by a Mozart piano concerto.... pfffft

I felt like I'd ordered steak frites off the menu and was instead given a very nice plate of roasted vegetables.

It was a real disappointment. The Polish folk songs at the end were really great, and made me even more frustrated
that the Bartok was cut. The Dizzy Gillespie piece was pretty fun, as well. I didn't really care about the Golijov at all,
but would have preferred hearing it to not hearing it. Sorry if I sound like a dick, but I was really bored during the Mozart.

Upshaw and Prutsman
10/17/08 - 10/18/08
Dowland/Prutsman: Four Songs for Soprano and String Quartet
Golijov: Lúa Descolorida for Soprano and String Quartet
Bartók/Tognetti: Hungarian Folk Songs for Soprano and String Orchestra
Mozart: some piano concerto feat. Prutsman
Various: American Folk Songs for Soprano and Piano
D. Bruce: Piosenki, Polish Folk Songs for Soprano, Baritone and Ensemble

what are those musicians called again? an orchester?


the d. bruce arrangement of polish folk songs saved the night. I really really enjoyed it.
I always thought it would be incredible to be a composer/arranger of a orchestral piece and be able to sit in the audience while it was being performed.

I wish justn would come back and post in this thread sometimes.

It's great, I like the winds anyway though

Thanks, patti.

But will it be hard to sit through "Tchaikovsky’s sunny, Romantic Souvenir de Florence" to get to it? That's the next burning question.

KoM - you're going and you're gonna like it!

SPCO is offering $5 tickets to The SPCO and the London Sinfonietta next weekend. I just bought a pair for next Friday.

man, the engine408 series this year is only 3 events and one is a marimba festival. disappointing.

Gonna buy tix to the Rite of Spring show on 1/24. Looks like the Firebird show is already completely sold out.

Hey any 'codes' this time 'round?

justn posted this on Dec 15th, 2009 at 11:10:42 am
man, the engine408 series this year is only 3 events and one is a marimba festival. disappointing.

Yeeeah, seems to have been a big change since Lutman took over as Artistic Director.
Not necessarily her fault ... not necessarily not her fault ... but the timing is incredible.

who knows.

Just got a 2010-11 schedule thing in the mail, and didn't see any engine408 programming in there,
nor on their website. Anybody know what's up with that?

Also, seems like they're playing it very safe on the Ordway programming. Sigh. Farewell, SPCO.

My work is sponsoring the April 24th concert, Dennis Russell Davies Conducts Mozart and Copland. I'm kind of excited to attend.

Turns out the engine408 series is continuing--just isn't in the brochure.

link

man i should go again, that one time we went KoM was really fun

Agreed! It was, and you should!

I'm buying four vouchers for SPCO today for a friend's fundraiser. $10 a ticket.

actually now that i think abt it this might be good when anabelle is a little older would like to take her to see music but obv with rock stuff there's concerns about hurting her hearing and stuff

Outdoor shows, thanks to the inverse-square law, will be your jam.

Mags, get Annabelle those noise-cancelling headphones. You can get the Vic Firth ones for, like, $20. They look ridiculous, but they work great. My wee-un's worn them to a few Chooglin' shows already. We're loud as fuck, and she's not deaf yet.

Patrick Costello?

The SPCO just put up an archive of recordings--about 100 so far.
The site is still a little glitchy. Maybe by the time you read this,
it'll be all better. Anyway, it's on their website.

Thanks! Yeah the site is glitchy and I can't get anything to play yet, but this is an awesome idea. Copland's 'Music for the Theater' is on there and I hope I can get it to load eventually.

I like this.

Details.

I've heard the CMW folks do a couple of Feldman's viola pieces before. Not bad at all. Back when I wasn't working much I told myself I was going to check out a bunch of recitals at the UMN music school, but apparently I forgot about that until just now.

i wanna go to that feldman ish.
anyone gonna go?

i heard the SPCO do Copeland's Music for the Theater last year and it was incredibly satisfying.

teddyruxpin
related news: UMN children playing Scelsi and Feldman at NOON on Friday. FREE!

eelpout
I've heard the CMW folks do a couple of Feldman's viola pieces before. Not bad at all.


Cool! I'm totally going to this now.

e

I suppose I could just copy the details:

Date: 03/04/2011

Time: 12:00 PM - 2:00 PM

Location: 85 Ferguson Hall

Cost: Free

Description:

Contemporary Music Workshop (CMW) Presents:

Giacinto Scelsi and Morton Feldman.

Program:
Morton Feldman - The Viola in my Life
*Benjamin Davis, solo Viola

Giacinto Scelsi - Anahit
*Erik Rohde, solo Violin


And for what it's worth, when I say "Not bad at all" I mean "These musicians are obviously students and so they're not going to give the most polished performances ever but nevertheless I found it enjoyable."

So, these "kids" are college students, rather than lil' prodigies?

yes.

tuesday: the alright kids play PETROUSHKA! FREE! One of my fave symphonies of all times!

Can't recommend Stravinsky's music enough to the classically shy.

Except "Dumbarton Oaks."

Contemporary Music Workshop (CMW) Presents:

Giacinto Scelsi and Morton Feldman.

Program:
Morton Feldman - The Viola in my Life
*Benjamin Davis, solo Viola

Giacinto Scelsi - Anahit
*Erik Rohde, solo Violin


This was good.

I had never heard any Scelsi before, and really liked the piece. Anyone have tips on stuff I should track down?

I've since read that Scelsi was also a Surrealist poet, pub 1940s-50s,
and AFAIK I haven't read any yet. I want to. Anybody?

Do It.

YOU DON'T LIKE DUMBARTON OAKS?? That's another fave of mine. For his neo-classical stuff, there's MUCH worse.

Yeah, Vox, Scelsi is a weirdo, verrrrry strange and mysterious music. There's a collection on Harmonia Mundi, two CDs i think, that would be a great intro.

IMAGE REMOVED - CLICK TO VIEW

Venue marquee in Fergus Falls.

I would love to see the stp chamber orcheStra.

I'd like to go to this 4/19 & 21: Kagel, Ives, and Ligeti

fyi, 4/21 is sold out.

GAH I might have to make it to the performance on the 19th then.

you guys know they're now offering $5/mo. memberships right? Unlimited concerts for 5 bucks/mo. I just bought the 2-fer membership.

I saw that, I might have to jump on that deal.

Super bummed about the 4/21 show being sold out. I can't go to the one on the 19th because I've got a friend's movie fundraiser to attend.

Waaaa!

Wondering if I can swing the 19th. Maybe that'll sell out by the time I find out if it's possible. :-(

hml41m(ovement)

re Jeremy Denk and the Ligeti Etudes: nothing short of "holy fuck" starts to hit it.
I am now incredibly excited for his Nonesuch record which comes out in a few weeks.
sanpeeps and I had a really good time at this.

http://jeremydenk.net/blog/

Find a scalper for Saturday. Not joking.

:(

Speaking of, they're playing Lowertown Music Fest tonight. Uh, for free.