B Minor Mass (Johann Sebastian Bach, in segments between 1724 and 1748)

PJ and I had the good fortune to attend a performance of Bach's "Mass in B minor" on Saturday evening (1/15/11) - part of the Arizona Bach Festival. Performance was at Central United Methodist Church. We arrived reasonably on time by our standards, but the place was packed. Our luck (and PJ's find): they were putting up some additional chairs in the transepts, and we ended up in the front row. So had a great side view, could see the conductor throughout - somewhat like the view we have when performing with Choral Union.

After listening to it so often on CD, it was quite an experience to hear a fine live performance. Unoriginal observations: the CD doesn't pick up all the depth of the sound, and certainly doesn't pick up the echoes and reverberations in a church setting.

Quoted at the bottom of the post is a summary from NPR which I like (relating to a CD it's selling). I'm posting the album cover of the version we have on CD, which really is quite fine.

The Phoenix Chorale sounded wonderful - which was good news, since this is primarily a choral work. The festival orchestra also sounded very nice. We weren't completely sold on the soloists, but there were many nice moments.

For me: I still like the Kyrie section best. The first part is almost hypnotic; then a change of pace with two soloists doing the "Christe eleison"; then I much like the final Kyrie eleison as it leads into the Gloria. But the entire thing is a delight, even if two hours is a bit long to be sitting.

After: late dinner at the Vig with my pal.

NPR's take:

"April 7, 2009 - The Mass in B minor is as lofty in design, scope and expression as anything written by the hand of man. It's one of several instances in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach in which a piece is created as an ideal type, rather than crafted for a practical use. As such, it represents an attempt to both summarize the tradition of the mass in a single perfect specimen and leave a statement on the nature of sacred music as a bequest to the future.

Most of the work's component parts date from various times in Bach's long residence in Leipzig; they were assembled to form a complete mass only near the end of his life. The earliest section is the Sanctus, from 1724. The Kyrie and Gloria are taken from a 1733 mass that Bach dedicated to the electoral court of Saxony at Dresden. The last major addition was the Credo; the keystone to the whole archlike structure, and itself a wonderfully symmetrical arch, it was written in 1748-49. Bach never heard the work in its entirety, but it represents a collection of movements in diverse styles; the Mass in B minor transcends the inconsistency of its origins."

Taylor King concert (round 2) (Anaheim, CA, July 20, 2010)

As part of our recent trip to Laguna Beach, PJ and I attended what was the final performance for the Troubadour Reunion Tour (Carole King and James Taylor). We had previously attended in Glendale, described here.

We liked it a lot, for all the same reasons noted in the prior post. I had been reading in the newspaper how this tour had just blown away all expectations for ticket sales in what has otherwise been a very down year for the concert tour business. Somehow they are very much striking the right chord.

It was a different crowd than in Arizona - more immediately responsive, but not better. Hard to believe at this age they were on the road this long (he's 62, she's 68).

I had sought tickets late, but we were pretty lucky with this - first row in upper level. That actually works quite nicely. With the revolving stage in the middle of the arena and the various video boards, it was a good location.

Here's a short clip taken via cellphone video (from someone who lugged around massive video cameras for years: who can believe a cellphone can take video even of this quality?) It's a portion of "Sweet Baby James," which is performed following his little story about writing it for his nephew . . . live, the violin line sounded good (example here at 0:30), as did Carole King singing a line against the melody (starting around 1:00).



Lots of very nice moments, including the tour finale (same song they ended with in Glendale) (Close Your Eyes) . . .



Then the GPS directed us out of Anaheim and back to Laguna Beach, a kind service without which we might have been circling quite awhile.

Old World and New: German and American Song (Katzin Hall, January 30, 2009)

Here was the blurb for the concert: "ASU faculty artists and guest artists celebrate German and American song, including Schumann's "Dichterliebe," Brahms' "Four Serious Songs," Barber's "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" and "The Promise of Living" from "The Tender Land," Aaron Copland's only major opera."

It sounded good. But wasn't. I think the performers did fine, but the programming was, let's say, suspect. Brahms' "Four Serious Songs" were certainly serious, and they were followed up by a group of 16 German songs that went on and on about the awfulness of life, love, etc. Wow. There were some nice moments in the second half but by this time we were pretty well shell-shocked.

First ASU concert that we didn't really enjoy. Had Chris, Kerry, Paul Jr., Mary Beth & Mike. Everyone had pretty much the same reaction. Another less than inspirational occurrence was the pizza at La Bocca on Mill Avenue (information here), where we went pre-concert.

Oh well.

James Taylor and his Band of Legends

A last-minute event - Patricia, Paul Jr., Nedda and I went to see James Taylor (who was touring with his modestly titled "Band of Legends") at the Dodge Theater in downtown Phoenix on Saturday night (August 2).

Per usual for touring folks, they were promoting a new album. They played a few items from that in the beginning of the concert. In general, the band was quite good. But the crowd (certainly including us) was there only to hear JT work from his catalog of familiar items primarily from the 1970s.

Some observations:

1. The guy's voice has survived remarkably well for being at age 60. Certainly in comparison to some of his contemporaries that really shouldn't be touring anymore (or at least confine themselves to out of the way casinos).

2. He did enough of the old stuff so that everyone left satisfied. There was a portion of the second set where he did "Walking Man," "Sweet Baby James," and "Fire and Rain" in close order. Nice.

3. I had not heard the story behind "Sweet Baby James" before, it was written for a nephew of his that was named "James" (duh) while he was off doing whatever in Europe. So he recounted coming back to the US and trying to write something. Some funny lines about the "the little varmint" and his effort to come up with songs, e.g. "All quiet in the bunkhouse" (a rejected title).

4. His stage presence is wonderful. Connected very well with the audience. Stuck around signing autographs, posing for photos, talking through the entire intermission. He's funny, has a great way of talking. He more or less works his way around stories, often getting there indirectly, permitting audience members to fill in their own ideas. Told some of the traditional jokes (and openly identified them as such), including how the electric guitar was an improvement over the "steam-powered guitar" and the "horse-drawn guitar" etc.

5. They did four encores. Nice.

6. He sang "Oh what a beautiful morning". Unexpected. We all thought of EMG.

7. Normally I don't much care for his blues stuff, but in a live venue it worked really well. They did a slower-tempo version of "Steamroller" plus some other stuff.

8. Had a funny bit about how he and Carole King worked up "You've Got a Friend" in a nightclub that - well, it was probably a bit of a stretch to call it a nightclub; if a building could be a ditch, that's what it was . . . that he didn't know that the song would end up being something he performed every night for the rest of his life . . . but this was better than folks who had hits like "The Monster Mash."

9. The band members really did add a lot. I often find the brass sections annoying in these groups, but they were restrained and very musical. The main drummer was a Phoenix guy that is pretty talented, though I never much care for the whole drummer routine. There was another drummer doing Latin stuff, he was interesting to listen to. Etc.

10. To take a stab at describing why his stuff works - I think the word is bittersweet. Somehow the combination of his unique voice, the lyrics, the chord movements underneath the held notes - it still sounds great after 35+ years, and I think his stuff is aging really well. He can communicate the poignancy of the fleeting happinesses . . . has figured out that the fleeting nature is what creates the intensity . . .

Danwen Jian (Violin) Walter Cosand (Piano) (Katzen Hall, February 10, 2008)

It was a beautiful Sunday here in Phoenix, sunny and upper 70s. Patricia and I hiked in the Phoenix mountain preserve (40th street trailhead), then went to this faculty recital down at ASU.

We enjoyed it a bunch. There were four works on the program - a sonata by Schubert, two 20th century American works (Lukas Foss and Russell Bennett), and a sonata (No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108) by Brahms. The opening piece (Schubert) was the least interesting (or maybe our performers (or we audience members) were just getting warmed up). The 20th century pieces were delightful; I always have low expectations for these things and should know better by now. There were parts that were very pretty; some elements of swing or jazz; etc. And we always like Brahms it seems; his piece asked a lot of the pianist (not surprisingly).

I like watching the violinist play. It's interesting to see all the ways they can make sound come out of the violin.

Then to Roaring Fork where they feature a ridiculously cheap and good happy hour menu, plus the bartender comp'd a round. Get the green chile pork stew. What a deal.

Robert Spring and a Whole Lot of Friends (Katzin Concert Hall, September 9, 2007)

The ASU faculty and student recital season ends in late April, so we were glad to see things starting up again. We went to a concert featuring a clarinet player. The guy (Robert Spring) has an effective personality and is quite the showman. The first half of the program involved some brand new compositions, including one piece (Chamber Concerto #2) where the composer was present for its premiere. It involved violin, viola, cello, percussion. I was ok with it, PJ not so much.

The second part of the concert involved the clarinet guy and piano accompaniments.

Very much worth the trip down, it's very nice to have access to live music like this.

Two ASU events

On Thursday I went to a "symposium" at ASU where three visiting professors presented short papers about aspects of the concert that we're performing on April 26. First speaker, a rabbi, went through the union prayer book and its history, Bloch's approach in condensing elements of the prayer book into the choral work, etc. And he said Bloch at that stage was not particularly religious, calling him a "seventh day absentist." (Everybody laughed.) Speaker number two was from Claremont College; he focused on Bernstein's Jeremiah Lamentations. Speaker number three was the most interesting; he was a music professor from University of Georgia and discussed sources of the music, played clips, etc. He described a theory - not proven but much work went into trying to prove it - that Gregorian Chant was based on sources from Jewish worship. Some of the figures were very similar. And he played the orchestral lead-in to Bloch's Sacred Service, which sounded extra nice given the buildup. It's going to be good.

On Friday, Patrick was in town for an interview; he, Patricia and I went to ASU to see a concert put on by a group in which Meghan Jones performs (the "Pitch Forks", some dated info about the group is here). Paul Jr. and Nedda also attended. A fine time was had by all, including a late dinner at Z/Tempe.

ASU Concert (Sing Joyfully! Music of the Jewish Tradition)

Patricia and I attended a concert at Katzen Hall at ASU on March 31, 2007. I picked her up after work at Mayo Hospital, then we threaded our way through some surface streets due to a road closure on the 101. Ended up missing the first half hour of the concert.

But we really liked the portion that we heard. This concert is part of a series culminating in the performance of Bloch's "Sacred Service" that our ASU Choral Union will be performing on April 26. So the program was themed to music with Jewish connections (broadly defined).

Big crowd, primarily Jewish. Very involved in the music. Two works were by contemporary composers who were in attendance, so that was neat. I liked that the program had lots of variety - solo mezzosoprano, piano-with-cello, chorus-accompanied-by-violinist, etc.

They performed some Jewish folk music at the end, and the crowd clearly enjoyed those songs a bunch. A lady sitting near us was explaining things, she was from Rogers Park (Chicago) and had grown up with this music.

Chopin piano recital

Patricia and I went to an all-Chopin performance at Katzen Hall (ASU campus) on Sunday night. (This was after a nice early dinner at the Z Tejas in Tempe - the chicken quesadilla and chile verde were fine indeed.) The premise was the 120th birthday of Arthur Rubenstein, who recorded mucho piano works by his Polish compatriot. Short lecture followed by a film of Rubenstein (which could have been shortened a bunch or skipped altogether). The playing was most enjoyable; we liked the faculty performer plus Ilia Ulianitsky and Helen Jing.

An extremely pleasant evening. Small crowd, which is hard to figure. Info on Rubenstein is here.

Piano competition

For the second year in a row, Patricia and I attended the Schimmel Bosendorfer USASU piano competition (now that's a mouthful) at Katzen Hall at Arizona State University. This year, we suckered Paul Jr. into accompanying us. The concept is great for the audience -- it combines interesting, nicely-performed piano music with a competition setting. There are three divisions. The "junior" group is fun - kids 16 and under - absolutely amazing what they can do. I include the program notes for Min Soo Hong, who was the most entertaining perfomer of the entire evening. A 13-year-old kid who really went for it. The "senior" group is up a distinct level in quality. I also include the program notes for a young lady from this group who performed well, but she was especially noticeable because of her, let's say, unusual facial expressions and overall contortions.

The adjudication sessions are open to the public but we didn't make it this year. Patricia went last year and I hope we can get to one next year.

(Note the photo of the happy attendees taken with the camera in my new phone - a new era for me in photojournalism.)

This is a nice event which likely will recur annually. I hope it does.