Concert Review of JMU's Pops Concert

I posted this about a month ago (a couple of days after the concert), but it doesn't appear to be on the blog anymore. I'm posting it again for anyone who hasn't read it or would like to read it again. -BM

Concert Review

The concert I chose to review was the Family Day Pops Concert at James Madison University in the JMU Convocation Center on October 10, 2009. The concert was meant to showcase some of the top student ensembles at the university. Those ensembles were the wind symphony under the director of Dr. Stephen Bolstad, the chorale under the direction of Dr. Patrick Walders, the brass band under direction of Mr. Kevin Stees, and the Marching Royal Dukes under the direction of Scott Rikkers. Out of these four ensembles, the only one with a pianist was the wind symphony.

Due to time constraints, Dr. Bolstad only programmed one twenty-minute piece for the concert. The wind symphony played Symphonic Dances from West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein and transcribed for wind band by Paul Lavendar. Due to the limitations of the convocation center, they were unable to wheel a grand or upright piano on to the basketball court where they performed. The pianist used an electric keyboard instead. It added an interesting sound to the piece. You could easily tell that there was not a real one being used for this piece. The work featured the piano several times, occasionally playing the melody. During the “Mambo” section the piano seemed non-existent as the brass and percussion were prominently heard. Usually the piano was an accompanying voice to the winds and percussion. The ensemble and piano’s sound was well balanced for being in a huge open space where the entire group had microphones and monitors and speakers everywhere.

The concert gave me insight and ideas to pondering if I were to play piano in an ensemble or to accompany someone. Its important to not overpower the ensemble and remain balanced. The JMU Wind Symphony did a fantastic job with the piece and I look forward to attending more of their concerts in the future.

Concert Review

I chose to review a performance of the first movement of the Trout Quintet that I heard performed as part of a Master class given by the Marine String Quartet. First of all I loved the piece; the combination of violin, viola, cello, bass, and piano creates such a neat texture and it is a combination that is not, at least for me, heard that often. The dialogue between the strings and the piano in certain sections was one of the great parts of the piece. The piano would play a melodic passage sometimes alone at other times while the strings were playing and then the melody would be picked up by the first violin and they would trade little melodic figures back and forth. The inner voices definitely had their work cut out for them since the served as the driving line underneath the melody a part which I know is harder than it looks. The ensemble did a very nice job performing the piece, but what was most interesting about the performance was to then be able to hear the critique of the Marine String Quartet. One issue that seems to be prevalent in a piece like this is the balance between the piano and other instruments. The piano is sometimes so powerful that it overwhelms the inner voices especially the cello so they suggested that the group configure themselves differently so that the cello was able to project more. The master class was concluded by a concert put on by the Marine String Quartet, which was fantastic.

Concert Review

For my concert review, I have chosen to review a the NSO debut of Yuja Wang.  She played Prokofiev's Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16.  I originally went to hear the other pieces on the concert, Ravel's Le Tombeau de Couperin and Stravinsky's full ballet version of The Firebird.  First, the Ravel was well done, featuring small orchestra.  This work was originally a piano suite with six movements, of which he chose to orchestrate four.  The re-orchestration featured the oboe in the first two movements and some other solo winds in the following two.

Second on the concert was the Prokofiev.  I had never heard the work before, nor had I heard of Yuja Wang, but after watching her play that very difficult piece, there's no way I could forget.  She looked more like an expressive conductor than a player, swaying and moving with the music, using gestures to play instead of clumsy finger movements.  Some of the runs in this work, spanning many octaves, were so fast that I thought there would be no way to play them expressively…there's just no time!  But, she again proved to be a true virtuoso, playing the most difficult passages with the ease of ringing a bell for the average person.  The piece finished in an expressive flourish and Ms. Wang's performance was greeted by a standing ovation and several extra trips to the stage to acknowledge the continuing applause.

The Firebird, the final work on the program was, as always, an entertaining classic.  After sitting through the entire ballet version, however, it became quite evident why the Suite was written…the ballet was just too long without the dancers.  It went on and on and on…and on.  That should have made the payoff of the final accented motive pattern passed around the orchestra that much more relieving to get to, but it didn't for some reason.  Still a wonderful work of musical art, I'd rather hear (or play) the Firebird Suite any day.

MUSIC 516

Concert Review

10/28/09

For my concert review I chose to go to a jazz concert at the University of Maryland at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. The concert featured three jazz ensembles. Each group played six selections. Three complete jazz ensembles for one school was pretty impressive. The venue was a great place to hear a concert.

The first group, The University of Maryland Jazz Ensemble was the top group. Balance and blend were excellent. Their director, Chris Vadala, did an excellent job of teaching the fundamentals and concepts of jazz to his students. The ensemble was tight and well balanced. Soloists were very mature musically. There was a lot of depth through out the band.

Strangely, throughout the performance of the first group, the piano was not featured at all. The only time I noticed it was when it was used with the guitar to set up an ostinato figure. During the second group, the piano was featured a lot. The piano had some solos and was used more to back up certain soloists.

It is difficult in a big band to find a working balance in a rhythm section when drums, bass, piano and guitar are all used, which was the case for all of the groups. It is difficult to communicate musically, primarily when both guitar and piano are used in a big band setting, as both instruments have a very similar role. I did not stay for the third group as it was getting late.

Concert Review

Concert Review
Wayne Tympanick

Live at the Birchmere, September 28, 2009: The “Super Trio” starring Chick Corea on piano, Stanley Clarke on bass and Lenny White on drums.

This concert was a real treat for this jazz musician. This acoustic trio was one of the groups that established Chick Corea as a driving force in jazz music in America. In my estimation, all of the electronics and computer generated music will never take the place of the sound of an acoustic band. This grouping of acoustic piano, bass and drums will always be the standard instrumentation for a traditional jazz trio, but it is a combination seldom heard anymore because of the ubiquity of electronics. But this is where jazz all started, and thank goodness there are jazz greats like Chick Corea who are keeping it alive.

The concert began with Chick Corea playing piano by himself. By listening intently, it was possible to figure out that he was playing the introduction to “Green Dolphin Street.” After his introduction, the bass and drums entered and continued the song in its original form. All of the music was memorized by the artists. They have been the best of friends for the past thirty years, so their musical communication is evident in performance.

The third song was a crowd pleaser, up tempo with lots of intensity and energy. This song brought us up to the intermission.

Corea opened the second set with his signature technique of playing directly on the strings inside the piano, both by plucking and with drumsticks, along with using the keyboard. This set up one of his original compositions, “Now He Sings, Now He Sobs,” another crowd pleaser. This segued into another up tempo composition from one of his best known albums, Return to Forever. Stanley Clarke played a remarkable bass solo and the song ended with an incredible and energetic drum solo by Lenny White (who is no spring chicken). Then the mood was changed with a ballad.

For an encore, they played my all time favorite Chick Corea song, “Spain.” This brought down the house. Corea started a call and response with the audience, his playing the rhythms and notes of the bridge section of Spain, their singing it back. Corea, Clarke and White seemed surprised by the accuracy of the audience and kept increasing the difficulty of the challenge. This was a very musically intelligent audience.

This was a very special night for my wife and me to share this wonderful musical experience. We may never get this opportunity again.

Live Piano

On the 18th of October I performed a job with the Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps that also happened to include piano. The job was a memorial service for the victims of the Beirut barracks bombing in 1983. It took place in section 59 of Arlington National Cemetery under the cover of two tents and on a wooden platform brought in specifically for this ceremony. I was part of the presentation of the Joint Forces Color Guard at the beginning of the ceremony. Before the ceremony began, however, pre-ceremonial music was provided by a vocalist and a pianist from the United States Army Band, "Pershing's Own." The female vocalist and male pianist performed for a group of about 50 people as they were arriving for the ceremony and taking their seats. Since the ceremony took place in the middle of the cemetery, it would have been difficult to truck in an upright piano over the uneven ground of the cemetery. So the pianist played on a more portable electronic keyboard that would not have been bothered as much by the moving or the chilly, damp weather.

The musicians performed the song "Morning Has Broken" particularly skillfully given the performance conditions. Their rendition of the piece would have been much more effective except for a few facets of the performance that were out of the control of the musicians. The electronic piano itself either did not use or simply did not have a very realistic or pretty-sounding piano timbre. The arrangement of the piece was also not ideal. It sounded somewhat dated and schmaltzy. However, the talented musicians more than made up for any shortcomings of the arrangement and the performance was still very effective.

Self Evaluation- Ryan Nobles

The piece I chose was Menuet by Bach. My approach to this piece was to first look at the time signature and the key that the piece was in. After looking seeing that the piece was in ¾ and the key of G maj I then scanned the pieces for form and any additional markings, I saw that there were two repeated sections and mordents and I also looked for the dynamics and tempo. After looking through all of those things I played through each part starting with the right hand alone, followed by the left hand and after I was comfortable with the notes I practiced with both hands together. Quickly I found out that certain parts were more challenging than others. The mordents were one area that gave me trouble along with measure 21-28 on the second page. When I identified the problem areas I took them one at a time and drilled them at a slower tempo gradually speeding the tempo up when I was able to play the section consistently with both hands at the given tempo. There were places that I needed a better fingering than the one I initially read through the piece with so I would attempt to figure out a better one. Once I was more comfortable with the difficult sections I tried to put the piece together and work on the expression of the piece. Overall I think my method for looking at the piece was fine but there were certain aspects like the tempo that I should have paid more attention to since I took the piece at a faster tempo than was needed. I also needed to think more about the time period the piece was written in to understand more of what the composer intended. Over the process of learning this piece I did learn that it was harder than it looked and sounded, at least for me. I do still like the piece and I think that as my keyboard skills improve I will be able to revisit the piece again play it more successfully.

Self-Evaluation

The piece I chose to study and practice was Cornelius Gurlitt’s Wiedersehen on page two hundred and fifty from our textbook, “Piano for the Developing Musician, volume five”. I chose this piece because I thought the arpeggios and shifting would help me develop those skills. The first step I took to learn this piece was determining the meter, tempo, and key signature . The piece is marked as vivace, in six-eight meter, all in the key of C major. I sight-read the piece with my hands separately as slow as it took to play note correctly. Then I worked on the right hand arpeggios by playing the notes as chords and figuring out the shifts for each one. I ended up changing the fingering to “1, 3, and 5” for all of the chords/arpeggios. In the end, it helped the shifts be more successful. After being able to play the shifts as chords, I added in the left hand, focusing on playing all the correct rhythms. The final step was adding in the arpeggios.

Next, I worked on the triads in the right hand at the end of each phrase. First, I figured out the correct fingering for each measure. Unlike the arpeggios, I used the fingerings given in the textbook. I worked on the shifts then I played it at a slower tempo. I added in the left hand after playing the right hand at tempo.

My final step of preparation before playing the piece in its entirety, I went through the piece and worked on each individual phrase separately. Then I played two phrases together. After achieving success with taking the piece phrase by phrase, I worked on the entire work at a slower tempo, and gradually got it faster to a performance tempo.

Self Evaluation

Music 516

Eddie Asten

The piece I chose was “Medieval Garden” by Sally Etter, from our text. The first thing I checked was the tempo marking, which was – calmly. This was good for me as I felt I might have a better chance of playing something slow. Also, the left hand was doing more than just playing block chords. The next step was to play one hand at a time to see where the problems would be. I had to make some decisions about fingerings and shifting my hands from one location to anther. I find this difficult. After I worked out each hand, I tried putting both hands together. For me, that is a challenge, especially when I have to shift my hand position. Another thing I had to be careful about was when the clef would change in the left hand from bass to treble, and back again. Finally I tried to add dynamics to finish learning the piece.

This is a pretty piece that has some technical challenges that are appropriate for some one like myself who is not an experienced pianist to be sure. This piece seems to cover some of the concepts we have been learning in this class, which is another reason I thought it a good piece to learn. I hope we can discus some strategies about shifting hand position in class.

Jeremy Freer Self-Evaluation

Jeremy's Self-Evaluation

Moderato by Cornelius Gurlitt, Op. 117, No. 12

Page 173 in our book

My process for learning a new work has changed.  I used to try to learn new pieces by a "hands-separate" approach.  Although this technique does have its place, at my current level, I feel like it does not reinforce my weakness, or "hands-together" playing.  As I play the new piece slowly with both hands, I look for patterns rather than notes.  I chose Moderato because it stretched my comfort zone beyond the five-finger pattern.  Although there is a simple five finger pattern going almost all the time, underneath is a sparse, light chordal accompaniment that moves out of root position; another challenge.  The melody switches from right hand to left, as well, which was an interesting "gear-switching" mental exercise.

Playing this piece with dynamics was the other challenge.  I found that when I relaxed and tried to make music of this piece, it took my mind off the performance anxiety of getting all the right notes.  The dynamics were sectional and counterintuitive at parts, but I found that paying closer attention to them freed my subconscious and muscle memory to worry about the notes.  My conception of this piece definitely evolved, from notes, to phrases, to sections, to a piece of music, much like a language…from letters, to words, to sentences, to paragraphs, to a story.

Self Evaluation

The piece that I selcted for my self evaluation was Medieval Garden in the Music for Developing Musicians book that we use in class. This was the first piece that I have worked on in years that started to develop the left hand and right hand moving at separate times without block chords underneath it. Up until this point we have either been doing scale and or simple melodies with chords underneath them. While that has still been a challenge it was also quite a challenge to get left hand and right hand mobility at the same time in opposite directions.

The first task that I accomplished was playing both hands separately until I was comfortable playing them both without each other. The next thing I accomplished was playing one hand on the piano while playing the rhythm of the other hand on my lap or just tapped one note on the keyboard no matter what it sounded like with the other hand. This task was harder than I remembered doing but eventually I got it with both hand. After this I tried to put both hands together with notes and rhythms. When I did this I found that I also for the first time in a while had to figure out hand shift. Though they were not very big I did have to dive into figuring out correct fingerings for hand shifts, especially the ones that weren't marked. After this process I attempted to add dynamics and phrasing to complete the piece. I feel like the strategies that I used were what I have been taught in this class and in previous classes and though piano will always be a struggle for me I do believe that my strategies were correct and helped me learn the piece that I chose. I hope to learn more this semester on how to cope learning the piano more and look forward to bigger and better things.

Masrhall Jones

Self Evaluation Wayne Tympanick

The piece I chose to evaluate myself is “Menuet in G Major” by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750).

From the outset, this piece looked playable for someone at my skill level, however, it very quickly became challenging for both hands. The piece is very lyrical, with many specific articulation markings. For example, there are many mordents throughout the piece which are difficult to play for a novice piano player. The abundance of phrases and dynamics also make this piece challenging. Octave skips also present problems for both hands. To overcome these challenges my piano teacher has devoted some of our lesson time to working on the piece.

To address the two hand syndrome, my approach was to practice the first sixteen measures only using the right hand playing the melody (top line). After feeling comfortable with the right hand playing the top line I went on to practicing using only the left hand playing the accompaniment. Then problems started when I attempted to put both hands together. But as we all know, that is what piano playing is all about. It is frustrating; being a percussionist and a set player I have no problem playing independently with all four limbs, but using 10 fingers on two hands while playing piano is a challenge.

Another strategy that I am using is note direction: seeing the direction of the notes before you play them. Seeing intervals in a sequence and looking ahead is another example of note direction.

These strategies are proving to be effective, but I am progressing slower than I would like. I still have difficulty playing the first sixteen measures without stopping. The piece may exceed my ability at this time.

My overall conception of the piece has not changed. It is a wonderful piece of music but it will take more time for me to master it. I would like to continue working on it because playing it correctly, with proper technique and style, would be a major accomplishment for me.

One final comment: The everlasting problem of finding practice time will continue to haunt us.

Self-Evaluation: Graduate Keyboard Skills

The pieces I chose to study for the midterm are on page 43 and page 90 of Piano for the Developing Musician.

While studying the ‘Study in D’ on page 43, I first identified several challenges I would face while practicing for the midterm. At first this piece seemed simple since there are only two melodic lines that move in entirely stepwise motion. Since I am a flute player and typically read only one line of music at any one time, my primary challenge in piano playing is being able to read two lines at once. Sometimes the two lines in this piece are moving in parallel motion and sometimes they are moving in contrary motion. It was difficult to follow both lines at once to see which line was moving stepwise up or stepwise down. In practicing, it was helpful to mark the music to make it easier to see when the two lines were moving in parallel motion. This technique proved incredibly successful and produced immediate results. My perception of this piece changed drastically from the first time I looked at it to the first time I tried to practice it. It was not nearly as simple as it looked.

While studying the ‘Dance’ on page 90, I knew it would be a difficult piece for me to play. There are a lot of hand position changes to keep track of in both hands. Another challenge for me was remembering to play at the indicated dynamic level while keeping track of all those hand position changes. It was somewhat helpful to mark a few of the finger numbers for the chord changes in this piece, but it did not produce the same results as in the previous piece. I practiced each hand separately several times before I tried to play both hands together. This was helpful because I did not have to concentrate as hard on one line or the other. It also made it easier to focus on the dynamics and play more musically as I became more familiar with the notes. This piece proved to be as challenging as it appeared at first glance.

CD Review
CD Review The piece that I listened to for my piano listening assignment is a piece that I know and love. I conducted it last year with the GMU Chamber Orchestra and Min Son who is currently a piano student in the GMU School of Music. The piece is Bach's Piano Concerto in D minor, specifically the first movement. I did make it a point to listen to three recordings that I had not heard of it so I could get a new experience while listening to a piece that I already knew. The three recordings all contrasted in many different ways. The first recording that I listened to was of Anton Heller playing the piece on Harpsichord with chamber orchestra, The second recording I listened to was on YouTube and it was Glenn Gould playing the piano with string orchestra, and the third recording I listened to was of a 10 year old girl named Sophia playing it with a string quartet. All of the recordings including the "Sophia" recording were great. The piece itself is certainly not easy and it was quite amazing to see a girl who's feet barely touched the ground play it and play it very well. The one thing I did not like about the Sophia recording was that the orchestra was fine it just didn't work very well for me that they were a quartet. The other two recordings I had full chamber orchestra and it was much more effective with a full chamber orchestra. The Glenn Gould recording was very old, I couldn't find the year but it seemed very early in his career. The tempo he took was very slow compared to the other two recordings but his musical phrasing and overall playing was by far the best from the three recordings that i listened to. He tended to play with the tempo a lot and that is generally not what happens in a Bach piece but somehow Gould made it work to his advantage and made true music out of what is already a masterpiece on paper. The last recording that I listened to was Anton Heller playing the movement on Harpsichord which it was originally played written for and it was a quite good recording. Out of the three the orchestra was by far the best and Heller's technical performance was outstanding but his musical interpretation was the most standard and generic of all of them. I know it's much more difficult/impossible to play dynamics on a harpsichord but overall his interpretation was lacking. Overall it was very interesting to listen to and compare three very different approaches to one great piece of music. I think all three were a success and I look forward to listening to many more different recordings.

9/30/09
by marshallvjones
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Music Review - "Caravan"

CD Review


The song that I chose to compare with two other keyboard players is the famous jazz standard “Caravan” as played by the father of jazz composition, Duke Ellington. However, Ellington did not compose this piece; Juan Tizol (1900-1984) composed the song in 1937 while with Duke Ellington.

Caravan opens with the traditional Duke Ellington piano ostinato while a trombone solo introduces the melody. The style is definitely that of the 1940’s, swing. A clarinet solo introduces the new melody in the “B” section of the song. It continues with the piano accompaniment with solos re-introducing the melody.



Source: Naxos online, Duke Ellington: Black, Brown and Beige (1943-1945) (Duke Ellington, Volume 9)



The second version is Thelonious Monk’s rendition of Caravan. Surprisingly enough, Monk actually starts by playing the melody after a short drum intro and a short classic Monk piano intro which immediately has you wondering, okay, is this really Caravan? At that point, he goes into recognizable melody. The middle section does go into swing like the original, then to the latin style, then back to swing where Monk goes into his improvisation. A bass solo follows Monk’s improvisation, there is a little more improvisation and then Monk re-introduces the melody to the end. The ending is not just any ending, it is a Monk ending; two hard struck chords that sound unresolved. This is a great interpretation.



Source: Itunes store, album, The Best of Thelonious Monk (remastered)



The final version is that of Dave Grusin. It starts off with a very contemporary introduction played on the piano, followed by the drums playing the original Caravan drum rhythm to a crescendo, which leads to a fragmented variation on the original melody, with a heavy percussion accompaniment. At this point the song goes into a fast swing and then back to the latin feel, again returning to a fast swing. After a bass solo, Dave Grusin takes the song to a half-time feel, then back to a fast swing. Caravan ends with a recapitulation of the introduction. This is quite the contemporary version in comparison with the other two.



Source: Dave Grusin, Homage to Duke, GRP Records.

Posted by Wayne at 7:49 PM 0 comments

CD Review

Ludwig van Beethoven, Sonata No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor Op. 27, No. 2

I.  Adagio Sostenuto  ("Moonlight Sonata")

ARTIST: ALBUM: DURATION:

Alicia Keys Songs in A Minor 5:00

Maxim Shostakovich Sensual Classics 4:50

Seymour Lipkin Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas 5:55

I wanted to contrast three very different ways to package and market this very famous sonata by Beethoven.  For the a classical, professional recording, I chose one by Seymour Lipkin, who seemed to have quite a few albums dedicated to Beethoven piano works.  For another angle, I chose a recording by Maxim Shostakovich on an album marketed to people who would like intimate music for whatever occasion, but maybe not necessarily with any classical music knowledge.  Finally, I chose a recording from a hip hop album by Alicia Keys in which the sonata is included as a bonus track.

Tempos:  Maxim- 64 bpm, Seymour- 50 bpm, Alicia- 55 bpm

The most noticeably different of the 3 is Alicia's.  She plays it on electric piano with what sounds like a harpsichord sustain with a vibraphone tremolo/vibrato.  It adds an interesting dissonance to the minor sonata, creating a myriad of clashes among notes due to artificially sustaining longer than a natural piano decay.  The artificial vibrato adds little to the expressiveness and survives as a studio effect only.  Shostakovich's interpretation of this work, while beautiful and expressive in dynamics and the stretching and diminution of tempo, seems more rushed than either of the others, as evidenced by the faster tempo choice.  Perhaps there was only so much time allowed on a compilation cd of these "sensual classics" and he was forced to record it in a shorter time.   Lipkin takes his sweet time with the piece, almost a minute longer than the runner up and is by far the most expressive of all 3.  He is patient and caring with a piece that he is clearly very familiar with and transports Beethoven's composition into the realm of expression and art, rather than recitation.

In conclusion, Key's recording is the least expressive, impressive, or artistic.  the effects are the only unique feature to her performance.  Shostakovich seems like a studio musician on a mission.  Lipkin is the clear master of the sonata in this group and records an artistic and expressive interpretation that is a pleasure to experience.

CD Review: Henry Cowell - The Banshee

The piece I chose to review is The Banshee, composed by Henry Cowell. This piece requires the performer to pluck, scrap, and flick the piano’s strings in order to produce different sounds on the instrument. Henry Cowell is one of the leading composers of this type of piano music.

The first recording I reviewed was that of Henry Cowell in 1963 playing some of his compositions for string piano (as he calls it) on his album, “Piano Music”. Since he is the composer of the piece, I immediately thought that this is how he intended for the piece to sound. After hearing different recordings of it, I came to realize that this is a piece that can sound differently with every recording. He isn’t as dramatic with his dynamics as some of the other performers I listened to, but he almost makes a recognizable melody while scrapping the piano at the end.

The second recording I reviewed was Chris Brown on his CD, New Music: “Piano Compositions By Henry Cowell”. The main difference Mr. Brown and the other performers is that his glissandos are faster and higher pitched. It brings different character to the piece. He was able to achieve more overtones with each glissando. Dynamically, this recording is very quiet compared to the other recordings. It could be the volume of his recording, but his articulation of scraps and glissandos are not as harsh as the other two performers. An added bonus to the piece in the creaking of the floor Mr. Brown is standing on. It helps set the ambiance of a banshee being in the performing area.

The third recording that I review was of Sorrel Doris Hayes on her CD, “Piano Music of Henry Cowell”, released in 2006. Her rendition of The Banshee had the biggest dynamic contrast. She began the piece quieter than the other two performers, which made the climax more dramatic. Her recording also contained more glissandos rather than scraped individual notes. Unlike Mr. Cowell’s recording, a melody was less evident towards the end of the piece.

Here's link to yet another recording of The Banshee set to a weird movie that I did not use for the paper just in case you're interested to hear it. Unfortunately, my three recordings are on CDs and I don't know how to put them up here, but I believe its the same recording of Henry Cowell playing it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYsvsaIRIM8

CD music review : Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 mvt 1

For my cd music review I chose mvt 1 of the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No 2. The first recording I listened to was of Rachmaninoff performing his concerto with the Philadelphia Orchestra. This recording was made in 1929 by RCA. I have actually played this piece in a symphony before so it was really neat to hear the piece performed as Rachmaninoff intended. The tempo is brisk to say the least. His use of expression was amazing the sound quality was a little muffled since it was such an old recording so sometimes the pitch seems to waver a bit in the strings but I am assuming that is due to the sound quality.

The second recording I listened to was of George Vakhnadze performing the concerto with the Tbilisi Orchestra. The tempo seemed to drag a bit especially in the beginning, and while the sound quality really allowed the orchestra’s sound to surpass the quality of the first recording I thought at times the brass were too heavy. Also it seemed that pianist made a few errors and the lower notes did not come across as well as in Rachmaninoff’s recording. Rachmaninoff accented the base of his runs in a lot of places which this performer did not do. Also the end of the movement seems to lose momentum because the tempo is slowed down drastically.

The third recording I listened to was of Val Cliburn performing the concerto with the RCA Symphony Orchestra. This recording the soloist also took more time in the beginning than first recording but I don’t think it took away from the piece. The pianist also played with a more flowing sound than the second recording. The orchestra was more in tune and didn’t detract from the soloist. Overall I think that Cliburn’s expression and technique were more true to the piece than Vakhnadze. His performance just seemed to have more emotion and even though his approach to the piece is not identical to Rachmaninoff’s I think the piece was executed very well.

Donna Lee

Donna Lee

By Miles Davis

Eddie Asten/MUSIC 516

I choose the bebop tune “Donna Lee” because I like the tune, and because I thought it would be easy to find multiple recordings of the tune. The tune was actually written by Miles Davis although Charlie Parker is usually given credit for its authorship.

The first recording I found was by bassist extraordinaire Jaco Pastorius. Jaco and drummer Rashied Ali performed “Donna Lee” live on December 14, 1984 following a four-day workshop at Martinique. Several of Jaco’s bass students joined in during the recording. The sound quality of the recording is not the best, but it is still an incredible performance.

A trio did the second recording I found of “Donna Lee”. The musicians were Aladar Page on bass, Gusztav Csik on piano, and Geza Lakatos Pecek on drums. I have never heard of any of these musicians before, but they were great! After playing the traditional form of the tune everyone took a solo and was fantastic! At the end, the pianist played by himself and went through several styles, then back to the top with everyone. These guys played as well as anyone I have ever heard.

Last, I found a performance of “Donna Lee” by the Charlie Parker Quintet featuring Miles Davis on trumpet, Charlie Parker on alto saxophone, Bud Powell on piano, Tommy Potter on bass and Max Roach on drums. I could not find the date of the recording, but it was live, and it was from long ago. It was in black and white and these guys were very young. There were piano, trumpet and saxophone solos, but no drum solo. Again, this was a great performance. As all great jazz musicians do, it was amazing to hear how these great players communicated with each other and played off of ach other.

I found all three of these recordings on you tube by googling the name of the tune "Donna Lee". All three of these videos and many more came up in case anyone would like to try it.

CD Review - Grad Keyboard Skills

The piece I have chosen to review is the Erlkonig, D. 328 by Schubert.

The first recording I chose was titled Great Artists of the Century – Schubert: 25 Lieder with artists Ian Bostridge and Julius Drake. In this recording from 2005, the running bass line is sometimes uneven at the beginning of the piece. As the piece continues it becomes more connected, flows better and is much less choppy. For much of the piece, however, it is still the choppiest of the three recordings. This pianist uses the greatest amount of dynamic contrast of the three. The moderate tempo falls somewhere between the tempo choices of the other recordings. This is, in my opinion, the most successful recording of the three because of the good balance between the voice and the piano as well as the greater dynamic range.

The second recording was Prima Voce: Legendary Voices with artist Alexander Kipnis. It was recorded in 1995 and is the oldest of the three recordings. The sound quality of this recording makes it sound older as well. One major difference in this recording is that it is in a different key than the original piece. Of the three recordings, this one has the fastest tempo and the running bass line is the most connected and even. However there is not as much dynamic contrast as there was in the first recording and the balance favors the voice instead of the piano. Even in the piano solo sections, the piano takes more of a backseat in this recording.

The third recording was found on a cd titled, oddly enough, Songs Without Words. The artist is Murray Perahia and it was recorded in 1999. As the title indicates, there is no singer. Something is lost when the piano player has to play both the melody and bass lines. Something has to go and it ends up being bits and pieces of the bass. This makes piece lose some of its driving motion. This recording also has less of the sense of urgency that is more present in other recordings. This may be due to the limitations of the piano, with its shorter, faster decaying tones, trying to imitate the longer, driving notes of the voice. It could also be due to the slower tempo, as this recording has the slowest tempo of the three.

Concert Review 1 (for Keyboard Skills 3)

Saturday, September 26th marked the annual Arts by George event at Mason. The purpose of Arts by George is to celebrate the arts at Mason to raise funds for scholarships and performances. Beginning at 5pm, guests were invited to enjoy a multitude of musical performances, including a vocal studies showcase, interactive jazz sessions with the GMU Jazz Ensemble under the direction of Professor Jim Carroll, and small chamber ensembles such as piano solos, flute trios, string quartets, and jazz combos. These musical performances were well complimented by dance, paintings, sculptures, and video, which were all on display throughout three floors of the performing arts building. One nifty feature which spanned the entire day was the use of a marimba and gong. A group of about four Mason percussion students took turns playing everything from Bach chorales to improvisation on the pentatonic scale on a Marimba that was positioned at the bottom of the stairs on the first floor. This served as background music as guests mingled and enjoyed hors d'œuvres and wine. Then, five minutes prior to each performance, a gong, positioned on the fourth floor, was struck to signal that a performance was about to begin and guests were directed to the various performance spaces.

The highlight of the festival, for me at least, was the inaugural performance of a new orchestra, the American Festival Pops Orchestra, under the direction of Mason’s own Professor Anthony Maiello. The orchestra, which included many Mason faculty members, and even some students, presented a fabulous display of musicianship and artistry. Following a brilliant opening overture-type piece composed by Mason graduate student Vincent Oppido, the orchestra accompanied the guest artist, Tony Award-winning Brian Stokes Mitchell. Mitchell’s Broadway credits include “Man of La Mancha,” “Kiss Me Kate,” and “Oh, Kay!” The audience, myself included, thoroughly enjoyed his full baritone voice on many Broadway and jazz favorites and standards such as George Gershwin’s "'S Wonderful,” “Take the A Train.” The evening closed with Mitchell’s second encore, “The Impossible Dream,” for which he is famous. His regular backing group also played with him and the orchestra and included a pianist, bassist, and a drummer. The pianist, in particular, impressed me with the way he altered his accompaniment style to fit with the orchestra. He also arranged one of the songs himself, which was performed without the orchestra. This gave the talented pianist a chance to show off more of his well-developed solo style. According to Mitchell’s on-stage commentary, he often plays with just these three musicians, and sometimes with just the pianist, whose name I unfortunately did not get. Watching Brian Stokes Mitchell in one of these different settings (without a full orchestra) is something I would like to see in the future.

un-boring church music

I attended a church service at which I’d assumed there would be piano. I was wrong. There was organ instead. Now, no matter how scary I think piano is, organ is much, much worse. Just making my hands move independently took me a while. Making my hands and feet...no, I don’t even want to go there.
This service was composed of both traditional Bach-like tunes and hymns by modern American composers like David Haas. Although the hymns were led by a rather sub-standard singer, the organist was an excellent player. One really good thing I noticed about his playing was his tempos. Although he did have the tendency to slow down as the verses progressed, he started the hymns at good, alive tempos (necessary to keep the choir from dying).
One cause of this slight tempo issue might be his unusual use of harmonies and ornamental runs. In the first verses of each song, the organist played the traditional harmonies and chord progressions. As every organist I have ever heard plays the same exact harmonies, this definitely gets boring. However, in the final verse of the hymns, this organist used new harmonies and strange chord progressions I had never heard before. These new harmonies were very interesting, though I didn’t always prefer them to the originals. He made no technical errors—I was just not very fond of some of his musical choices. For instance, in “I Heard the Voice of Jesus Say,” which traditionally is played using the harmonization of Ralph Vaughan Williams, he played the third verse with almost completely new harmonization. I didn’t think that it had the same fulfilling qualities as Vaughan William’s version. But I am picky—and I doubt anyone else noticed at all. However, no new harmonization occurred in any of the modern pieces, such as David Haas’ “Here I Am, Lord.” But generally I prefer Haas’ music to be played on the piano rather than on the organ; I feel that the piano lends itself to gentler emotion, and more pliable rhythm, than the organ does.
Overall, the organist added a lot to the service—where would church music be without the organ? Also, I really appreciated the fact that he took the time to write new harmonies for some of the tunes. Even if there were a few strange chords, he showed a great care and interest in reviving this music, which is usually so boring that no one even notices which song they’re singing.

Concert Review

On Saturday night, September 12, 2009, I went to go see Mike Gordon at the State Theater in Falls Church, Virginia. Mike Gordon is a bassist and vocalist who is most noted for his work with the renowned rock band Phish. Gordon is also an accomplished banjo player, pianist, guitarist, percussionist and blues harpist. He has also had award winning success in documentary filmmaking. Though Mike Gordon is an efficient and talented pianist, he strictly played bass, guitar and lead vocals. The rest of his band consisted of guitarist, Scott Murawski, percussionist, Craig Myers, keyboardist, Tom Cleary and drummer, Todd Isler.
For the most part, Mike Gordon’s music is a psychedelic rock pop with shades of bluegrass and folk. The keyboardist, Tom Cleary, played mostly accompaniment for the whole show by playing behind the melodies of the guitar and bass. There were a couple of songs where the keyboards were prominent. For instance, they did a cover of “Aint Wastin Time No More” by the Allman Brothers which Cleary had a dominant role in. However, Cleary’s main role in the band was to play psychedelic tones to give the music the full acid rock effect. His psychedelic tones also gave full effect to the light show which was a pleasant addition to the music being played. During one of the songs in the middle of the set, Cleary had a keyboard solo which went on for about 2 or 3 minutes. At some point in the middle of the solo, Cleary stood up out of his chair and started to play more aggressively while building up the tempo. The music was at its height and so was the lighting effects and then finally, after a heavy dosage of keyboards, the band breaks back into the chorus and the crowd, as one would imagine, applauded enthusiastically.
The show went on for about 2 and half hours including 2 encore songs. Overall, I enjoyed myself while listening to Mike Gordon and his band mates, including Tom Cleary. What made this experience different was that I was strictly listening and watching the keyboardist which would be the first time I have ever done so at a rock concert. Usually, I just watch and listen to the guitarist so that I can pick up some things to play for myself. Focusing my attention more on the keyboardist has probably made me a better keyboardist or at least more knowledgeable about the instrument itself.

Concert Review

I attended one of the recitals from the Washington National Piano Festival at the Kennedy Center’s Millenium Stage, featuring Ivo Kaltchev and Milen Petrov. The duo performed four piano duets featuring composers Poulenc, Milhaud, Piazzolla, and Copeland.
Their first piece “Sonata for Two Pianos” by Poulenc had heavy dissonance, octaves up the piano and hand crossing. It had a hauntingly beautiful melody line that went from one pianist to the other. It had a somewhat minimal approach at the beginning, then a heavy rondo section to then go back to the “A” section of the piece. I enjoyed it and their body language throughout the entire piece was as if they were one with every note they played. They would lean into the keys, almost as if they wouldn’t get their message across unless they put their whole being into it.
Their second piece “Scaramouche” by Milhaud was a contrast from the first one. It began with playful rhythms and jazz flair every now and then. Again, they had relaxed posture and their hands seemed to glide across the keys with ease. They weren’t smiling, but they looked like they enjoyed being up there.
Their third piece “Grand Tango” by Piazzolla had a unique melody line with syncopated rhythms. The “B” section I really enjoyed, but then it started getting boring at the end.
Their last piece “Billy The Kid” by Copland had probably the most jazz of all the pieces and, of course, syncopation. Towards the end it started getting exciting and much more movement from the performers as they swayed with the music. They made a big finish with a glissando from both performers.
I really enjoyed this recital from two talented musicians who displayed love for the art through their musical passages and lines. I’m definitely glad I went.

Concert Review

The Faculty Concert, on September 11th, was not only an excellent way for students to see their professors perform, but a way for the professors to showcase their talent. In particular, Dr. Monson stole the show with her numerous performances, whether accompanying a colleague, or soloing, she really shined. I think Dr. Monson’s performance stood out because I don’t get to see her that often. Of course I’ve heard what a wonderful professor she is, but actually seeing her in her element was incredible.
Dr. Monson accompanied many of GMU’s esteemed staff, but she also debuted a piece that Dr. Glen Smith wrote for her. The piece was fantastic. It was obvious that she wasn’t just playing it, she was enjoying it. From her body movements, her facial expressions, and the overall expressiveness that she conveyed through her instrument was just wonderful.
The showstopper, however, was when Dr. Monson and Dr. Balakerskaia performed together. Interestingly, the pianos were placed so that they fit into one another – the stage crew put the rounded out part of one piano into the curve of the other. I’ve never seen a piano duet before, but my friend next to me (a piano student) said she had only seen it where the pianos are side-by-side. The two women, who appear to differ greatly in personality, performed fantastically together – down to their matching scarves. They performed two Latin style pieces that had the audience tapping their feet and bopping their heads, which didn’t seem odd since both women were doing the same thing on stage.
The talent of these two women is indescribable. They play the piano with such ease, but produce a sound that is simply out of this world. It is easy to see now why GMU’s piano students are so talented and so successful, as their teachers are clearly world class performers.



(Note - I tried to post this on the Keyboard skills 3 site, but it wouldn't let me)

hope I did this

Adding to the blog spot to practice blogging, I am not techno in the least.
I did practice today and am heading to the piano after I do this part for the up and down the piano inversion drill.
Isora

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