Duo Recital with Violinist Jessica Hung

DPO concertmaster Jessica Hung and myself are offering a free community recital in Kettering on Sunday, March 15. The location is Kettering Seventh Day Adventist Church and the time of the performance is 4:30 PM.

We will be playing an exciting and eclectic program of works by Beach, Handel, Prokofiev, Debussy, and Beethoven. See the full program at the DPO website.

Address:
Kettering Seventh Day Adventist Church
3939 Stonebridge Road
Kettering, Ohio 45419
(Directions)

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Strauss and Mahler Arrangements

I will be involved in an interesting program of chamber ensemble arrangements of Romantic classics by Johann Strauss and Gustav Mahler next week at the Schuster Center in Dayton. The concert will be performed twice: there is a performance on Wednesday, May 21, at 6:30 PM and another on Thursday, May 22, at 10:00 AM.

The two works being presented are Strauss's waltz set Rosen aus dem Suden (Roses from the South), arranged by Arnold Schoenberg, and Mahler's Fourth Symphony in an arrangement/transcription by Erwin Stein. (Stein was a close friend and pupil of Schoenberg.) Both works are chamber versions that include considerable keyboard parts for piano and harmonium. I am excited because Mahler is not usually available to pianists - he wrote mostly gigantic symphonies for orchestra. Now's my chance to be the horns, oboes, flutes, and other instruments in this gorgeous symphony!

These arrangements were written specifically for performance by Schoenberg's organization in Vienna known as the Society for Private Musical Performances (in German: Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen). They were first performed in the year 1921. There were many of these kinds of "economical" arrangements on Society concert programs - the major aim of the organization was to enable experiences of modern music without the prohibitive cost of rehearsing larger forces. 1921, of course, was the year when hyper-inflation began to negatively affect the German economy. Indeed, the Society unfortunately suspended its activities in 1921 due to this financial turbulence.

But on the bright side, I'm certainly looking forward to helping recreate the energetic atmosphere of a Society-style concert from that tumultuous era.

To purchase tickets for this event, please see the webpage for this concert at the Dayton Phil site.

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Lunchtime Schubert

On Tuesday, April 29, at 12:00 I will be performing in recital in Oxford, Ohio. The recital is this season's last concert for the "Midday Music in Oxford" series, managed by Jack Daugherty.

The program is dedicated entirely to the music of Schubert. I will be playing just one piece with violin. Oh, but what a piece it is: Violinist Gerry Itzkoff (a Cincinnati Symphony member) and myself will be put to the test in Schubert's C major Fantasia. It is one of the more massive late works by Schubert, brimming over in transcendent beauty and requiring heaps of virtuosity from the performers.

Gerry and I have been working on and performing this piece for about four years. It has taken us both a long time to come to terms with this beast of a piece, but I think we're finally conquering it technically and musically. If you'd like to hear the result, please come to the recital:

12:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 29
Oxford Presbyterian Church, 101 N. Main Street in Oxford, OH.

The rest of the program includes another work for piano and violin (the D major sonata), and a song by Schubert (Sei mir gegrust) that is used in the Fantasia. The other performers are soprano Alma Jean Smith and pianist Avedis Manoogian.

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Carnivals and Puppets

It's Petrushka week for me up in Dayton! We're doing Stravinsky's complete 1911 version but with one additional audience aid: projected slides that tell the story of the "living" puppet Petrushka as the orchestra performs the piece. What a good idea.

In my eight years experience playing regularly as an orchestral pianist, I have not yet had the opportunity to perform this classic standard. Of course I've played it many, many times for every orchestral audition that I have taken (it is usually one of the more prominent required excerpts for any keyboard audition) but now I can finally get a real, in-context performance of the work behind me. It's one of those milestones that can make you feel like you're a more complete and accomplished orchestral player. It is very demanding technically with its emphasis on fast 16th-note passagework in octaves and chords (in the "Russian Dance"). But the work also requires a sensitive touch in the second tableau, where the solo piano first represents Petrushka's curses and laments and then later the arrival of the Ballerina (Petrushka's unattainable love interest).

The Petrushka score features plenty of other solo showcases for many other instruments as well; there are big solos for flute, trumpet, tuba ("the bear"!), english horn, and clarinet.

Petrushka is the second of Stravinsky's three cherished ballet pieces composed for Sergei Diaghilev's company in Paris in the years of 1909-1913. (The other two ballet-works are The Firebird and the infamous Rite of Spring.) Read more about Stravinsky and Petrushka here.

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DPO Plays Albert's Cello Concerto

Guest soloist Julie Albers brought Stephen Albert's masterful Cello Concerto to Dayton this past weekend. The epic piece (it's more than a half-hour long) was written in 1990 for cellist Yo-Yo Ma and is cast in four movements. It is a stunningly gorgeous work that combines big Romantic gestures with modern harmonic language and orchestration. The piano part is sizable and difficult, with plenty of good exposure for the instrument throughout the entire work. It is one of those orchestral parts that provides great satisfaction for the pianist at the end of the day. Tragically, this was one of the last works the accomplished American composer would write; Albert perished in an auto accident in 1992 at the age of 51.

Preparing a convincing and emotionally engaging performance of this work was a great challenge for our orchestra (I believe it would be a challenge for any orchestra). Julie Albers brought lots of intensity and energy to the cello solo, and I think we sold the piece: the audience on both nights responded with great enthusiasm.

It was really great to see large audiences open up to a sophisticated recent work that deserves to be heard more often. It is especially pertinent that this reception occurred within a community many would not associate with great love for newer and more challenging concert music. The time has certainly come for contemporary works that are accessible but don't necessarily pander to the lowest listening abilities of audiences just to get more performances. Younger soloists like Albers are aiding the cause through an exuberance for fresh repertoire and commitment to high-standard performances of that repertoire. Being involved in a performance like this gives me hope that good new music is connecting with broader audiences on deeper emotional levels; perhaps the experience is finally going beyond mere sonic impressions. For goodness sake it's about time.

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Travel and Work

I'm busy at the "other keyboard" these days. Hey, it's great to have work as a performing musician.

So it's off to IRIS tomorrow for a date playing harpsichord repertoire (Bach's Brandenburg #1 and Stephen Hartke's A Brandenburg Autumn from 2006).

Isn't it amazing how composers are coming back to the harpsichord? (Even the arch-modernist Iannis Xenakis wrote for the instrument!) Funny to think how the instrument pretty much flew off of the radar for composers during the classical and romantic eras.

I bet that pesky new pianoforte invention might have had something to do with it...

More blogging will continue next week, in between Dayton Philharmonic services.

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Hello! Ma Baby! in Central Park

I was involved in a wonderfully inventive program of music this morning up in Dayton at the first of the Philharmonic's Demirjian Chamber Explorations Series:

Charles Ives, The Unanswered Perennial Question
Charles Ives, Central Park in the Dark in the Good Old Summertime
George Walker, Lyric for Strings
Peter Schickele, Concerto for Chamber Orchestra


You'd be correct if you thought this looks like a program dedicated to the music of American composers. Unfortunately for me, I was only involved in one of these works: Central Park in the Dark. (The rest had no keyboard parts.) But Central Park makes up for this by having no less than THREE keyboard parts! Two other pianists (Evan Mack and Philip Amalong) played the second part, which is intended for four-hands on another piano.

Both Ives pieces (Ives picture at right) were written in 1906 and pursue a rather unusual experiment: the orchestra is split into two parts (strings in one, all the other instruments in the other) which are then directed separately by two conductors. What was innovative about today’s performance was the idea of moving the string section behind the stage shell (unseen by the audience) and keeping the rest of the orchestra in front of the shell (exposed to the audience). This achieved a heightening of the distant and slightly hazy character desired in the string parts for both of these pieces. I’m not sure how often this kind of split-staging technique is used for these two pieces, or if it’s even been done before, but it did prove to make the experience more dramatic and effective.

You can read about The Unanswered Question here, but I’ll describe our performance of Central Park briefly. The strings (which were offstage) begin the piece playing somewhat undefined and dissonant harmonies softly, perhaps representing the laid-back ambiance of a warm summer night in Central Park in New York (remember to keep in mind it’s 1906!) The stage lights slowly rise up from total darkness, and the onstage instruments gradually infringe on the dense texture of the strings. All sorts of tunes and melodies that one might have heard coming from turn-of-the-century New York City neighborhood pubs, apartments, and street music groups chaotically interact with one another and increase in density and intensity. My part was really fun: I jump-start the chaos that soon engulfs the audience by playing the well-known tune Hello! Ma Baby! in ragtime style. The other instruments gradually pick up the tune, overlapping at different times, and the tempo gets faster until everything comes unglued in a frantic climax. The onstage instruments fall silent after this hullabaloo, and we are left with only the strings playing their humid chorale and quietly fading in the late summer night. The lights come down slowly during the final strains and fade back into complete blackness…

It was really quite a fun (and crazy!) thing to do. I think the audience possibly got a better sense of what the eccentric Ives was trying to communicate through the added theatricality of lighting effects and the physical separation of the two orchestra groups. 

The Lyric was just a gorgeous offering from this great contemporary Pulitzer-Prize winning composer (audio sample), and the Schickele provided an upbeat and light-hearted ending to a rather challenging program. Never heard of Peter Schickele? You might know him by his alter ego.

Photo of Charles Ives by Eugene Smith, Charles Ives Society website.

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American Voices and George Crumb

I’m trying to find some scraps of time to get back into new blog entries this week. My schedule has been extremely busy lately because of multiple performances in Dayton, but it’s been really fun to get back into the professional music-making life after a restful summer.

Last week at DPO I played some really cool American orchestral works: Bernstein’s Symphony no. 2 (The Age of Anxiety) and Jennifer Higdon’s blue cathedral. (Norman Krieger was the piano soloist on the Bernstein; it was quite an excellent performance.) The fall line-up at DPO is dedicated to American composers exclusively, as part of the NCR Made in America Festival (supported by NCR and the National Endowment for the Arts).

This week I am involved in a special festival performance of George Crumb’s Ancient Voices of Children, his beautiful song cycle from 1970 (based on texts by Spanish poet Federico García Lorca). Crumb is one of America’s most treasured art-music heroes, having contributed many massive and thoroughly unique chamber ensemble masterpieces to the American repertory over the last few decades. Ancient Voices is scored for a pretty strange cast of instrumental and vocal forces: mezzo-soprano, boy soprano, oboe, mandolin, musical saw, harp, amplified piano (and toy piano), and percussion (three players).

The texts are evocative, earthy, and emotionally direct. Crumb responds to Lorca compositionally through music that is just as direct and earthy: Highly decorated melodies, a wide palette of musical colors, and special sound effects are incorporated into a sound world that seems ancient yet energetically alive and virile.

Crumb has always written well for his primary instrument, the piano, and he is one of the chief innovators of music that is played “inside” the (grand) piano. I am required to play directly on the piano strings in this piece, and I thought it would be interesting for readers if I shared a couple of these techniques through some pictures.

The photo below shows me plucking the strings (like a harp) using an upward finger gesture from the string. I should mention that this technique (and all of the others shown here) are made sonically possible only by depressing the damper pedal and allowing the strings to vibrate freely.


 
This next picture shows the preparation of a very cool (and extremely loud!) technique using both hands on the lowest strings of the piano. You can see that my left hand thumb is poised at the edge of the lowest bass strings (just in front of the hammers), which will perform a rapid glissando across the notes of the bass region. At the same time, my right hand will swipe some bass strings (using my fingernails) which will create a “whistling” sound. These two gestures combine to create a powerful "whoosh" that will knock you out of your seat!



Here’s what my hands look like AFTER I’ve played the gesture (notice where the hands have moved):



Finally, here is a picture of an even more strange and wonderful example of Crumb’s endless creativity in generating instrumental sound through extended techniques. This technique is called “chisel-piano”: I hold a metal chisel (precisely 5/8 inch wide) in my right hand with the point resting firmly on a specific string and produce sliding pitches by moving the chisel up and down the string. You can see that I have specific places marked with bits of masking tape. These bits of tape, which are place on the strings directly next to the ones I have to “chisel”, show me where to move the chisel to produce specific pitches. My left hand plucks the string to get it vibrating. Then I move the chisel rapidly from pitch-point to pitch-point, creating a ghostly and eerie sound completely removed from any other sound normally associated with the piano.



Yes, I know what the request will be for this post: can I please hear these effects? Well, if you can, come see the concert! This piece (as well as any of Crumb’s other compositions) needs to be experienced live to get any idea of what his music is all about. If you can’t make it, I’ve posted a video here of a portion from one of Crumb’s solo piano works. (Someday when I'm less busy I'll get the equipment/software to do my own sound files on the blog...)

Below is a video performance of a movement ("Primeval Sounds - Genesis I")from George Crumb’s solo piano masterpiece Makrokosmos I, Margaret Leng Tan performing. You can witness one of the wonderful special effects I mentioned above, the glissando effect on the strings. (Notice that there is a small chain placed on the bass strings during most of this movement; it adds a “rattling” sound to the music.)

Guest pianist Andrew Russo will be playing this work in the first half of our Wednesday night concert devoted to the music of George Crumb.

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Informal Chamber Recitals: After Effects

This is a follow-up to my post about a recent chamber music event I performed on Sunday, July 22 in Dayton, Ohio. This first post generated at least a little buzz in the music blogosphere (see Jason Heath’s comments on this post and my response, and Chris Foley linked to me), so I figured I should write a little bit about the post-performance scene.

Sheridan Kamberger Currie (principal violist of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra), John Kurokawa (principal clarinet, DPO), and myself (as newly instituted principal keyboardist of the DPO) performed a well-rounded program of varied chamber music in a private home for a crowd of about twenty-five donors, board members, and other patrons and staff of the DPO. Executive director Curt Long and music director Neal Gittleman were on hand to give brief talks before the performance, which certainly lent the occasion some higher significance. (In fact, Neal graciously turned pages for me during the performance. No pressure there!)

The performance went very well. John spoke eloquently and instructively about most of the pieces on the program, and I talked a little bit about my piano solo. This is another skill that classical musicians of the twenty-first century need to cultivate: public speaking in front of audiences. Communication skills are becoming increasingly important in this business, and young musicians today avoid honing theirs at their peril.

After the performance, we musicians mingled with the guests over drinks and hors d’oeuvres. Here are paraphrases of some of the things I heard attendees say:

-We can’t wait to have another event like this. This should happen more often.
-I prefer this kind of private performance to seeing the full orchestra. (I heard this more than once.)
-It is incredible to see up close how musicians interact with one another during a performance to keep the music flowing and accurately timed.
-Can you show me that part in the music where (insert dramatic playing technique, such as tone clusters on the piano) happens?
-Welcome to the DPO family! We’re happy to have someone like you here.
-Where are you from? Where did you go to school? When did you begin your music study? What other roles do you play in your career as a musician besides being a DPO member?
-We really enjoyed hearing something different by (insert composer name). I think I’ll look into getting some more CD’s of that particular composer.
-It’s great that this event introduces you to people who enjoy funding the arts. It creates possibilities and connections. How do you feel about this kind of interaction?

Though these are paraphrases wrought from my own inevitably biased memory, I hope that the reader is getting a sense of how involved these people were in the music-making they witnessed and the curiosity, gratitude, and support they were expressing to the musicians. I certainly hope to participate in (or even help organize) more exchanges like this, and it would be useful for other artists and administrators to take note of what good can come from smaller-audience, socially interactive performance events. It's also just plain fun.

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Jason Heath comments on informal recitals

Blogger and bassist Jason Heath has written a nice response to my recent post about short chamber music recitals given in private, small-audience settings. He offers some additional observations and convictions about these events from his own experiences that support my original thesis: These events are a “win-win” for everyone involved. Jason makes some positive points about interacting with audience members, increased engagement of the audience during performances, and the thrill audience members can get hearing (and seeing) musicians do their thing up close and personal. My experience this past Sunday performing for one of these informal  events certainly confirms Jason’s statements. 

I should mention that Jason and I participated in one of these private events together in Memphis for the benefit of the IRIS orchestra. (We are both "traveling" members of the IRIS orchestra.) The theme for that event was to honor the host-families that collectively put up dozens of musicians from around the country throughout the season. That event involved a number of different ensembles so that more of the entire orchestra was represented. It was yet another way small recitals (complete with receptions afterwards) can “give back” to communities that support arts institutions, and to continue, in Jason’s words, “to establish audience/performer relationships and create strong bonds of patron loyalty.” Thanks, Jason, for the additional  insights.

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Some thoughts on short chamber music recitals

Here’s the repertoire I will be playing at a chamber recital for Dayton Philharmonic donors on Sunday:

Max Bruch, No. 2 and No. 6 (Nocturne) from Eight Pieces for Clarinet, Viola, and Piano, Op. 83.
Malcolm Arnold, Sonatina for Clarinet and Pianoforte (1951).
Camille Saint-Saëns, Movements II and IV from the Sonate for Clarinet and Piano, Op. 167.
Gabriel Fauré, Barcarolle No. 4 in A-flat Major for piano, Op. 44.
W. A. Mozart, Trio (Kegelstatt) for clarinet, viola, and piano, KV 498.

The recital is a private event that will be presented in a patron’s home. (Apologies to any local fans who would have liked to attend!) A reception will follow so that everyone can mingle in the (hopefully) golden afterglow of a good performance. Now why do I bring all of this up?

I think this kind of more informal event is a really good idea for performing institutions like orchestras and chamber music societies. I have done a few things like this in the past for other institutions or groups, and it is always educational, fun, and eye-opening all at the same time. Here are some of my reasons for why this is important today:

1) Audience/donor/musician connections. Today it’s all about breaking down that wall between the stage and the first row. Events like this let musicians get to know their audience members, and audience members get to know the musicians they see week after week on stage. It is also important for musicians (or any other artists) to learn about the people in their communities who can financially support artistic institutions. Those connections can lead to new endeavors or programs that enrich the arts scene of any town or city.

2) Special musical opportunities for working musicians. There are not too many people in our field who would turn down the opportunity to play some chamber music for a small, appreciative audience. Most professional musicians (especially those who play in an orchestra) appreciate the chance to express themselves in intimate settings through chamber music. Orchestra administrations are beginning to address this need in more creative and beneficial ways these days. A good-quality chamber music program that involves many musicians over the course of a season can also be a huge morale-booster. Higher morale = healthier artistic environment.

3) Unique programming. These small, short, informal recitals can withstand a more bricolage-like approach to programming. Formal big-league chamber concerts can get a little stuffy sometimes with their emphasis on lengthy and dramatic string quartets, piano quartets, etc. These private events can feature more varied, shorter, and lighter works, including even some compositions of questionable merit, simply because it is a little more about entertainment than deep structural listening. Our program above includes many styles that span centuries and three different types of instrumentation (clarinet-viola-piano trio, clarinet-piano duo, and piano solo). An astute observer might also notice that we are actually performing an incomplete work (only two of the four movements from the Saint-Saëns clarinet sonata)! Well, before the program police rant and rave about how terrible this is, let me just say this: It is a matter of historical record that common performance practice in the nineteenth century involved the presentation of single movements from larger works, as well as a wide range of styles and instrumentations. At a concert back then one could have easily heard a single movement from a Beethoven symphony, a couple of arias from Cosi fan tutte, and then maybe a big virtuoso piano solo (something like the Spanish Rhapsody by Liszt), all in one half of an evening’s program.

Well, I think it is right and appropriate to try this kind of thing again today. After all, there is nothing to lose (except stuffiness) and everything to gain. Besides, presenting shorter works lets the guests refill their drink glasses more often.

Let me also say that much of this lighter music really should be played in a living room or smaller performance venue (that’s why it’s called chamber music). There is a time and place for the larger concert hall, but also a time and place for the small, intimate setting. Both situations can reap meaningful rewards for receptive audiences.

If anyone would like to offer additional thoughts on the topic of this post, please feel free to leave a comment.

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Medieval Times in Dayton

The Dayton Philharmonic will be performing Carl Orff’s massive Carmina Burana next weekend on May 18 and 19. This 20-plus collection of songs celebrating bawdy and hedonistic texts from the Middle Ages is scored for full orchestra (plus TWO pianos, of which I’ll be playing one) and multitudes of singers. Our performance will employ no fewer than three choruses (one men’s chorale, one full chorus, and a children’s choir) and three vocal soloists. It’s going to be a great deal of fun for everyone involved.

Here’s a performance of “O Fortuna” (one of the most famous numbers from this work) by the Bordeaux National Opera in France. Many will instantly recognize it because it is severely overused as “background” music in movie trailers and commercials!



Tickets available here. (I might be able to swing a few half-price tickets for some lucky inquirers. Let me know if I can be of service…)

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Steve Reich's Eight Lines

I will be performing with the Dayton Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra on April 20 at 10 AM and 6:30 PM at the Victoria Theatre in downtown Dayton. This group is basically a subset of the Dayton Philharmonic, an orchestra I have been involved with for about five years.

The program is comprised of some Bach, Handel, and a really neat and groovy contemporary piece by composer Steve Reich: Eight Lines (composed in 1983). This piece is scored for two pianos, two flutes, piccolo, two clarinets, bass clarinet, and strings. I'll be performing on the Reich as "Piano 2"; "Piano 1" will be covered by my good friend and colleague Dave Skvorak. The piece has great rhythmic drive, slowly changing musical textures, and jazzy melodies which all interact in beautiful kaleidoscopic layers. To get a taste, here's a video of an excerpt of Eight Lines (performed by the London Steve Reich Ensemble).




If anyone is interested in attending this concert, please click here to get tickets online, and here are directions to the Victoria Theatre.

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