Table of Contents
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: July 18, 2010
By: John Fleming
Florida Orchestra's 'gold in the attic' is music it bought through the Morse fund
When Eleanor Morse died this month, she was remembered primarily in terms of co-founding, with her husband, Reynolds, the Salvador Dalí Museum in St. Petersburg. The Morses were also strong supporters of the Florida Orchestra and lovers of classical music. The couple met at a Cleveland Orchestra concert in their hometown in the 1940s, and Eleanor was a fixture at Florida Orchestra concerts at Mahaffey Theater (she had a box on the left, or violin section, side of the theater) until ill health in recent years curtailed her attendance.
Eleanor Morse played an especially important role in helping to build up the orchestra's music library. In 1996, she and her husband established the Morse Family Foundation Music Collection, which allowed the orchestra to purchase music in advance of changes in copyright laws under the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs that would affect the use of many symphonic works that had previously been in the public domain.
"A lot of early 20th century works, particularly by composers from the former Soviet Union, that used to be freely available in the United States would have their copyright protection restored under GATT,'' said Ella Fredrickson, the orchestra's principal librarian. "It would be a huge advantage if we could buy music — the conductor's score and orchestra parts — before it reverted to copyright. Eleanor understood copyright issues because of her experience in the art world, and she and Ren started the fund to help us buy music.''
With an initial donation of $50,000, the fund allowed the orchestra to acquire the parts to a wide range of repertoire that included works like Prokofiev's Classical Symphony and the Alexander Nevsky cantata, Shostakovich's violin concertos, Stravinsky's Firebird and Petrushka suites, Khachaturian's Spartacus suite and many more.
"Everything we purchased was something we didn't have and might perform,'' said Fredrickson, who worked with former music director Jahja Ling on the musical shopping spree.
Without its own music, an orchestra has to rent the parts of a work under copyright from a publisher. Essentially, that includes most music composed in the past 95 years. "The rental can be very expensive,'' Fredrickson said. "It can cost $2,000 for a major symphonic work. The Morse collection has definitely saved us money over the years.''
Today, the Morse collection has 74 titles, and it continues to grow. Whenever a piece from it is performed, there is a notation in the orchestra's program book. In April, for example, the music used for performances of Prokofiev's Cinderella suite was from the collection.
"Eleanor really understood the value of having good parts in front of the musicians,'' Fredrickson said. "If we own the music, we don't have to rent it. This collection is like gold in the attic.''
The orchestra's collection has about 1,250 titles, the librarian said, including 883 classical works; the rest are pops scores. One recent acquisition for the Morse collection was a new edition of Holst's The Planets when it came out of copyright.
Florida has a respectable library for a regional orchestra. Large, old-line orchestras such as the Boston Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra or New York Philharmonic have as many as 5,000 works in their libraries.
In January, the orchestra will play a concert to honor the opening of the new Salvador Dalí Museum, across the lawn from the Mahaffey. Fittingly, two of the pieces on that program will be from the Morse collection: Gymnopédies by Satie and a suite from de Falla's ballet The Three Cornered Hat.
"Eleanor was so hip, such a cool lady,'' Frederickson said. "This music is her living legacy to the community.''
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: July 14, 2010
By: John Fleming
George Steinbrenner had generous, complex relationship with orchestra
As a philanthropist, George Steinbrenner III had a complex relationship with the Florida Orchestra.
He underwrote the orchestra's annual holiday concerts for at-risk children at Ruth Eckerd Hall and the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts. In 1995, Steinbrenner was instrumental in helping raise $3 million in a campaign that kept the orchestra alive.
But the Boss could be a demanding benefactor. In 1996, he held up fulfilling a $300,000 pledge because of a disagreement about programming.
"I keep telling them, I'm all in favor of Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky," Steinbrenner said. "I love classical music. But the average American isn't that fond of it. There should be more emphasis on pops."
Steinbrenner's relationship with the orchestra never recovered, and he eventually pulled his sponsorship of the pops series.
"He loved the orchestra, but he sure didn't like them not keeping a budget balanced," said Ray Murray, chairman of the orchestra board in the 1990s. "He did have an ego, but he was a good man.''
Despite those disagreements, Steinbrenner remained a supporter of the holiday children's concerts, to the tune of about $40,000 a year. John Wilson, WTVT-Ch. 13 anchor, and his wife, singer Mary K. Wilson, emceed and performed during the concerts since they began in 1990.
"That first year, I called him, and that's when he gave me instructions,'' John Wilson said. "He said, 'I want you to show these kids what an orchestra is like and why teamwork is important. Show them how the orchestra relates to each other and get them involved in the concert. Do some carols that they know and can sing.' That's held up for all these years.''
Steinbrenner rarely missed the holiday concerts and could become quite emotional.
"George would sit in the back and cry. Over the last few years, he would tear up a lot,'' Wilson said.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: June 6, 2010
By: John Fleming
The Florida Orchestra: finding harmony in old and new
The Florida Orchestra ended its 2009-10 season last weekend, and there was a piece on the final program that pretty much sums up my thoughts about where things stand now with the orchestra. It was Schubert's Symphony No. 5, led by guest conductor Gunther Herbig, an old-school maestro of the sort that tends to bring out the best of the orchestra. • Although it is firmly in the standard repertoire, the Schubert Fifth is not actually a familiar piece of music — to me, anyway; this may have been the first time I've heard it played. I was bowled over by how fresh and smart the music made me feel. I can't really put my finger on what pleased me so much, but from a musicological standpoint, the symphony struck me as a fascinating way station on the road from the classical restraint of Haydn and Mozart to the Sturm und Drang of Beethoven.
But I also realize that my enthusiasm for classical music is a minority view these days, which I was reminded of during the concert I attended at the Straz Center in Tampa. Seated on the aisle a row or two in front of me was a guy in his 20s or 30s, wearing a nice business suit, who texted and surfed on his smart phone throughout the Schubert. How depressing. At one point, I scrawled in my notebook, "The 21st century symphony orchestra is a museum!''
Of course, there's nothing wrong with museums, and when I look back over this past season, many of the performances I remember fondly were of works from at least 100 years ago: mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer in Mahler's mighty Third Symphony; Markus Groh's run through Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1; Haydn's Cello Concerto in C, with Julie Albers as the soloist.
But is this fetish for the past any way to build a modern audience? There is reason for alarm, judging from the latest survey on public participation in the arts by the National Endowment for the Arts that had people in symphony orchestra circles worried this season. It shows that since 1982 the percentage of adult Americans who go to classical concerts has dropped almost 30 percent. The only people who go to hear Haydn, Schubert, Tchaikovsky and Mahler as much as they used to are over 65. Everyone younger is going less, or not at all.
It's hard to generalize about the Florida Orchestra's audience. Sure, it does appear to be predominantly older, and there will always be the usual complaints from diehards whenever the orchestra programs the occasional contemporary work by a sharp-elbowed composer like Mark-Anthony Turnage, but there are also lots of times when it feels like the coolest band in town. There was a great, enthusiastic turnout for its Led Zeppelin concert, which was surprisingly valid. I think the orchestra's finest moment came in November when Scottish composer James MacMillan was here to conduct one of his own works as well as a performance of Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 4 so fine that it felt brand new.
MacMillan also gamely participated in one of the best things the orchestra did, making a jet-lagged appearance as part of a series of salons held at the Studio@620 in St. Petersburg in advance of that week's masterworks concerts. These intimate evenings of chamber music and informal talk were a wonderful way to forge ties between the orchestra and its audience.
The orchestra played as well as ever this past season and seems poised to get even better. Stefan Sanderling, who just completed his seventh season as music director, has gradually rebuilt sections of the orchestra that lost principals who moved on. This season was the first for the excellent principal flute Clay Ellerbroek, who has fit in smoothly with the rest of the wind section. Two of my favorite performances of the season featured the new principal English horn, Jeffrey Stephenson, who had key solos in the Sibelius tone poem The Swan of Tuonela and Dvorak's From the New World Symphony, which was recorded to be included on the orchestra's first CD since 1997.
Jeff Multer became concertmaster not long after Sanderling arrived, and the violin section has shown much improvement under his leadership. There is a new assistant principal second violin, Lucas Guideri. The principal French horn position has been vacant since James Wilson left for the Utah Symphony in 2008, but it will be filled next season by Robert Rearden, who comes from the New World Symphony with an impressive resume.
If things are on the upswing artistically, the orchestra's business side has faced tough sledding, not surprising in the middle of a long recession. I talked with Michael Pastreich, the orchestra's CEO, before the concert last weekend, and he pointed to an increase in single-ticket sales (up at least 33 percent from the previous season) and growth in the morning Coffee Concert series as positive signs. However, subscription totals are not robust, and the donors that the orchestra must count on have been hurt by the economic slump, too. Support from governments, corporations and individuals is down. If the orchestra doesn't pull a few financial rabbits from its hat by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, it will have a deficit. And that could lead to difficult changes.
In my review of the season finale, I quoted a remark by American composer John Harbison, who said that Schubert "got closer to full metaphysical revelation than any other composer." It was the best I could come up with to suggest the value of hearing something so glorious as the Fifth Symphony. Classical music and its issues can be maddening, but I can't imagine a healthy community without a symphony orchestra. We should be grateful that we have an outstanding one and strive to make it stronger.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: June 1, 2010
By: John Fleming
The music never stops: Florida Orchestra members on the summer festival circuit
The Florida Orchestra wound up its season last weekend with a program of Schubert and Brahms symphonies, but that doesn't mean the musicians put their instruments away until October. Many of them play at music festivals, opera companies and music camps during the summer. Here's a partial list of orchestra members and their summer engagements.
Music director Stefan Sanderling is at the Chautauqua Music Festival in southwest New York July 2-Aug. 21. Five members of the orchestra -- Jeff Multer, concertmaster; Nancy Chang, associate concertmaster; Anna Kate Mackle, principal harp; John Shaw, principal percussion; Katie Young, principal oboe -- perform at the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, N.C., June 26-July 31.
Erika Shrauger, associate principal clarinet, is in the orchestra of Santa Fe Opera in New Mexico July 2-Aug. 28. Violinist Mary Corbett is at the Grand Teton Music Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyo., June 30-Aug. 14. John Bannon, principal timpanist, is at Kinhaven Music School in Weston, Vermont, June 25-Aug. 8.
Rob Smith, principal trumpet, and violinist Virginia Respess play at Colorado's Crested Butte Music Festival July 3-Aug. 5. Percussionist David Coash and Lowell Adams, assistant principal cello, play in the orchestra of Lake George Opera in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., July 8-18. Bass trombone Harold Van Schaik is playing in three festivals: the Shenandoah Bach Festival in Harrisonburg, Va., June 13-20; the Wintergreen Summer Music Festival in Wintergreen, Va., July 5-Aug. 1; and the Rochester Philharmonic Summer Concerts in Rochester, N.Y., June 30-Aug. 7.
Sarah Shellman, principal second violin, and cellist Alfred Gratta are at the Bellingham Festival of Music in Bellingham, Wash., July 1-18. Shellman and librarian Ella Fredrickson are at the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music in Santa Cruz, Calif., Aug. 1-15.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: May 29, 2010
By: John Fleming
Florida Orchestra ends season with glorious pairing of Schubert, Brahms
TAMPA — The Florida Orchestra is winding up its season with works by two composers who labored in the shadow of Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. On the podium Friday at the Straz Center was Gunther Herbig, who opened with Schubert's Symphony No. 5.
Perhaps because this symphony isn't performed much, or because the players were especially alert under Herbig's precise baton, or because they just wanted to finish the season on a high note — whatever the reason, the Schubert was exquisite, overflowing with glorious melodies like one long, elegant Viennese waltz.
Schubert grew up in Beethoven's day, but he was more influenced by Haydn and Mozart. Under Herbig, the Fifth Symphony had a classical buoyancy, but there was also an affecting sense of depth to it. As American composer John Harbison said, Schubert "got closer to full metaphysical revelation than any other composer."
Brahms was so intimidated by the legacy of Beethoven that he struggled for decades to write his first symphony, premiered in 1876. But then his second came quickly, a year later. It's one of Brahms' most genial, expansive works — the pressure to live up to Beethoven was off — and it's full of memorable passages, such as the exotic oboe tune (played by Katherine Young) in the Adagio.
Friday's concert was in the Straz's smaller orchestra hall, Ferguson, and its cozy dimensions squashed the big sound of the Brahms, not allowing it to bloom. (Ferguson's acoustics were quite suitable for the lightness of Schubert.) Still, the way the trombones kind of sneaked in for their big moment at the end was a blast, as always.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: June 6, 2010
By: John Fleming
The Florida Orchestra: finding harmony in old and new
The Florida Orchestra ended its 2009-10 season last weekend, and there was a piece on the final program that pretty much sums up my thoughts about where things stand now with the orchestra. It was Schubert's Symphony No. 5, led by guest conductor Gunther Herbig, an old-school maestro of the sort that tends to bring out the best of the orchestra. • Although it is firmly in the standard repertoire, the Schubert Fifth is not actually a familiar piece of music — to me, anyway; this may have been the first time I've heard it played. I was bowled over by how fresh and smart the music made me feel. I can't really put my finger on what pleased me so much, but from a musicological standpoint, the symphony struck me as a fascinating way station on the road from the classical restraint of Haydn and Mozart to the Sturm und Drang of Beethoven.
But I also realize that my enthusiasm for classical music is a minority view these days, which I was reminded of during the concert I attended at the Straz Center in Tampa. Seated on the aisle a row or two in front of me was a guy in his 20s or 30s, wearing a nice business suit, who texted and surfed on his smart phone throughout the Schubert. How depressing. At one point, I scrawled in my notebook, "The 21st century symphony orchestra is a museum!''
Of course, there's nothing wrong with museums, and when I look back over this past season, many of the performances I remember fondly were of works from at least 100 years ago: mezzo-soprano Susanne Mentzer in Mahler's mighty Third Symphony; Markus Groh's run through Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1; Haydn's Cello Concerto in C, with Julie Albers as the soloist.
But is this fetish for the past any way to build a modern audience? There is reason for alarm, judging from the latest survey on public participation in the arts by the National Endowment for the Arts that had people in symphony orchestra circles worried this season. It shows that since 1982 the percentage of adult Americans who go to classical concerts has dropped almost 30 percent. The only people who go to hear Haydn, Schubert, Tchaikovsky and Mahler as much as they used to are over 65. Everyone younger is going less, or not at all.
It's hard to generalize about the Florida Orchestra's audience. Sure, it does appear to be predominantly older, and there will always be the usual complaints from diehards whenever the orchestra programs the occasional contemporary work by a sharp-elbowed composer like Mark-Anthony Turnage, but there are also lots of times when it feels like the coolest band in town. There was a great, enthusiastic turnout for its Led Zeppelin concert, which was surprisingly valid. I think the orchestra's finest moment came in November when Scottish composer James MacMillan was here to conduct one of his own works as well as a performance of Vaughan Williams' Symphony No. 4 so fine that it felt brand new.
MacMillan also gamely participated in one of the best things the orchestra did, making a jet-lagged appearance as part of a series of salons held at the Studio@620 in St. Petersburg in advance of that week's masterworks concerts. These intimate evenings of chamber music and informal talk were a wonderful way to forge ties between the orchestra and its audience.
The orchestra played as well as ever this past season and seems poised to get even better. Stefan Sanderling, who just completed his seventh season as music director, has gradually rebuilt sections of the orchestra that lost principals who moved on. This season was the first for the excellent principal flute Clay Ellerbroek, who has fit in smoothly with the rest of the wind section. Two of my favorite performances of the season featured the new principal English horn, Jeffrey Stephenson, who had key solos in the Sibelius tone poem The Swan of Tuonela and Dvorak's From the New World Symphony, which was recorded to be included on the orchestra's first CD since 1997.
Jeff Multer became concertmaster not long after Sanderling arrived, and the violin section has shown much improvement under his leadership. There is a new assistant principal second violin, Lucas Guideri. The principal French horn position has been vacant since James Wilson left for the Utah Symphony in 2008, but it will be filled next season by Robert Rearden, who comes from the New World Symphony with an impressive resume.
If things are on the upswing artistically, the orchestra's business side has faced tough sledding, not surprising in the middle of a long recession. I talked with Michael Pastreich, the orchestra's CEO, before the concert last weekend, and he pointed to an increase in single-ticket sales (up at least 33 percent from the previous season) and growth in the morning Coffee Concert series as positive signs. However, subscription totals are not robust, and the donors that the orchestra must count on have been hurt by the economic slump, too. Support from governments, corporations and individuals is down. If the orchestra doesn't pull a few financial rabbits from its hat by the end of the fiscal year on June 30, it will have a deficit. And that could lead to difficult changes.
In my review of the season finale, I quoted a remark by American composer John Harbison, who said that Schubert "got closer to full metaphysical revelation than any other composer." It was the best I could come up with to suggest the value of hearing something so glorious as the Fifth Symphony. Classical music and its issues can be maddening, but I can't imagine a healthy community without a symphony orchestra. We should be grateful that we have an outstanding one and strive to make it stronger.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: May 29, 2010
By: John Fleming
Florida Orchestra ends season with glorious pairing of Schubert, Brahms
TAMPA — The Florida Orchestra is winding up its season with works by two composers who labored in the shadow of Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. On the podium Friday at the Straz Center was Gunther Herbig, who opened with Schubert's Symphony No. 5.
Perhaps because this symphony isn't performed much, or because the players were especially alert under Herbig's precise baton, or because they just wanted to finish the season on a high note — whatever the reason, the Schubert was exquisite, overflowing with glorious melodies like one long, elegant Viennese waltz.
Schubert grew up in Beethoven's day, but he was more influenced by Haydn and Mozart. Under Herbig, the Fifth Symphony had a classical buoyancy, but there was also an affecting sense of depth to it. As American composer John Harbison said, Schubert "got closer to full metaphysical revelation than any other composer."
Brahms was so intimidated by the legacy of Beethoven that he struggled for decades to write his first symphony, premiered in 1876. But then his second came quickly, a year later. It's one of Brahms' most genial, expansive works — the pressure to live up to Beethoven was off — and it's full of memorable passages, such as the exotic oboe tune (played by Katherine Young) in the Adagio.
Friday's concert was in the Straz's smaller orchestra hall, Ferguson, and its cozy dimensions squashed the big sound of the Brahms, not allowing it to bloom. (Ferguson's acoustics were quite suitable for the lightness of Schubert.) Still, the way the trombones kind of sneaked in for their big moment at the end was a blast, as always.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: May 23, 2010
By: Steve Spears
License the thrill: Orchestra's 'Classic James Bond' is worth every Moneypenny
If you live in Tampa Bay and you're blowing off this weekend's series of "Classic James Bond" by the Florida Orchestra, I can only ask: Have you lost your mind, 007?
I caught the Saturday night show at St. Petersburg's Mahaffey Theater and was amazed start to finish. You still have a chance to see them Sunday night at Clearwater's Ruth Eckerd Hall. Here are some highlights from Saturday:
DOC BROWN AS CONDUCTOR: Guest conductor Carl Davis was one of the big stars, taking the stage in black high top tennis shoes and a long gold jacket. With his poof of white hair, he was the spitting image of Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future. Between tunes, he entertained with stories and background of the movies, actors and music.
THE VOICE: Because so many Bond songs do have lyrics -- and a female voice -- Mary Carewe provided the necessary juice, beginning with Goldfinger. Carewe has the perfect voice for this tough job; during the night she had to navigate through tunes originally sung by Sheena Easton, Tina Turner, Gladys Knight and so many more. Songs like The Living Daylights and Thunderball -- song by males -- were done sans singing, with the Orchestra picking up the notes.
SURPRISE HITS: Of course the Dr. No theme and Live and Let Die were dazzlers. But two Bond songs I'm not a huge fan of -- Moonraker and License to Thrill -- ended up being the showstoppers of the night. Give Carewe much of the credit, but Davis and the Orchestra took the material and made it even better live. I'd love to have recordings of either of last night's renditions of those tunes. Also among the hits: The Spy Who Loved Me, For Your Eyes Only and The Look of Love. Even a-ha's Living Daylights was sublime.
THE NEW BOND: The announcement that the Bond franchise had reached the Daniel Craig era was greeted with applause by the females in the crowd. But presumably they were lusting for the actor and not the music. The themes to Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace -- and many of those from the Pierce Brosnan era -- just don't have the same magic as earlier songs. (I love the movie Goldeneye, but the theme song? Totally forgettable!) Give Carewe and Davis a high-five for making the most of them anyway. And the crowd did, bringing the pair back for two encores.
Wait, two encores at an Orchestra performance? Yep, it was that kind of night. Don't miss your chance to see it for yourself.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: May 20, 2010
By: Sean Daly and Steve Spears
For your ears only: Florida Orchestra has a license to thrill with its James Bond weekend series
When Stuck in the '80s double zeroes Sean Daly and Steve Spears found out that the Florida Orchestra is saluting 007 at three separate shows this weekend, the nerdy boys were shaken, stirred and, unfortunately, as jiggly as overfed Bond girls.
As well as the orchestra's salute to songs and scores from 20 of the spy flicks, props and memorabilia from the classic series will be on display. The whole thing has given Daly and Spears a full-on license to dork out. Herewith, they debate the very best Bond songs — and giggle for the millionth time at Octopussy.
Spears: I'm going to come right out and say it: Duran Duran's A View to a Kill and Wings' Live and Let Die are the most overrated Bond songs of all time. Don't even try to debate the merits of those two, Dr. Dough.
Daly: And I'm going to come right out and say you're the George Lazenby of the St. Pete Times. Are you kidding me? Those are the two best Bond songs — and perfectly suited for the Florida Orchestra's brassy bombast. Let me guess: You're the type of guy who likes to sing Nobody Does It Better while preening in the mirror and making a gun out of your fingers.
Spears: I'm not afraid to admit I like Carly Simon, tough guy. But it's not the best Bond tune. Not counting John Barry's peerless instrumental theme song — and Shirley Bassey comes close, too — creepy-eyed '80s queen Sheena Easton is tops with For Your Eyes Only. Also under-appreciated? Rita Coolidge's All Time High from Octopussy.
Daly: …
Spears: You're laughing at me right now, aren't you?
Daly: Maybe. But I should be crying. You like the wussiest Bond songs ever! Instead of using a Walther PPK, I bet you wished 007 just slapped his enemies. Or maybe gave them a stern talking to. You want good Bond music: Thunderball by Tom Jones. Now that's a macho song! Die Another Day by Madonna was hot, too.
Spears: What? Madonna?! You just smeared the entire Bond canon! The truth is that there hasn't been a classic Bond song since 1987's The Living Daylights by a-Ha. Moviemakers forgot that Bond songs should be sexy but cool, attitudinal and aloof. Madonna was a crass attempt at album sales. Roger Moore is rolling over in his grave!
Daly: First of all, Roger Moore isn't dead. Second of all, he might actually be the best Bond. Can we finally agree on that?
Spears: I've had enough of Pierce Brosnan. I don't like Daniel Craig at all. And Sean Connery is your dad's James Bond. Me? I'm going with Timothy Dalton.
Daly: …
Spears: Grow up, Daly.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: May 15, 2010
By: John Fleming
Harp shines in jewel of the orchestral genre
TAMPA — The harp makes a magical sound, but not many composers have known how to take full advantage of it. Verdi and Puccini operas have good harp parts, and Debussy and Mahler are among the orchestral composers who had a feel for the instrument.
Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera's Harp Concerto is the impressionistic jewel of the genre. It topped Friday's concert by the Florida Orchestra, with guest conductor Grant Llewellyn on the podium. The soloist was Anna Kate Mackle, the orchestra's excellent principal harp, and she gave a ravishing performance, her virtuoso fingers seeming to pluck the music from the air.
At times, Mackle's harp sounded like an amazing guitar, especially in the cadenza that serves as a bridge to the third movement, full of elegant runs and nimble rhythms. She brought shimmering colors to the exotic concerto, which ended on a sensational note.
The conductor's challenge is to keep balance between the harp soloist and orchestra, especially the percussionists, who have a lot of rambunctious music. Llewellyn kept a pretty tight lid on them, and slight amplification of the harp helped in Ferguson Hall of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts.
A work by another Argentine opened the program, Osvaldo Golijov's Last Round, an elegy for Astor Piazzolla, featuring the violins and violas standing up as in a tango orchestra. Principal double bass Dee Moses had a prominent role deep in the mix.
After intermission, it was back to the Teutonic standard repertoire, with Llewellyn leading Wagner's Siegfried Idyll and Beethoven's First Symphony. The Wagner was glacially slow, while the Beethoven (which I had to leave early to make deadline) was crisply classical.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: May 9, 2010
By: John Fleming
Behind scenes with the Florida Orchestra's making of a CD
ST. PETERSBURG — If you have a classical CD collection, you probably know the work of Tim Handley.
"Have a whiskey before listening to that one,'' Handley said of a recent release on the Naxos label of Shostakovich's Symphony No. 11, a harrowing work about "Bloody Sunday,'' a massacre in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1905.
Handley was the producer and engineer of the Shostakovich recording by England's Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, one of about 500 to his credit. His resume of productions for Chandos, Deutsche Grammophon, EMI, Virgin, Naxos and other classical labels includes four Grammy Awards.
Last weekend, Handley was ensconced in a backstage room of the Mahaffey Theater that was full of recording equipment. A 49-year-old Englishman based in London, he had been hired by the Florida Orchestra to make its first CD in more than a decade, of Dvorak's evergreen Symphony No. 9 (From the New World).
The recording was going to be done live, and for Saturday night's masterworks concert, the Mahaffey stage was festooned with microphones on stands: four across the front of the stage and eight among the orchestra players. The Dvorak symphony came on the second half of the program.
During intermission, Handley, a short, shaggy-haired man in sneakers, jeans and wrinkled white shirt, went around adjusting microphones, including slightly changing the angle of one in front of the percussion section's triangle, which has a crucial contribution to make at the beginning of the third movement.
"What mikes you're going to use and where they go on the stage is pretty much the core of what makes it work or not,'' said Handley, who calls the microphones his "babies.'' He uses Neumann and Schoeps microphones, both made by German companies.
A live concert recording is a compromise — it's less costly than a straight recording session — that presents a problem with noise: coughing in the audience, the crackling of a candy wrapper, the drone of an airplane over the un-soundproofed Mahaffey.
"The slightest little noise can be disturbing on a recording,'' Handley said.
Music director Stefan Sanderling asked the audience to be quiet — "These microphones are great. They can record our thoughts,'' he said from the podium — but there were still several coughs just a few measures into From the New World. The conductor stopped the performance and started over again.
From another session
The performance May 1 was splendid, but much of the music on the recording will likely come from a rehearsal the previous Thursday afternoon, when the orchestra, Sandlerling and Handley had Mahaffey all to themselves for two hours and 45 minutes.
In the Thursday session, the orchestra played the symphony from back to front, starting with the fourth movement, then playing the third, the second and part of the first, before running out of time.
"Basically, we did it that way, because the first movement is the easiest one for them,'' said Handley, who listened to the performance through headphones from his ad hoc backstage recording studio, which had a pair of speakers, a mixing board that he barely touched and a small, boxy computer. He followed along in a score of the symphony.
During a break, the producer spoke with Sanderling about places they needed to go over again. "I tell him what he's not got right,'' Handley said. "I hate to be blunt about it, but that's what he needs to know. He needs to know what's not jelling, not coming together.''
Usually, the problem is inconsistent tempos, but there are also simple mistakes — an oboe flub here, the first and second violins not playing closely together there.
Blending it all together
As the producer, Handley needs to keep in mind the big picture in which he has three performances to draw music from for the final product: the April 29 afternoon session, the performance on May 1 and then a half-hour "patch'' session after the concert when the hall was empty.
There is never enough time for a recording, Handley said. That is especially so under the new Integrated Media Agreement between the American Federation of Musicians and symphony orchestras under which the recording was done. The agreement is a good thing in that it allows orchestras to make recordings for CDs, broadcasts or downloads in relatively economical fashion. Each Florida Orchestra member is paid about $300 a season as compensation for a limited number of recordings. But time constraints stipulated by the agreement are a handicap in achieving a perfectly finished product.
Nonetheless, modern recording technology is pretty amazing. "The average classical CD has an edit every six seconds or so,'' Handley said on May 1. Already at that point, from just the first session, he had made 126 edits on the orchestra's From the New World, which runs about 45 minutes. He still had music from the concert and the patch session to work in.
There are other tricks at a producer's disposal. Although Mahaffey has less than wonderful acoustics — "This venue is way too dry for recording,'' Handley said, referring to lack of reverberation in the hall's sound — he planned to enhance them via computer.
"I'll put some artificial ambience on it,'' he said. "We now use what they call convolution reverb where they sample the acoustics of great halls around the world.'' He figured the ambience of the famed Concertgebouw hall in Amsterdam might work well on the orchestra's recording.
Michael Pastreich, CEO of the orchestra, said that plans for the release of From the New World are not yet set. He thought it might be well paired on a disc with Dvorak's Cello Concerto, which the orchestra will be performing in December with soloist Mark Kosower.
The patch session was a tense affair, with Sanderling and the orchestra playing sections indicated by Handley, speaking over an intercom. "Quickly, quickly, quickly,'' the conductor said testily at one point, urging the musicians to get ready to replay a troublesome section involving a key change in the third movement.
With just a few seconds to go, the orchestra took one last stab at a triple forte passage at the end of the symphony.
"Okay, thank you everybody so much,'' Handley said over the intercom, then he added softly: "It's a photo finish. I think we can make it work.."
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: May 6, 2010
By: John Fleming
The Florida Orchestra performs 'The Blue Planet Live!' May 7 in Tampa
First broadcast in 2001, a BBC/Discovery Channel documentary series called The Blue Planet made a splash with its brilliant underwater photography. George Fenton won several awards for his music for the series, including an Emmy. Now the English composer has created The Blue Planet Live!, a concert version that features footage from the series on a large screen and a symphonic score, performed Friday by the Florida Orchestra.
"It captures everything from dolphins spinning above the surface of the water to the dark abyss that is the bottom of the ocean,'' said Ward Stare, who is conducting the orchestra in the concert version. "I think we know less about the bottom of our oceans than we do about outer space.''
Fenton has been a remarkably versatile composer of film music. His more than 70 scores range from Groundhog Day to Gandhi, The Madness of King George to Bewitched. He has also composed music for quite a few wildlife films.
"They're different than doing a normal film,'' Fenton, 59, said from his farm and recording studio outside London last week. "It's not the same kind of pressured environment. When I did The Blue Planet, the approach was relaxed. They just let me get on with it, and it was a pleasure to do.''
For a feature film, the composer is usually given the film with "temp tracks'' of existing music that suggest the style that a director wants for each scene. Many composers find the process limiting.
"You can learn things from the temp track, but it's also quite prescriptive,'' Fenton said. "When I do a natural history film, they give me just an empty film. Literally, just pictures. So in that sense it's freeing.''
Alastair Fothergill, the British producer of The Blue Planet, gave Fenton basic directions for the score.
"He said he wanted me to write old-fashioned dramatic music,'' the composer said. "So that's what I tried to do. I thought of classic film music by Erich Korngold and Bernard Herrmann and Franz Waxman and people like that.''
For the concert version, Fenton has included both footage and musical sequences from the original documentary series (and the full-length 2003 movie Deep Blue) and new music and images. "I put a lot of music in that isn't from the original Blue Planet, and I put a lot of footage in that is cut in different ways than the original,'' he said.
The Blue Planet Live! can be tricky for a symphony orchestra conductor accustomed to focusing strictly on the music. Stare, 27, comes to the task with experience, having led a performance of the production in September by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, with whom he is resident conductor.
"The hard thing is that you have all this amazing footage up on the screen, but the orchestra and I can't allow ourselves to get caught up in it because we have to keep the music and pictures in synch,'' he said. "If we start to mold and shape a phrase in a particular way, unfortunately, the killer whales up on the screen aren't going to hear our phrase and wait for us to finish before they splash down in the water. We don't have the luxury to interact with them. We have to be right on the money with the film each time.''
The orchestra's production of The Blue Planet Live! is timely, in a tragic way, with the Gulf of Mexico now endangered by a huge oil spill. There is also a new Walt Disney documentary film on the subject, Oceans, released on Earth Day.
"The message of The Blue Planet is just as valid now as when the original series was made,'' Fenton said. "It's not a diatribe on what you've got to do to clean up the planet. One just hopes that by experiencing the magnificence of the oceans that people feel more inclined to protect them."
Source: The Tampa Tribune
Published: May 4, 2010
By: Kathy L. Greenberg
Orchestra makes waves with singular show
The seas that surround us are full of unfathomable wonders that few have seen. In 2001, the BBC aired a television series called "The Blue Planet" that plumbed the oceans' depths and brought all that is tentacled, finned and gilled to the surface. Composer George Fenton wrote the series' score, which complemented the awe-inspiring antics of marine life.
"The Blue Planet" was such a hit that producers created "The Blue Planet Live," a touring concert that combines the TV program's underwater photography and a live orchestra performing Fenton's award-winning compositions.
The Florida Orchestra brings this program to the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts Friday, May 7 for one performance only. Audience members will watch the life aquatic on a large movie screen while Ward Stare conducts and former Bay News 9 anchor Jen Holloway narrates the story of the sea.
Though the ocean amazes in its vast visual terrain — whether televised or experienced in person — Stare described Fenton's music as "a landscape of its own."
"Fenton is a genius at painting in music vivid images," Stare said. "You'll hear percussion to simulate waves crashing on shore, flutes playing musical acrobatics that mimic the motions and spinning of dolphins. When we go to the depths of the ocean, he uses dark tones to set the mood. There's a whole spectrum of musical sounds that go along with and enhance what's going on onscreen."
The result is a feeling of actually engaging with the ocean, swimming with those dolphins and riding the waves that meet the shore. What comes is a sense of oneness with a world that is still profoundly alien to human beings. It's also, according to Stare, an educational experience that should not be missed.
"The program brings attention to the wide variety and wonder of life in the ocean. It's important for us all to see how wonderful and diverse it is. The ocean is the final frontier."
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: May 1, 2010
By: John Fleming
Florida Orchestra in top form at the Straz Center
TAMPA — There was a theatrical quality to the first half of Friday's Florida Orchestra concert at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts. It opened with Ives' The Unanswered Question with orchestra members positioned around the stage seemingly almost at random — four flutes seated in chairs in one corner, most of the strings standing upstage and principal trumpet Robert Smith in the balcony (at least that's where music director Stefan Sanderling pointed at the end of the piece; from my seat I couldn't see where the soloist was in Ferguson Hall).
Smith handled the high-wire solo with aplomb — seven times he asked the "Perennial Question of Existence" in the same phrasing and tone over the organ-like sonority of the strings and ever-more assertive winds.
Bartok's magnificent Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta featured more unorthodox staging, with two groups of strings flanking a central core of percussion, harp and celesta and piano. The four-movement, 30-minute work begins with melancholy strings that build in volume and energy until the rustle of cymbals lead to the twinkling sound of celesta, a kind of cross between glockenspiel and piano with hammers that hit metal plates instead of strings. The third movement is a dramatic epiphany of creepy, crawly effects (as heard in the score for The Shining) that include harp and eerie timpani. The ghostly finale is like Bartok's homage to a vanished old Europe, with its Schumannesque piano flourishes and lush strings. He composed the work just before the deluge of World War II.
Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 (From the New World), which took up the second half of the program, also has a dramatic element, if you buy the scholarship that it was inspired by Longfellow's narrative poem The Song of Hiawatha, which the composer read in a Czech translation. Sanderling and the orchestra were at the top of their form in this symphony full of engrossing musical episodes that never cease to amaze. Jeffrey Stephenson was the superb English horn soloist in the famous Largo.
People attending tonight's concert at Mahaffey Theater will find the stage festooned with microphones. The orchestra is making a live recording of From the New World, so any clapping between movements or coughing or scraping of chairs — or, heaven forbid, cell phones going off — will be verboten.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: Apr 19, 2010
By: John Fleming
Florida Orchestra and violin soloist Elena Urioste, guest conductor Eri Klas
CLEARWATER -- The Florida Orchestra demonstrated grace under pressure Sunday night in its concert at Ruth Eckerd Hall. About a week ago, the hall had a water leak that flooded the stage, resulting in damage that makes it impossible to install the orchestral shell that is normally used for concerts. So Sunday's concert was given with a kind of a makeshift shell, but the performance was compromised. Curtains on each side of the stage absorbed sonic details -- there was a certain lack of crispness in the strings -- and a portion of the sound went straight up into the fly space above the stage instead of out into the hall. The big brass and percussion sections in Prokofiev's Cinderella ballet suite got a bit diffuse at times.
Nonetheless, in spite of the handicaps, it was a surprisingly interesting concert, with Estonian conductor Eri Klas showing why he was once considered as a possible music director candidate for the orchestra, before Stefan Sanderling was named to the job. Nine or 10 years ago, some members of the orchestra's music director search committee went to the Netherlands to hear Klas conduct at the famed Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and they came back raving about his musicianship.
Who knows what kind of music director Klas would have been here -- he has held several such posts in Europe -- but on Sunday he was a guest conductor to savor, a large man exuding an air of stillness on the podium, guiding the musicians with economical gestures of his baton and hands. It was especially telling to hear his reading of Fratres, the curtain raiser by his countryman, Arvo Part, whose "mystic minimalism'' has developed a cultish following. It's a short work that depends on silences as much as sound to make its impression, primarily that of exquisite high strings keening over a low drone, punctuated from time to time by wood block and muffled bass drum, played by John Shaw. It reminded me a little of new-age Bruckner in its monolothic, melancholy sonoroties, and it received a confident performance under Klas.
Elena Urioste, an up-and-coming young violinist, was the soloist in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5, and if she is not yet totally in command of the finesse needed for the concerto's dauntingly exposed passagework in the Allegro aperto ("fast and distinct'') first movement, her poised performance was still a pleasure overall. She was particularly good in the elegant slow movement, bringing an unhurried sense of restraint to the melodic riches at hand, drawing a voluptuous tone from her 1706 Gagliano violin.
Cinderella is second-rate Prokofiev ballet music -- compared to his Romeo and Juliet score -- but sometimes a lesser work by a great composer can be fun. Klas led the orchestra in the first suite from the ballet, Op. 107, consisting of eight movements and lasting about half an hour. It was instructive, for example, to hear how Prokofiev borrowed from himself by taking the acerbic string sound that is so familiar from Romeo and Juliet and basically replicating it in Cinderella. He was like a watchmaker in his intricate orchestration, using lots of percussion and dramatic and comic effects in the brass to tell a story. In Russian ballet, he was Tchaikovsky's heir, but with wit.'
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: March 21, 2010
By: John Fleming
Florida Orchestra changes its approach to fundraising with video pitch
ST. PETERSBURG - The Florida Orchestra is showing a new promotional video to audiences before each concert this month. A soft-sell pitch for donations, the video is part of the orchestra's long-term plan to turn March into a special fundraising month every year, much as public radio and television have annual pledge drives.
Michael Pastreich, president of the orchestra, doesn't expect the video to yield a lot in the way of direct support this year. "The concept is that if we do this next year and the year after and the year after that we'll build awareness and over time should penetrate much more deeply into our audience,'' he said.
The main point of the video is that ticket sales cover only 32 percent of operations, leaving the rest to be made up by donations from individuals and foundations, governments and corporations. That is proving to be a challenge during the recession that has hit Florida hard.
"Government and corporate support in particular have just plummeted,'' Pastreich said.
Historically, the Florida Orchestra is no stranger to financial struggles, but in the past two years it has posted balanced budgets, achieved through cuts in management staff and pay, a revised labor contract with musicians that reduced their pay, a disciplined focus on operational efficiencies, and some impressive fundraising.
The budget was reduced from $11.6 million two years ago to $9.3 million this season. But those cuts may not be enough if the orchestra doesn't have a wildly successful fundraising effort over the next three months or so. A deficit of about $600,000 is projected for the fiscal year that closes at the end of June.
"It amazes me how much stronger we've become while the world around us has been in meltdown,'' Pastreich said. "We've balanced our budget the last two years. We've paid off debt. Our cash flow has become stronger. But if we were to have a deficit, a lot of that would be undermined.''
Peter Toomey, a board member and chairman of its development committee, thinks the orchestra has no choice but to cultivate more donors, even in tough times. "The economy is what it is,'' said Toomey, vice president for finance with Progress Energy. "We've just got to go on with life and make our plan work in another way. We would love to solve this on the revenue-raising side rather than on the expense side again. I don't know that there's a lot more to be done on the expense side. We need to stabilize and grow what we count on as the orchestra's base of annual contributors.''
The orchestra has about 2,500 contributors, most making relatively small annual gifts. What makes its need to increase the number of donors urgent is that attendance trends — that is, ticket revenue — are not favorable. From 2007 to 2010, the orchestra's subscription revenue has dropped 19 percent. "The expected revenue from ticket sales is in a long-term cyclical decline,'' Toomey said. "Therefore, we have to become more effective at fundraising.''
A changing landscape
Symphony orchestras around the country are concerned about shrinking audiences because of major shifts in social behavior. "If things don't change, we cannot expect the same trends that sustained us in the past to continue to sustain us,'' said Judith Kurnick, vice president of strategic communications for the League of American Orchestras in New York. "The demographics of the country are changing.''
Kurnick recently wrote a report on research findings that challenge a long-held article of faith among orchestra advocates. "The belief that as people aged and reached their mid 50s and older would sort of drift to orchestras and begin to attend and support is no guarantee anymore,'' she said. "The kind of assumptions that this field operated on are not holding true.''
She identifies "the sea change that the Internet has wrought'' as a reason behind the changes in cultural and leisure activity affecting orchestras. "The next generation doesn't necessarily go out and do things as much,'' she said. "They do a lot more online, particularly when it comes to music and entertainment. So there's a real need for orchestras to look at what their services to the audience and the community are, and what is the value that they add, and are there ways to tweak the delivery and reach people in different ways.''
Other arts organizations face similar problems, though perhaps not as much as symphony orchestras, perceived as stuffy and old-fashioned by several generations who have had little exposure to classical music in school. American Stage, which shares a building with the orchestra's offices in downtown St. Petersburg, is enjoying its best attendance ever, thanks in part to a new theater.
Angela Bond, the theater's development director, needs to raise about $600,000 from contributors this fiscal year, and she notes a change in what corporate sponsors expect for their donations. "In the corporate giving world, it's no longer enough to be seen as a good community citizen,'' she said. "They want more of an advertising impact.''
One aspect of its fundraising campaign that has worked well for American Stage is the 229 Club, which asks supporters to give $229 a year for three years to pay for the theater's new lighting system (it has 229 lighting positions). "You have to find that hook that people will enjoy supporting,'' Bond said.
Pastreich likens fundraising to "pick and shovel work.'' Contrary to myth, it isn't done much on golf courses or at posh parties. "Poor fundraising is done on the telephone or at a cocktail reception,'' the orchestra CEO said. "Good fundraising is done in a very personal, focused setting. One of my major learning moments was when I realized my job on a fundraising call isn't to walk away with a check. My job is to talk about what I'm passionate about and enable you to figure out where we fit in your priorities.''
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: March 20, 2010
By: John Fleming
Mendelssohn's oratorio soars
TAMPA — For a listener, when Leon Williams, in the title role of the prophet, makes his solemn entrance in the opening recitative of Elijah, it is as if you're poised at the top of an epic musical experience. And then when the orchestra swings into the restless overture, the drama takes hold and never lets up for the rest of the evening.
Mendelssohn's Old Testament oratorio was given a magnificent performance Friday by the Florida Orchestra, the Master Chorale of Tampa Bay, the University of South Florida Chamber Singers and a quartet of stupendous soloists. Music director Stefan Sanderling was on the podium at Morsani Hall of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts.
Williams superbly communicated the text in his clear, expressive baritone. A highlight was the resonant warmth he brought to the aria "It is enough," which featured an immaculate solo by principal cello James Connors. The other dominant role in the oratorio is that of the chorus. Prepared by Joseph Holt, it ranged beautifully from the huge sumptuous sound of choruses like "And then we shall see whose God is God the Lord" to the angelic lightness of "He, watching over Israel."
Part I of Elijah is perfectly shaped; it begins with drought and ends with rain. Part II gets preachy and long-winded, but it still had plenty of wonderful moments Friday, such as soprano Heidi Grant Murphy's performance of the high, floating aria "Hear ye, Israel." Mezzo-soprano Stacey Rishoi cast an enchanting spell in the famous "O rest in the Lord." The interplay was seamless between Williams and tenor Philippe Castagner, whose conversational style was ideal for the roles of Ahab and Obadiah.
A complete Elijah runs well over three hours, but that is rarely done anymore. Friday's performance incorporated some cuts and was about 90 minutes, with no intermission.
The last time the orchestra and Master Chorale presented Mendelssohn's masterpiece was in 1997, and that was a great occasion, too. Maybe next time they should perform his New Testament oratorio St. Paul.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: March 11, 2010
By: John Fleming
Marvin Hamlisch to appear with Florida Orchestra
Marvin Hamlisch is a musical jack of all trades, composing for stage, film and television. He's responsible for some monster hits, such The Way We Were for Barbra Streisand and the score for The Sting, which won an Oscar and sparked a revival of interest in ragtime and the music of Scott Joplin. And then there's A Chorus Line, for which he won a Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize in 1976. I enjoy the Hamlisch hits as much as anyone, but my favorites from his catalog run to the more obscure. Here are five of them.
1. Smile is the great lost Hamlisch musical from 1986, adapted from the movie about a beauty pageant in small-town California. A song cut from the show that always makes me laugh is Nightlife in Santa Rosa, with incomparably witty lyrics by Carolyn Leigh.
2. What I Did for Love is the showstopper from A Chorus Line, but it's actually the lamest song in the score. For my money, from a standpoint of musical craftsmanship, the best song is At the Ballet.
3. The Swimmer. Hamlisch has composed more than 40 film scores, but I have an enduring fondness for the soundtrack from his first, The Swimmer (1968). The movie is a dark allegory adapted from a John Cheever short story in which Burt Lancaster is an advertising man at the end of his rope who does the crawl across suburban Connecticut from one swimming pool to another.
4. Sweet Smell of Success was a flop on Broadway in 2002, but the jazzy score by Hamlisch and lyricist Craig Carnelia is worth a listen.
5. Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows, the bubblegum single Hamlisch wrote for Lesley Gore. Check out the video on YouTube of Lesley singing this on a bus from the 1965 movie Ski Party.
Hamlisch, 65, will conduct, play piano and tell stories with the Florida Orchestra at 8 p.m. Saturday at Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg, and 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater. He'll be joined by Broadway vocalist Stephen Lehew. $20-$67. (727) 892-3337 or toll-free 1-800-662-7286; floridaorchestra.org.
Source: The Tampa Tribune
Published: March 8, 2010
By: Kathy Greenberg
Stage, screen legend to lead Orchestra in weekend concerts
Except for Richard Rodgers, Marvin Hamlisch is the only American composer to have won major awards in every genre of the entertainment industry. He has collected Grammys, Emmys, Golden Globes, Oscars, a Tony and a Pulitzer. From "The Sting" to "A Chorus Line" to "Barbra Streisand: The Concert," Hamlisch has enhanced the stage and screen for nearly half a century. And with all that pressure and fame, he's still got a sense of humor.
"I got a phone call from the secretary for Frank Sinatra," Hamlisch recalled. "She tells me he wants to speak to me. I'm in shock. He wants me to do an arrangement for him that he was going to be doing with Liza Minnelli. We all took a picture on New Year's Eve, except I was in a suit and tie and he was in zip-up jacket that in red letters said 'Frank.' Liza was in rehearsal clothes. When I got the picture back, it was unsigned, so I asked his secretary if I could send it back for him to sign. He signed it and wrote, 'Guess who's the lawyer?'"
With his consummate wit and verve, Hamlisch will return to The Florida Orchestra this weekend to perform music he wrote for such movies as "Sophie's Choice," "Ice Castles" and "The Way We Were." He's including a salute to Jerome Kern, plus pieces written by Irving Berlin and Richard Rodgers. He will also treat patrons to his version of "Rent-a-Composer," in which he makes up songs on the spot from titles suggested by audience members.
Hamlisch's musical prowess revealed itself in early childhood. At the age of 6, he was accepted to Juilliard. In 1968, he began composing for Hollywood films, his latest being "The Informant!"— a 2010 Oscar contender starring Matt Damon. Among his extensive body of work, the composer said he doesn't have personal favorites. But if pushed to choose an experience, he would cite "A Chorus Line" because it was the kind of "music I love doing — writing for Broadway."
His creative process is simple and joyful.
"You try to capture what you're thinking about in music. You're thinking about it in English terms but somehow trying to translate that into music. I enjoy performing, but there's something lovely about writing," Hamlisch said.
And much to his continued surprise, his immense career has kept him in company with some of the world's other great talents.
"When you start, you're hoping that you'll be able to work at what you like doing," Hamlisch said. "All this other stuff was extra on the cake. Sometimes I have to pinch myself because I've worked with so many great stars."
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: March 6, 2010
By: John Fleming
Gershwin gimmick slips; his interesting 1925 piano roll is no match for live performance
TAMPA — Is George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue the greatest piece of American classical music? Could be. It also could be the most overplayed piece of American classical music, but the Florida Orchestra came up with a twist on the old standby to wind up its concert Friday in Ferguson Hall of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts.
The soloist was Gershwin himself, or at least a 1925 piano roll of him transferred to software for a Yamaha Concert Grand Disklavier, a high-tech player piano. This was a gimmick, of course, but there was some musical interest to be found in Gershwin's style. He was quicker and rhythmically more forceful than is typically heard today.
Stefan Sanderling wore headphones to hear the original solo and jazz arrangement by Ferde Grofe, allowing the conductor to coordinate the ensemble between piano roll and orchestra. Still, the performance was ragged, and most of the time the piano was playing away alone, a weird, rather boring experience to watch the keys and pedals move by themselves. I'd rather watch and hear a real live soloist.
Sanderling and orchestra were more engaged by the other American work on the program, the Ives Third Symphony (The Camp Meeting), one of the composer's less craggy creations, quoting hymns like What a Friend We Have a Jesus. He composed the symphony in 1901-04, but it didn't get a full performance until 1946, amazing neglect of such accomplished music.
To open Friday's concert, Sanderling dipped a toe into the Second Viennese School, with Webern's Op. 1 Passacaglia, which has an easy elegance that belies the composer's membership in the 12-tone triumvirate along with his mentor Schoenberg and Berg. Classical Vienna was represented by Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, which featured haunting solo oboe played by Katherine Young.
• The orchestra has designated March as fundraising month — a la NPR's pledge drives — but instead of having a pre-concert pitch by a board member or manager, it is showing a promotional video. Produced gratis by Bay News 9, it will run before each concert this month.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: March 4, 2010
By: John Fleming
Technology lets Florida Orchestra feature performance by George Gershwin
Numerous pianists have been the soloist for Rhapsody in Blue with the Florida Orchestra — Michael Kim, Jeffrey Siegel and Norman Krieger in the past 15 years or so. Now the orchestra will get a chance this weekend to play the iconic work with the man who composed it and was the soloist in the 1924 premiere, George Gershwin.
Well, if not Gershwin himself — he died in 1937 — then a close approximation of his performance, thanks to technology.
"This is an opportunity for George Gershwin to make a rare posthumous appearance,'' says George Litterst, the music technologist behind the production.
Instead of playing with a real live pianist this weekend, music director Stefan Sanderling and the orchestra will be joined onstage by a Yamaha Disklavier grand piano, which is essentially a high-tech player piano. The solo piano part will be played by a MIDI file produced from a piano roll made by Gershwin in 1925.
"It's a very expressive performance,'' says Litterst, who used sophisticated musical software to transfer Rhapsody in Blue from piano roll to Disklavier for the first time for the Boston Pops in 1998, the centennial of Gershwin's birth. "You'll hear loud and soft, properly pedaled, just as Gershwin played it.''
When Gershwin was growing up, the parlor of many a household had a player piano and a box of paper piano rolls punched full of holes. He was inspired to become a musician after hearing a piano roll of Anton Rubinstein playing one of his compositions. As a Tin Pan Alley pianist, Gershwin made more than 100 piano rolls of popular songs, including some from the musicals he created with his brother, Ira.
"The heyday of the player piano was around 1923,'' says Litterst, 56, a pianist, educator and music technology consultant in Massachusetts. "At that time, over half of the pianos sold in the United States had some kind of player system.''
The piano roll of Rhapsody in Blue was an arrangement of the solo and the jazz-band instrumentation as performed by Gershwin and the Paul Whiteman Orchestra in the premiere. In Gershwin's hands, the solo sounds quite different from recordings by the likes of Leonard Bernstein, Andre Previn, Earl Wild and others.
"It is a lot faster, and in the passages where Gershwin is playing by himself, you will hear a very distinctive treatment of the rhythms quite unlike what you've heard on a recording before,'' Litterst says.
Rhapsody in Blue and other Gershwin pieces have been slowed down by generations of classical pianists. "The influence of the classical pianist has been to overromanticize a lot of Gershwin,'' Litterst says. "I can remember listening for the first time to Gershwin's own recorded performance of his Three Preludes, and being very startled by how he interpreted the first one, which so many pianists will play in this hazy, romantic way. His is a very fast-moving, straight-ahead performance.''
Litterst planned to attend orchestra rehearsals this week to help set up the Disklavier and familiarize Sanderling with it. The conductor will wear headphones to listen to the original piano roll — both solo and orchestration — so as to be able to coordinate some of the tricky tempo changes in Gershwin's performance with the live orchestra. The work opens with the famous clarinet glissando before the piano makes its entrance.
"The conductor will freely conduct the first 18 measures, and as he gives the upbeat to measure 19, he will push the play button on this box,'' Litterst says. "From that point onwards, a MIDI file of the piano will play continuously, with the conductor listening to the original piano roll performance on his headphones. It is a different kind of experience for a symphony orchestra conductor.''
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: February 18, 2010
By: John Fleming
Ellis Hall joins Florida Orchestra for tribute to Ray Charles
Ellis Hall seems to have been destined to pay tribute to Ray Charles. Like Charles, Hall is blind. Both men were born in Georgia, and both became singers. The two met and were friends for several years before the legendary Brother Ray died in 2004.
"It was really funny," Hall told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "He came in when I was playing I Can See Clearly Now, literally during my solo. I had the band groove on while I went down to say hello. He stayed for the whole show and called me the next day."
This weekend, Hall will be performing Hit the Road Jack, I Can't Stop Loving You, Georgia on My Mind and other Charles standards with the Florida Orchestra. The program will be conducted by Matt Catingub, who has some impressive pops and jazz chops himself, having worked with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Bellson and Jack Jones.
Although Hall has performed his Charles show with orchestras from the Kennedy Center to the Hollywood Bowl, he also is known for having been the lead singer with Tower of Power and one of the vocalists for the animated California Raisins in TV commercials. In movies, he played organ and sang gospel in Big Momma's House, was the voice of a singing rooster in Chicken Run and performed in Catch Me If You Can. He has released three albums of his own.
Hall and the orchestra play at 8 p.m. Friday at Ferguson Hall of the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa; 8 p.m. Saturday at Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg; and 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater. $20-$67; $10 for students. (727) 892-3337 or toll-free 1-800-662-7286; floridaorchestra.org.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: February 27, 2010
By: John Fleming
Cellist Julie Albers is appealingly bold in performance with Florida Orchestra
TAMPA — It's great to catch a young musician on the rise, and cellist Julie Albers is one to watch. Her assured performance as the soloist in Haydn's Cello Concerto in C was the highlight of Friday's Florida Orchestra concert, conducted by Stefan Sanderling in Ferguson Hall of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts.
Of course the crowd pleaser of the night was Bolero, which wound up the program, but that's kind of a given. Ravel's relentless showpiece always brings down the house.
There are two Haydn cello concertos, and Albers played the first, composed between 1761 and 1765. As a model of classical refinement, it's not a flashy work, but she captured the composer's typically cheerful mood with elan, while also putting her own stamp on it with a sweet, singing tone and crisp articulation.
Not unlike an Olympic athlete, a concert soloist needs to be a daredevil, throwing caution to the wind but never losing her poise, and Albers displayed that sort of quality in the concerto. When she dropped down briefly into the cello's lower register in the second movement's cadenza, it was a spine-tingling moment.
Sanderling and the orchestra gave a brilliant account of the first two movements of Mozart's Symphony No. 38 (Prague). These are two of the most intensely concentrated movements in the repertoire, and the violins, urged on by concertmaster Jeffrey Multer, were especially splendid. Only in the third and final movement (the symphony lacks the traditional minuet movement, supposedly because Prague had a prejudice against dancing in 1787) did the orchestra falter when someone flubbed an entrance and broke the spell.
Friday's program opened with a sprightly performance of The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the Dukas tone poem that will forever be thought of as cartoon music because of its use in Mickey Mouse's star turn with a broom in Fantasia.
Bolero started out with the soft, insistent snare drum of John Shaw, positioned right behind the violas, and he was eventually joined by sultry flute, clarinet, sax, trombone and others, over gentle pizzicato in the strings. After 15 minutes of the longest crescendo in music, the orchestra reached the frenzied climax that drove Bo Derek and Dudley Moore wild in 10.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: February 18, 2010
By: John Fleming
Ellis Hall joins Florida Orchestra for tribute to Ray Charles
Ellis Hall seems to have been destined to pay tribute to Ray Charles. Like Charles, Hall is blind. Both men were born in Georgia, and both became singers. The two met and were friends for several years before the legendary Brother Ray died in 2004.
"It was really funny," Hall told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "He came in when I was playing I Can See Clearly Now, literally during my solo. I had the band groove on while I went down to say hello. He stayed for the whole show and called me the next day."
This weekend, Hall will be performing Hit the Road Jack, I Can't Stop Loving You, Georgia on My Mind and other Charles standards with the Florida Orchestra. The program will be conducted by Matt Catingub, who has some impressive pops and jazz chops himself, having worked with the likes of Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Bellson and Jack Jones.
Although Hall has performed his Charles show with orchestras from the Kennedy Center to the Hollywood Bowl, he also is known for having been the lead singer with Tower of Power and one of the vocalists for the animated California Raisins in TV commercials. In movies, he played organ and sang gospel in Big Momma's House, was the voice of a singing rooster in Chicken Run and performed in Catch Me If You Can. He has released three albums of his own.
Hall and the orchestra play at 8 p.m. Friday at Ferguson Hall of the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa; 8 p.m. Saturday at Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg; and 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater. $20-$67; $10 for students. (727) 892-3337 or toll-free 1-800-662-7286; floridaorchestra.org.
Source: The Tampa Tribune
Published: February 15, 2010
By: Kathy L. Greenberg
Ray Charles protege at center of weekend tribute concert
Multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Ellis Hall has enjoyed an amazing career while hovering just beneath the public radar. In the entertainment industry, however, he's racked up decades' worth of credits and kudos. For the record, he's the man behind the voice on soundtracks for "The Wonder Years," "NYPD Blue," "Chicken Run," "Big Momma's House" and "Polar Express." A quick eye will spot him playing piano in the film "Catch Me If You Can." His California Raisins albums went gold and platinum.
Despite Hall's solid foothold in the music industry, R&B artist Ray Charles had never heard of him. By chance, they met at a party where Hall was performing for friends. Charles called him the next day to get better acquainted, and in 2003 the legendary artist signed him to his record company, Crossover Records.
"Ray called me his protégé. He felt like he had discovered me. He said he wanted to get me out to the world," Hall said in a telephone interview.
Charles died in 2004, leaving legions of fans and peers to keep his music alive, whether playing one of his CDs or holding a tribute concert. Case in point, this month Hall will honor the memory of his friend and late-life mentor with The Florida Orchestra in "A Tribute to Ray Charles." He'll perform classic hits such as "Georgia on My Mind," "Hit the Road Jack," "What'd I Say" and "I Can't Stop Loving You."
"I'm going to tell little stories about Ray. I'm going to talk behind the music. I get to carry on the legacy without the cantankery," said Hall, laughing.
The artists may have had different dispositions, but they harmonized in every other way: Both were Georgia-born African Americans. Both were visually impaired at a young age (Hall was born with congenital glaucoma). And both found music to be their means of expression and creativity.
"Once we came together musically, we realized how close we were. Stevie [Wonder] and I have that kindred spirit, too. Ray had sight and I had sight; we talked about that. That commonality and … music being the universal language — when you find it, whether you're blind or not, there's immediate camaraderie," Hall said.
CONCERT PREVIEW
'A Tribute to Ray Charles'
WHAT: Ellis Hall with conductor Matt Catingub
WHEN AND WHERE: 8 p.m. Friday at Ferguson Hall, David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, 1010 N. MacInnes Place, Tampa ; 8 p.m. Saturday at Mahaffey Theater, 400 First St. S., St. Petersburg; 7:30 p.m. Sunday at Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater
TICKETS: $20 to $67; call (727) 892-3337 or 1-800-662-7286, or visit www.floridaorchestra.org
More in February with The Florida Orchestra
Bravura Brunch: Matt Catingub, Steve Moretti and Perry Orfanella perform at a lunch and silent auction sponsored by North Suncoast Associates. Proceeds go to The Florida Orchestra; 11 a.m. Saturday, Stirling Hall, Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club, U.S. 19 N., Palm Harbor; $60
Ravel's "Bolero": Many may recall Ravel's bold sound from the movie "10," as well as Dukas' "The Sorcerer's Apprentice." This was Mickey Mouse's theme music in the 1940 film "Fantasia." Cellist Julie Albers also performs selections by Mozart and Haydn; 8 p.m. Feb. 26 at Ferguson Hall, Straz Center, Tampa; 8 p.m. Feb. 27 at Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg; 7:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater; $20-$67.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: February 14, 2010
By: John Fleming
Florida Orchestra's Stefan Sanderling shapes the new season seeking musical balance
Every year about this time, Florida Orchestra music director Stefan Sanderling offers his version of a balanced budget — a musical budget, that is, as he announces the programming for next season.
"There are programs to enjoy, and there are programs that can be a life-changing experience,'' Sanderling said. "I don't think a Tchaikovsky program is a life-changing experience; it's not meant to be. But I think the Shostakovich 15th Symphony is a life-changing experience. And it's all about finding a balance between those two things.''
For 2010-11, the results of Sanderling's balancing act include both Shostakovich's final, death-haunted symphony and an all-Tchaikovsky program. There are also a healthy batch of contemporary works such as John Adams' Doctor Atomic Symphony and plenty of traditional favorites such as Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, plus the return of Thomas Wilkins, the popular former resident conductor of the orchestra.
Today the orchestra releases its programming for next season's masterworks and coffee concert series, which is being expanded beyond its longtime home at Mahaffey Theater to include several concerts at Ruth Eckerd Hall. Programming for the pops series will be released later.
The season opens Oct. 8-10 with Wilkins as guest conductor. Since his tenure with the orchestra from 1994 through 2002, he has gone on to fashion a fine career and is now music director of the Omaha Symphony and principal guest conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Wilkins' program includes James Beckel's Toccata, Respighi's Pines of Rome and Liszt's Les Preludes, which he conducted the last time he was in front of the orchestra in 2003.
Sanderling, artistic administrator David Rogers and other staff members work on the programming and booking of soloists and guest conductors in a process that is complicated by the orchestra's unusual arrangement of playing in four venues: Mahaffey in St. Petersburg, Ruth Eckerd in Clearwater and Morsani and Ferguson halls in the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts in Tampa. Because these venues have their own programming to book, the orchestra must do a daunting juggling act to match guest artists and repertoire with dates. A major problem is that uncertainty over dates forces the orchestra to engage guest artists later than most U.S. orchestras.
Soloists next season include four who have previously performed with the orchestra: pianists Peter Rosel in Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto, Lilya Zilberstein in Rachmaninoff's Third Piano Concerto and Stewart Goodyear in Gershwin's Piano Concerto in F, and cellist Mark Kosower in the Dvorak Cello Concerto.
Three members of the orchestra will be featured: concertmaster Jeffrey Multer in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, principal second violin Sarah Shellman in British composer Thomas Ades' Violin Concerto (Concentric Paths) and principal bassoon Anthony Georgeson in the Mozart Bassoon Concerto.
Sanderling labored on the program the orchestra will play in January to celebrate the opening of the Salvador Dali Museum, across the lawn from the Mahaffey. "It was probably the program that took the longest to put together,'' he said. "The problem with Dali is that his relationship to music was very limited. To find something that reflects and describes Dali's art was not easy. It took us about three months to come up with that.''
Suitably surreal works on the program include HK Gruber's Frankenstein!! A Pandemonium for Chansonnier & Ensemble, Milhaud's Le Boeuf Sur le Toit (The Ox on the Roof) and Debussy's orchestrations of Satie's Gymnopedie Nos. 1 and 2. There are also less madcap works such as Beethoven's Consecration of the House and a suite from Spanish composer de Falla's ballet score The Three-Cornered Hat.
In a significant move for the orchestra, the coffee series will have three concerts next season at Ruth Eckerd, in addition to the seven at Mahaffey. All the programs will be conducted by Alastair Willis, with three of them played at both halls. Concerts at Ruth Eckerd will start an hour earlier, at 10 a.m.
"We know that Ruth Eckerd Hall has a strong adults at leisure series'' of daytime performances, said Michael Pastreich, the orchestra president. "The population base up there would overlap well with our coffee concert series. We expect that it ought to take off fairly strongly from the very first year.''
The expansion of the coffee series is part of a trend. "Across the board, subscribership is going down for all live activities — sports, symphony, opera,'' Pastreich said. "An exception to that rule is weekday matinees. Weekday matinees are increasing across the country. So it is clearly part of our agenda to move concerts into weekday time slots.''
Pastreich thinks baby boomers are driving the trend. "The largest generation in history is reaching an age where weekday matinees are looking better,'' he said.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: February 14, 2010
By: John Fleming
Chamber music series starting at Palladium in St. Petersburg
Brian Moorhead and Michael Strauss don't play together all that often. Moorhead is principal clarinet with the Florida Orchestra. Strauss is principal viola with the Indianapolis Symphony. Both musicians, however, are in the orchestra of the Crested Butte Music Festival in Colorado, and they hit it off when they played chamber music together there last summer.
"As soon as we started playing, we just smiled at each other and enjoyed how the piece unfolded,'' Moorhead said. "It was such a compatible feeling. We just knew at that first moment that we had to play together again. That was the seed of interest.''
Moorhead and Strauss were playing Schumann's Fairy Tales when they had their little epiphany in Colorado, and they'll play it again Tuesday in the first concert of this year's Encore chamber series, celebrating its 10th anniversary season at the Palladium Theater in St. Petersburg.
As a symphony orchestra musician, Moorhead puts a premium on the opportunity to play chamber music. "These collaborations keep us vibrant and alive and honest and in touch with our instruments more intimately,'' he said. "We have a chance to really give of ourselves and have an even stronger sense of fulfillment when we can reach the audience through the chamber music format.''
Clarinet and viola are fairly uncommon partners — Moorhead calls them "chameleons'' of the orchestra — and this week's concert, with pianist Brent Douglas, will also include Mozart's "Kegelstatt'' trio and selections from Bruch's Op. 83 pieces for clarinet, viola and piano. In addition, Moorhead will play three pieces for solo clarinet by Stravinsky, and Strauss will play Chahagir for solo viola by Hovhaness. The program will also be performed Monday night in Tampa at the University of South Florida.
Mark Sforzini is the artistic director of the Encore series, and he is featured as a composer in the March 16 concert, which will include the premiere of his work based on the 19th century paintings Voyage of Life by Thomas Cole. Sforzini, former principal bassoon with the Florida Orchestra, will play in the March 30 concert. He is also artistic director of the St. Petersburg Opera, which stages most of its productions at the Palladium.
Musicians in the four Encore concerts include members of the Florida Orchestra and Sarasota Orchestra. The Degas Quartet will play string quartets of Puccini (Crisantemi) and Haydn as well as Schumann's Op. 44 quintet, with pianist Grigorios Zamparas, on Feb. 23. Pianist Pascal Roge and violinist Amy Schwartz Moretti, former concertmaster of the Florida Orchestra, are featured in the March 16 concert, which includes Faure's Op. 13 sonata for violin and piano.
Encore Chamber Series
Feb 16: Michael Strauss, viola; Brian Moorhead, clarinet; Brent Douglas, piano. Works of Schumann, Mozart, Stravinsky, Hovhaness, Bruch.
Feb. 23: Degas Quartet with Grigorios Zamparas, piano. Works of Haydn, Puccini, Schumann.
March 16: Pascal Roge, piano; Amy Schwartz Moretti, violin; Isabelle Besancon, cello; Clay Ellerbroek, flute. Works of Faure, Sforzini, Brahms.
March 30: Jonathan Spivey, piano; Rosey Yiameos, oboe; Bharat Chandra, clarinet; Mark Sforzini, bassoon; Andrew Karr, horn; Rimas Karnavicius, bass voice. Works of Handel, J.S. Bach, Taranto, Poulenc, Beethoven.
All concerts are at 7:30 p.m. at the Palladium Theater, 253 Fifth Ave. N, St. Petersburg. $20 per concert or $60 for a season subscription. (727) 822-3590; mypalladium.org.
Moorhead, Strauss and Douglas also will perform their Encore program at 8 p.m. Monday at the Music Recital Hall/FAH 101 at the University of South Florida, Tampa. $8-$12. (813) 974-2323; music.arts.usf.edu.
Click here to listen to Strauss, Moorhead, and Douglas' performance on 89.7 WUSF.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: February 13, 2010
By: John Fleming
Rediscovering two old friends
TAMPA — Sibelius was enchanted by swans. Once he saw 16 swans flying over his house in Finland ("My greatest experience!" he wrote in his diary), and they inspired some of his most memorable music.
Two of Sibelius' swan hymns were a big part of the Florida Orchestra's concert Friday night in Ferguson Hall of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Stefan Sanderling conducting. First, English horn player Jeffrey Stephenson performed the darkly narcotic solo that weaves in and out of The Swan of Tuonela, representing the swan that swims in the river of death in Finnish mythology. Stephenson, playing while standing in the woodwind section, was superb.
Sibelius' most famous swan-inspired music is the French horn theme that opens his Symphony No. 5, the centerpiece of the first half of the program. The horn theme is one of the many musical fragments that go into the mosaic of this most subtle, compressed of symphonies, which reaches its peak in the finale's interplay between a glorious melody by woodwind choir and quick, muted strings. The symphony closes with six crashing chords that I have always found unconvincing, but Sanderling brought the ending off as well as possible.
In the 1930s and '40s, Sibelius was played as frequently as Beethoven by American orchestras, but the Finn's music has been somewhat eclipsed lately. Now Sanderling seems to be interested in exploring it. He's going to conduct the orchestra in Sibelius' En Saga and Symphony No. 7 next season.
Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 was the big draw of the evening, and Ferguson was full. The symphony is an iconic work, the Mona Lisa of music. There's an old saw in the orchestra world that no matter how familiar a piece is, there are always people in the hall who are hearing it for the first time, and that certainly appeared to be true on Friday, with quite a few young children in attendance.
But even for old Beethoven hands, there were things to rediscover in the symphony, such as the short, soft unison notes in the strings before a clarinet solo in the second movement, or the weird bassoon and contrabassoon play in the third movement, or the infectious music of the finale that Tchaikovsky borrowed for The Nutcracker. The Fifth always sounds new in a strong performance.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: January 30, 2010
By: John Fleming
Roaring out of Russia
TAMPA — Nothing succeeds like excess, that seems to be the theme of the Florida Orchestra's concerts this weekend. The program is all Tchaikovsky, and why not? About the only time I've heard such roars from the audience was when the orchestra backed up a Led Zeppelin tribute band a few weeks ago.
Tchaikovsky and Led Zeppelin … somehow that's a pairing that makes a certain sort of sense, the heavy (metal in the case of Zeppelin) popmeisters of their respective musical genres, a century apart from each other.
Of course, it helped that the orchestra was playing one of Tchaikovsky's greatest hits, the First Piano Concerto, with a steely fingered soloist, Markus Groh, Friday night in Ferguson Hall of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts. He was subbing for the scheduled pianist, Mikhail Rudy, who canceled because he has tendonitis.
Groh, a ponytailed German, deserved every hurrah he got, right from the massive piano chords he laid down to accompany the famous melody in the orchestra that begins the concerto. He has the requisite big sound for such a grand conception, and at times he appeared to be wrestling the music from the piano (this is a fun piece to watch being played), but he also displayed a poetic sensibility in the cadenza of the first movement. He dashed off the speedy dance rhythms of the finale in spectacular fashion.
Music director Stefan Sanderling did well with the most obvious conducting challenge of the concerto when, about midway through the third movement, the tempo lurches slower, like a record suddenly changing speed. It's not Tchaikovsky's finest moment as a composer and can be awkward in performance, but it passed by without incident on Friday.
The orchestra opened the evening with Tchaikovsky's Third Symphony, which is not as familiar as his much-played Pathetique or Little Russian symphonies. "Of all his symphonies, this one is the least conformative to preset schemes and may produce an impression of strangeness," writes Roland John Wiley in his new Tchaikovsky biography. In other words, it has lots of pretty music but is incoherent.
The five-movement symphony was composed around the same time as Swan Lake, and the fourth movement is reminiscent of the ballet score with its skittering winds and strings. The third movement is the emotional heart of the piece and featured excellent work by principal bassoon Anthony Georgeson.
Source: The Tampa Tribune
Published: January 20, 2010
By: Kathy Greenberg
Orchestra, cirque combo returns for another spectacle
Two years ago, Cirque de la Symphonie and The Florida Orchestra mesmerized audiences with a dramatic blending of two very different art forms. It was one of the most popular concerts of the 2007-2008 season. This month, music and magic will converge once again.
Cirque de la Symphonie is a company of aerialists, acrobats, contortionists, dancers, jugglers and strongmen. What it's not is the usual circus troupe, relying on physical skill alone to thrill audiences. Cirque de la Symphonie is, instead, a bridge to an all-encompassing sensory experience.
While an orchestra plays, one to two cirque artists share the stage to perform choreographed acts that have been adapted to the music arrangement. It's "candy for the ears and eyes," aerialist Alexander Streltsov said.
"It's a true collaboration. The blend of cirque with music becomes a creation that you probably wouldn't experience if you go to a regular circus show," said Streltsov, also the company's technical and artistic director.
Streltsov has been executing gravity-defying feats since he was a child in Russia. Born into a circus family, he knew by the age of 2 or 3 that he would be a performer as well. He quickly accumulated awards and landed gigs with TV specials, cirque productions, theaters and orchestras, many of them facilitated by Bill Allen, founder and producer of Cirque de la Symphonie.
Allen had been representing Streltsov and other cirque artists for years when the Cincinnati Orchestra contacted him about incorporating a cirque act into a symphonic program. The subsequent Valentine's Day special led to several more productions, both nationally and internationally. These early successes encouraged Allen to formalize the program and incorporate in 2005.
"I think it's a one-plus-one-equals-three effect," Allen said. "Something magical happens when you fuse these (arts) together. Hands are clasped and tears are rolling down faces in the audience. One of the things I think is cool about this is that it's drawn not just children with grandparents, but young adults."
For the January program, Streltsov will join strongmen Jarek and Darek, aerialist Aloysia Gavre, contortionist Elena Tsarkova, juggler Vladimir Tsarkov and seven-time National Champion and Olympian Christine Van Loo. But be forewarned: These lithe talents make the improbable look easy enough for anyone to do. It's not.
"One woman said her 16-year-old daughter wound up on a curtain trying to repeat what I did," Streltsov recalled. "We need a big sign that says, 'Don't try this at home.'"
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: January 14, 2010
By: John Fleming
Led Zeppelin tribute band, Florida Orchestra will rock at Ruth Eckerd Hall on Saturday
Brent Havens remembers well the first time he put together the music of Led Zeppelin with a symphony orchestra. It was 1995 and he tried out the concept with the Virginia Symphony.
"We had no idea how it would do, so we put the concert in a 1,000-seat theater,'' says Havens, an arranger and conductor who lives in Virginia Beach. "It sold out in one day. And we went — oh, hello, that was pretty interesting.''
Thus was spawned a lucrative cottage industry that marries rock and classical music and brings sizable new audiences to symphony orchestras. Havens and his Zeppelin show are featured with the Florida Orchestra at Ruth Eckerd Hall on Saturday.
There's nothing new about joining rock and classical music. In the glory days of prog-rock in the 1960s and '70s, crossover giants walked the Earth: Procol Harum, the Moody Blues, Yes, Genesis, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and others flirted with symphony orchestras.
And there have been lots of sweeping strings set to rock, from the Beatles' The Long and Winding Road to the brilliant pairing of Metallica and the San Francisco Symphony on the album S&M.
Led Zeppelin got the treatment by the London Philharmonic in Kashmir: The Symphonic Led Zeppelin, but that 1997 album was more symphonic than Zep, with no vocals, guitar, drums or bass. In Havens' show, the orchestra basically serves as the backup band to five rockers, including Randy Jackson (lead singer of the band Zebra) making like Robert Plant.
"There's full rock lighting with fog and the mirror ball and the whole deal,'' Havens says. "The entire orchestra is miked. So it's not a pops type of concert. It's an out and out rock show.''
Havens, 53, is founder of Windborne Music, which has five different classic rock shows for which he writes the orchestra arrangements and conducts. Along with Zeppelin there are shows for Pink Floyd, the Eagles, the Doors and the newest one, Queen.
A year ago, the Florida Orchestra did the Pink Floyd show at Mahaffey Theater, and attendance was a robust 1,781, more than 90 percent of capacity. "Not only was it a full house, but it was a new audience for the orchestra,'' says Sherry Powell, marketing and communications director. "It's so nice to be able to do something relevant to people who don't normally come to orchestra concerts.''
However, there isn't much evidence that the orchestra's forays into the likes of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin and other special shows build the audience for mainstream classical fare. "A couple of years ago we did the Lord of the Rings Symphony, and they were well attended,'' says Henry Adams, associate director of marketing and communications. "Very few people who bought those tickets came to other concerts.''
Havens has arrangements for 30 Led Zeppelin songs, and Saturday's concert will feature about 18 of them, no doubt including such favorites as Black Dog, Going to California and, yes, Stairway to Heaven. He essentially transcribes the rock band parts, because that's what fans expect to hear.
"It's astounding how well these people know this music,'' Havens says. "They know lick for lick on the guitar, every nuance of the phrasing of the lyrics. That's why we try to keep it close to the original. I think I'd be disappointed if I went to a concert and heard somebody's interpretation of Zeppelin.''
So does that mean guitarist George Cintron can match the great Jimmy Page?
"He has the style down,'' Havens says. "Most of the solos are note for note. The Heartbreaker solo, where it's all guitar, he steps out and does a five-, six-minute piece all by himself. It's certainly in the vein.''
And drummer Powell Randolph does the big Moby Dick solo that John Bonham did, though not for the 20 minutes that Bonzo usually took up. "I don't let Powell go on that long. But it is an amazing solo,'' Havens says.
Havens was originally drawn to Led Zeppelin because one of the group's greatest hits, Kashmir, already featured strings and brass. His challenge in writing orchestration for the songs was to keep the charts interesting.
"That was really the critical thing, that it didn't come out cheesy or cheap sounding,'' he says. "I wanted to give it the elegance that it deserved.''
Havens didn't want the orchestra just playing whole notes behind the band. "Avoiding the footballs (whole notes) is always one of my big concerns,'' he says. "But for a couple of tunes you almost need that. Like in Going to California I have lush strings behind it. For the majority of the tunes I'll have counterpoint melodies and lots of rich harmonic structures in the orchestra.''
Even after years of labor on arrangements of Zeppelin's music, Havens remains a fan of the heavy metal legends. "The rhythmic and harmonic complexities they were using — the open tunings in guitars and the chords on top of chords — are still intriguing to me. I had a much greater respect for them after I transcribed all the music than I did going into it.''
Source: The Tampa Tribune
Published: January 10, 2010
By: Buddy Jaudon
Concert shows light, dark side
TAMPA - Herman Melville said, "There is no quality in this world that is not what it is merely by contrast." On Friday night at the David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, contrasting sides of two composers were juxtaposed in The Florida Orchestra's concert of works by Richard Strauss and Dmitri Shostakovich.
The night began with Strauss' lighter side. "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks," a piece which describes the exploits of a legendary practical joker, was given an occasionally rambunctious outing, with concertmaster Jeffrey Multer's contribution in the love theme a standout, and fine playing by French horns and trumpets throughout.
The first contrast was then offered in the shape of Strauss' "Death and Transfiguration," one of the composer's early tone poems and a very serious work indeed.
The essential thing with this piece is that the portions depicting the physical pain of the dying man be forceful enough to create the proper feeling of horror, from which the transfiguration music at the end is an antidote.
There was no problem with either part Friday, with the brass and timpani offering ferocious interruptions of string and woodwind reveries, and the entire orchestra making the final bars radiant and sublime. Principal oboe Katherine Young's performance was lovely and precise in the quieter sections.
The second half of the program contained only a single work, but it offered stark contrasts of its own. The Sixth Symphony of Shostakovich is a work in three movements. The long, slow, serious first movement is balanced by two shorter and lighter ones, the second of which should sound nearly hysterical in its enforced optimism.
Music director Stefan Sanderling, who conducted the entire concert sitting down, gave the music a reading which was perfectly controlled in the tense first movement, and fittingly manic in the finale. The entire woodwind section was exceptional in this piece, with Lewis Sligh's piccolo work a particular pleasure.
Source: St. Petersburg Times
Published: January 9, 2010
By: John Fleming
Shostakovich concert strikes personal chord
TAMPA — Shostakovich's Symphony No. 6 has personal meaning for Stefan Sanderling. It was responsible for him becoming a conductor, the Florida Orchestra music director said in a pre-concert talk Friday night. More than 20 years ago, living in his native East Germany, Sanderling wanted to be a musicologist, but when he wrote a politically incorrect program note about the symphony that displeased Communist authorities, that academic career was closed to him. So he had no choice but to become a conductor.
The Sixth Symphony is one of Shostakovich's less familiar works, an odd, beautiful, haunting creation that the orchestra performed for its first program of the new decade at Morsani Hall of the Straz Center for the Performing Arts. Perhaps because of a physical issue, Sanderling led while seated in a chair, but his conducting was no less vigorous.
The symphony is unusual in that it has three movements, instead of the conventional four, and starts with a giant largo that, at 20 minutes long, takes up almost two-thirds of the piece. Much of the movement was played exceedingly softly, and it featured the most amazing collection of solos for piccolo, flute, bass clarinet, English horn and others. All this, taken at a very deliberate pace by Sanderling, seemed as if it shouldn't have held together, but it did in spellbinding fashion.
The second movement had the sardonic woodwinds that are a Shostakovich trademark, but what really took off was the finale, with its effervescent classical quickness in the strings (reminiscent, in fact, of Prokofiev's Classical Symphony).
The first half of Friday's concert was taken up by a pair of Richard Strauss symphonic tone poems, full of the picturesque instrumental writing that led the way to the composer's brilliant operas. Geoff Pilkington, the guest principal French horn, deftly handled the tricky rhythms of his solo that opened Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks, but the reprise could have been projected more forcefully. Death and Transfiguration was glorious in its metamorphosis from a gloomy C-minor chord at the beginning into heavenly, harp-laden C-major at the end.
