Tag Archives: Huntsville Symphony

Acoustic in Not the Paleo Diet of Music / Az akusztikus zene nem Paleo Diéta

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The title of this post is a sentence taken from my first TEDx talk. Last Saturday as the first speaker of the newly formed local TEDx VoyagerWay group I gave a talk with the title “LIVE, UNPLUGGED AND CLASSICAL”. A string quartet made of principal players of the Huntsville Symphony shared the stage with me. They played the Intermezzo movement from Mendelssohn’s 2nd string quartet. In may talk I advocated for LIVE performances (with lively demonstrations on the spot), for UNPLUGGED music (and the perfect music machines, classical instruments) and for CLASSICAL music. I am going to make the YouTube video available here as soon as possible. I believe I did make a point, and I also had lots of fun doing it despite the fact, that I have not done such a long scripted presentation in a long-long time.
The day before the talk I conducted the HSO in two Barber pieces and in the Organ Symphony by Camille Saint-Saëns. Nathan Laube played the organ solos beautifully, and he even added a solo organ number to the concert written by Vidor. The concert took place at First baptist Church, Huntsville,
http://www.fbchsv.org
where the orchestra has not played for a long time. The church is beautiful and it sounds really good, and our audience did not mind the free seating either.
Our 2nd Causal Classics was on April 2 at the Botanical Gardens,
http://www.hsvbg.org
where the audience got to sit IN the orchestra, next to our players. We have repeated this type of event for the third time, and it has been always a huge hit. Amy Schwartz-Moretti, former concertmaster of the Oregon Symphony joined us to lead the group, and also to beautifully perform the “hidden violin concerto” in the middle section of Haffner Serenade. Our next, and this season last Casual Classics is on Sunday. We will be performing at an old style American mercantile store called U.G. White downtown Huntsville.
http://www.ugwhite.com
We are teaming up with three authors from Alabama who will read their own texts and poems. Words by Jacqueline Trimble, Harry Moore and Jeanie Thompson will be matched with music by Still, Barber, Bernstein and Dvorak.

http://www.hso.org

But before spoken words and music, the HSO is off to a n exciting adventure. We will be presenting the full movie score of E.T. —The Extra-Terrestrial by John Williams for which show the entire movie will be shown on a big screen hanging above the orchestra.
“E.T. phone home!”

http://www.hso.org

A második és harmadik link a Huntsville Symphony hétvégi koncertjeit mutatja. Szombaton az “E.T. a földönkívüli” című ma már klasszikus mozit prezentáljuk élő zenével. Vasárnap harmadik, ebben a szezonban egyben utolsó “Casual Classics” előadásunkat játszuk, ahol három alabamai író-költő olvassa majd saját művét. Jacqueline Trimble, Harry Moore és Jeanie Thompson írásaihoz Still, Barber, Bernstein és Dvorák zenéjét társítottam. Az E.T. a Von Braun Center nagy koncerttermében, az “Alabama Storytellers” pedig egy régi, igazi amerikai vegyeskereskedésben lesz majd, Huntsville belvárosában.
Itt:
http://www.ugwhite.com

Múlt hétvégén Nathan Laube orgona szólójával játszottuk Samuel Barber: II. Esszé zenekarra, és Toccata Festiva című darabjait, valamint Camille Saint-Saëns “orgona Szimfóniáját” a First Baptist Churchben. A tempolom gyönyörű orgonáján (a 60-as években épült) Nathan eljátszott egy Vidor szólódarabot is. a Huntsville Symphony nem játszott ebben a templomban hosszú évek óta, és most nagy örömmel, és a közönségtől csupa pozitív visszajelzést kapva játszhattunk a remek akusztikában.
Az alábbi linken megnézhető maga az épület.
http://www.fbchsv.org

A hónap a “Casual Classics” sorozat 2. koncertjével kezdődött. Amy Schwartz-Moretti, az Oregon Symphony volt koncertmestere (ma egyetemi professzor) vezette az együttest, és játszotta a szóló hegedűt Mozart Haffner szerenádjában. A Botanikus Kert főépületének egyik helyiségében:
http://www.hsvbg.org
A közönség a zenekari zenészek mellett, között foglalt helyet, majd két-három tételenként engedtem nekik, hogy másik helyre üljenek. Ilyen jellegű koncertet most csináltunk harmadjára, és mindig nagyon népszerű. Hol máshol tapasztalhatná meg egy zenehallgató, hogy milyen egy zenekari zenész bőrében lenni?

Posztom címét első TEDx előadásomból kölcsönöztem, melyet múlt héten tartottam, mint a helyi TEDx VoyagerWay csapat által felkért első előadó. A zenekar szólamvezetőiből alakult vonósnégyes segítségével demonstráltam az ÉLŐ, az AKUSZTIKUS és a KLASSZIKUS zene fontosságát, és próbáltam bizonyítani azt, hogy a technológia fejlődése nem teszi, nem teheti idejét múlttá az akusztikus hangszereken élőben előadott klasszikus zenét. Az előadás YouTube videóját amint lehet közzéteszem itt is.

Bartók-Pásztory Award / Bartók-Pásztory-díj 2018

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It is Béla Bartók’ Birthday today. Today I was awarded the Béla Bartók-Ditta Pásztory Award for composition. Below is the transcript of my video message to the President of the Liszt Academy and members of the Committee.

Ma van Bartók Béla születésnapja. Ma a Zeneakadémia Rektora és a díj bizottsága nekem ítélte a Bartók Béla-Pásztory Ditta díjat eddigi zeneszerzői tevékenységemért. Alább olvasható az átadásra készített videóüzenetem szövege.

http://www.fidelio.hu

Dear Madame President,
Dear Members of the Committee,
due to my concert schedule abroad I am unable to attend the ceremony, and I am sending this video message to thank you for awarding me the Béla Bartók-Ditta Pásztory Award!
As a performing artist myself, regardless of style and genre, I am always aiming at the most valid interpretation of a certain work by a certain composer. When the applause of the audience gives me direct, live feedback about a job well done, that is the most precious thing. Being a composer is a different and somewhat more complicated situation. Although no composer in the world wants to write for his or her desk-drawer, the act of composing itself is among the most intimate ways of communication imaginable. Having success at creating something from nothing, filling the empty paper, or computer screen with something relevant that resonates with the listener, whether in the form of the applause of the audience, or in the form of an award, it always comes as a surprise. This brief moment of surprise, followed by happiness over the fact, that I have managed to compose something valid, and important not only to myself, repeats after every performance of my music.
The Béla Bartók-Ditta Pásztory Award is possibly the most important professional award in Hungary, with the total professional weight of the Liszt Academy behind it. I would like to thank you for granting me this award, founded by the widow of my great icon, Bartók. Thank you for the surprise and the happiness.

Tisztelt Rektor Asszony, Tisztelt Kuratórium,
külföldi elfoglaltságaim miatt ez úton vidóüzenetben szeretném megköszönni azt, hogy idén, zeneszerzőként számomra ítélték a Bartók Béla-Pásztory Ditta-díjat.
Előadóművészként magam is mindig stílustól és korszaktól függetlenül egy adott zeneszerző adott darabjának leghívebb előadására törekszem, és amikor a közönség élőben visszaigazolja azt, hogy jó munkát végeztem, az mindennél többet ér. Szerzőként más, jóval bonyolultabb a helyzet. Nincs ugyan olyan zenét író ember, aki az íróasztalfiónak akarna komponálni, a zeneszerzés aktusa maga mégis talán a legszemélyesebb megnyilvánulási formák egyike. Amikor a közönségtől élőben, majd egy szakmai bizottságtól díj formájában is pozitív visszajelzést kapok arról, hogy amit a semmiből létrehozok, amit saját magamból az üres papírra, avagy az üres komputer képernyőre képes vagyok leírni az érvényes, és rezonál a befogadóval, akkor először bizony meglepődöm. Ez a pillanatnyi, örömteli meglepődés minden egyes művem bemutatójakor megismétlődik, amit aztán az az öröm vált fel, hogy valamit sikerült eltalálnom, hogy ismét tudtam olyan zenét írni, ami nem csak nekem lehet fontos.
A Bartók-Pásztory-díj Magyarország talán legerősebb szakmai díja, a Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem teljes szakmai súlyával a háta mögött. Köszönöm, hogy idén a számomra örök etalon Bartók özvegye alapította elismerés által engem érhetett a meglepetés, és az öröm.

In Two Languages / Két nyelven

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I believe, I owe my Hungarian friends the courtesy after so many years, so here we go: I will be posting, from now on, in two languages. As it turns out many people from Hungary follow my blog, and I feel I should make it easier for them to keep up with the items from my news desk.
In exchange, as promised, I will post translations here of Hungarian reviews, but for that I ask for you patience. I am in the middle of composing my opera “The Giant Baby” (actually completely re-composing it, since Giantbaby was actually my very first opera written in 2001), and as soon as I am done with the music I will have more time on my hands.

After a successful concert with the Danubia Symphony (see two reviews below in Hungarian)
http://www.toptipp.hu
http://www.fidelio.hu
I have taught at the conducting-composition masterclass of the Peter Eötvös Contemporary Music Foundation for a few days (Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, Stravinsky’s Soldier’s Tale and newly composed pieces were on the program) for a couple of days. We have had the pleasure of working with young composers and conductors, including the four talented young men who were chosen as the first participants of the very special mentoring program.
See details here:
http://www.eotvosmusicfoundation.org

On Sunday I have flown to Hamburg where I have started the rehearsals for the revival of the double bill Senza Sangue/ Bluebeard’s Castle at Staatsoper Hamburg. I am doing two out of the four performances on March 3 and 9. Before that, on March 1, I will be conducting a concert I am really looking forward to, with the soloists of the Hungarian Radio Symphony at the Liszt Academy. Schonberg: Pierrot lunaire, Berio: Folksongs, and Stravinsky: Renard are on the program.
http://www.zeneakademia.hu
On March 8 there will be another great program with major works by Kurtág, J.S. Bach and Rachmaninov as part of the Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra’s “In Memoriam Zoltán Kocsis” concert series.
http://www.pfz.hu

Úgy hiszem, itt az idő, hogy mindazok kedvéért, akik szívesebben olvasnák a blogomat magyarul, elkezdjek két nyelven posztolni. Ez úton is köszönöm az eddigi bizalmat és érdeklődést, és remélem, hogy ezzel a pozitív változással még többek érdeklődését felkeltem majd. Januárban az óbudai Danubia Zenekart vezényeltem a Zeneakadémián a “Gépek” című izgalmas, és nem ellentmondásokat nélkülöző programban. A fenti két első link ennek a koncertnek két, magyarul megjelent, kritikájára vezet. Néhány nap tanítás után (az Eötvös Péter Alapítvány karmester-zeneszerző kurzusán a BMC-ben, ahol ezúttal a több éves mentor program első fiataljai is részt vettek http://www.eotvosmusicfoundation.org ) Hamburgba repültem. Hétfőn kezdődtek a Staatsoper Hamburg tavalyi Senza sangue-Kékszakállú produkciója felújításának próbái. A négy előadásból kettőt vezényelek majd, március 3-án és 9-én.
Mindeközben magyarországi koncertjeim is folytatódnak. A Magyar Rádió Zeenekarának zenészei és Meláth Andrea énekművész közreműködésével március 1-én Schönberg: Pierrot lunaire, Berio: Folksongs, és Stravinsky: A róka című darabjait dirigálom a Zeneakadémia Solti termében.
http://www.zeneakademia.hu

Március 8-án a Pannon Filharmonikusok élén, a Kodály központban, a Kocsis Zoltán emlékére rendezett koncertsorozat részeként vezényelem Kurtág György, Johann Sebastian Bach és Rachmaninov műveit. A zongoraszólista Palojtay János lesz.
http://www.pfz.hu

Mindeközben komponálom első operám, Az Óriáscsecsemő teljesen új verzióját, melynek bemutatója az idei Armel versenyen, a bécsi MUTH színházban lesz. Az opera librettőja (Horváth Péter és jómagam munkája) Déry Tibor azonos című, 1926-os “dadaista drámáján” alapszik, a produkciót a Kolibri Színház jegyzi majd, rendező Novák János lesz.

Lots of Work and Plenty of Travel Already in 2018

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Hello there and a Happy Belated New Year! I am writing this post at the Atlanta airport lounge, waiting for my flight to Huntsville, replacing the one that was just cancelled a couple of hours ago. Yes, IT IS WINTERTIME and it is coming down hard on the South now, after hitting the North-East of the US.
After a demanding and successful trip to Taiwan and Mainland China (with the Kaohsiung Symphony then with the players of the Hungarian Radio Symphony) I traveled back to Budapest for a couple of days (FYI Turkish Airlines is great!) then packed again to drive to the city of Pecs, where I got to conduct the great Pannon Philharmonic Orchestra. We presented an exciting program, including my piece, Drums Drums Drums, of which we played the Hungarian premiere. Other pieces on the program were: Weill: Little Threepenny Music, Stravinsky: Concerto in D for string orchestra and Hindemith’s powerful Concertmusic for brass and strings. As for Drum Drums Drums, it is now the third set of soloists playing it (however the drum-set part was played by the amazing Gergo Borlai again, who has been part of the World Premiere in Huntsville in 2015), and the piece, I am happy to report, works really well for the audience.
After spending a couple of days in beautiful Southern Hungary (Pecs is only about a 2hr drive from Budapest) I was ready to fly to the Big Apple. Representing Armel Festival as its Artistic Director I have attended 5 shows at the Prototype Festival. I have seen staged concert albums, multi-media music theater works and operas in the traditional sense. It was an impressive line up. I hope that Prototype Festival can become a partner for Armel by as early as 2020, and together we can bring some interesting new works to Budapest, Vienna, and to the screen of ARTE TV as well. Yes, IT IS WINTERTIME, and NYC was way colder than usual. However in the summer I always complain about humidity and high temperatures in manhattan. 🙂
I am ready for a couple of extremely exciting and challenging programs in the next couple of weeks. On Saturday with the Huntsville Symphony I will be conducting Brahms’ Haydn Variations, Beethoven’s Symphony No.7, and sharing the stage again with Elina Vähälä from Finland, who’ll be playing Berg’s beautiful Violin Concerto. More information on the concert here:

http://www.hso.org

After Huntsville it’s Budapest time again, and time for music about machines with the Danubia Symphony at the Liszt Academy. Yes, you read that right, MACHINES!

More about that later!

Until then, here is the link for your enjoyment:

http://www.odz.hu

Action Packed Three Weeks

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And more to come.
Huntsville Symphony has had a successful opening classical week with Mussorgsky-Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition and Orff’s Carmina Burana. It was just the perfect way to start the season and to create lots of positive buzz. My first weekend of the 2017-18 season at Huntsville also included an extensive day of auditions for several positions, including Concert Master and Principal Cello. We have hired some talented players and will be inviting candidates to fill the principal spots starting January.
The week after I have traveled to New Brunswick, NJ and conducted the Rutgers Symphony Orchestra. The program was the following: Ravel: La Valse, Haydn: Cello Concerto in C, Stravinsky: Petrushka. It was a great week with the young players and with this fun program. Also the first time ever I have stayed at an actual university campus. It was good to reunite and to spend some time with my friend, Al Baer, principal tuba player of the New York Phil and the head of the brass department at Rutgers. Last Friday I have conducted the second classical show of the season in Huntsville. Both our soloist, Claire Huangci and the orchestra did a great job in an especially difficult program. Ravel: Rapsodie Espagnol,Piano Concerto in G, Respighi: Fountains of Rome, and Debussy: La Mer. Just two days later, on Sunday we presented our first Casual Classics performance with Schubert’s genius Octet for which I have picked up my clarinet again. It was our usual, annual dinner/concert setting with the musicians telling funny stories about themselves. Oh yes, and the performance took place at the Yellowhammer Brewery’s Speakeasy, a perfect venue for this serenade-like composition.
I am writing this post at the KLM Lounge at the Amsterdam Airport. When I am done, I am going to continue watching YouTube videos of 77 young conductors who have applied to the multi year mentor program of the International Eotvos Contemporary Music Foundation. This week Peter Eotvos and I will be selecting the ones who will travel to Budapest in December to participate in a live audition along with 30 some young composers.
On Tuesday I am starting the rehearsals with the Hungarian Radio Symphony for our November 14 concert. For the program click the link below!

http://www.mrze.hu

Stay tuned and thanks for reading!

Georgia Bottoms in Budapest, Interviews, Reviews, Videos

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A pretty long, exhausting and fun period is over. Georgia Bottoms, A Comic Opera of the Modern South had a new, Hungarian production in the frame of CAFe (Contemporary Art Festival) Budapest at the Liszt Academy. The production was a success, the audience loved it and so far the critics had a positive opinion as well. I am glad, that this 85 minute long, one act chamber opera made quite a few people among Hungarian intellectuals to go online and buy Mark Childress’ original novel, Georgia Bottoms. The book deserves attention, and a great translation for the European and Hungarian market. Luckily, many of the intellectuals interested in my art can speak and read English. They all bought the book here, and you should, too!
http://www.amazon.com

Unfortunately however, – this is what happens when a country has a language that nobody else is speaking,- all the interviews and reviews below are in Hungarian. This time being a Hungarian has an advantage: you get way more info about the opera, the production and you can also read about many other topics that came up in the interviews in the original language. I translated a couple of things below for my English speaking friends, and I can promise you that no music-lover will be left behind. I am in the process of translating a selection of the interviews and posting them online as soon as I can. In the meantime, enjoy what you can by clicking on the links below!

Let’s start with a really well translated interview with Rebecca Nelsen, who has been doing Georgia Bottoms’ role for the second time in two years. I myself have learned a couple of interesting, new things about what it’s like to be a woman in the South.
“The Era of Just Standing And Singing Is Over”
http://www.fidelio.hu

By clicking on the link below you can read the very first (posted just a couple of hours after the Sunday premiere) instant feedback by a local theater/ music-theater blogger. She will be posting more about Georgia Bottoms, once the entire CAFe Budapest Festival is over.
http://www.mezeinezo.hu

Here are three interviews with me, mostly about Georgia Bottoms, but also about teaching, conducting and politics.
“When A Chord Sounds That Can Feel Really Good”
http://www.operavilag.net

“I Want to Write Music I’ve Never Heard Before”
http://www.theater.hu

“Constant Failures Mean The System Is Working”
http://www.papageno.hu

“You Cannot Put 9-11 Into Music” (interview) + “Bittersweet Georgia” (review)
These articles will be available for free soon via the website link below.
According to this review my music is from the Deep South 🙂 The critic loved the humor of the opera in text, in music and in staging as well/ “…a múlt vasárnapi bemutatón átütővé vált a mű humora: szövegben, játékban és – éppen nem mellesleg – zenében egyaránt.”
http://magyarnarancs.hu

“Under Lucky Stars”
This critic loved the production in every way possible, including the staging by Andras Alamai Toth, the singing of the entire cast, especially Rebecca Nelsen and Keith Browning, the quality of the musicians of Ensemble UMZE, and the music itself. The critic had a nice summary of my music as well, Let me copy it here, first just in Hungarian.

“A muzsika majd’ minden hangjából árad az amerikai Dél hangulatát megidéző couleur locale, de hiba lenne, ha csak ennyit jegyeznénk meg az igényes kompozícióról, mely (az utóbbi évek kortársopera-tendenciáival ellentétben) jóval több egyszer használatos alkalmazott zenénél: saját értékénél fogva is emlékezetünkbe vésődik, miközben híven festi a szöveg dramaturgiai fordulatait. A posztmodern jó szokásához híven bőven idéz különböző zenei stílusok eszköztárából, ám ezeket egységes keretbe foglalja – sosem támad az az érzésünk, hogy bármely hang is öncélúan került volna a partitúrába. Ez a határozott zeneszerzői egyéniség biztos ismertetőjegye.”

http://nepszava.hu

The FaceBook page of CAFe Budapest festival. There is an interview with me about Georgia Bottoms and about getting our of your comfort zone in general. Again, the interview is in Hungarian, but the “Day 3 of the Festival” video can be enjoyed without speaking this one of a kind language.
http://www.facebook.com/CAFeBudapestOfficial

Oh yes, and I did get to translate Mark Childress’ RAP lyrics for a newly added scene into Hungarian for the surtitles. I even made it rhyme. 🙂

Music For Different Summers

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Bartók: The Wooden Prince (complete ballet with live sand animation)
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring (performed with live dance)

I have started my summer by leading the conducting master-class with the rep above at the International Bartok Seminar and Festival. It was an honor to be a professor at this esteemed festival. John Cage, Gyorgy Ligeti and other world class musicians and composers have visited the Bartok Festival in small town Szombathely, Hungary back in the days. It was truly the place to be in the summer when I was a student. I myself have started there as a conductor student some 20 years ago, also have studied chamber music with Gyorgy Kurtág as a clarinetist.
This year I’ve had the honor to teach 10 active and a few passive students from all over the world. The closing concert was beautifully presented and very well attended.
After a short stop in Huntsville (there is always something to do when I am in town, and I did use my time wisely for business luncheons, meetings and planning) I have spent the last 10+ days in Portland, OR. I have taken on the role of Incoming Music Director of the Portland Festival Symphony in the last couple of years.

http://www.portlandfestivalsymphony.org

This wonderful organization has been providing free classical music for the Portland audience for over 35 years now. Playing live classical music in very different neighborhoods of the city for kids and adults is a fascinating and very rewarding mission. This year I have programmed overtures by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert along with my own piece “Rough and Ready, an American Outdoor Overture” composed directly for PFS and its outdoor concerts. The concert series ends today with an all strings concert.

I am ready for a brief vacation with my two sons, Balazs and Vince after this week. Well be spending our time in and around Huntsville, AL, and will be visiting the great city of New Orleans, too. After our annual “father and sons” vacation I will be flying to the Island of Jersey to start a hopefully long tradition of “Opera Island”. Armel Opera Festival is branching out and I am really excited about being part of this exciting new experiment. I will definitely post more about “Opera Island” at the end of this month. In the meantime, please check out the Jersey Opera House website for the Armel Festival program here:

http://www.www.jerseyoperahouse.co.uk

It sure feels like the extreme hot weather has been chasing me around. Hot and hotter weather in Szombathely, Budapest, Huntsville, and even in Portland (it was 109 degrees Fahrenheit on Thursday, that’s over 42 degrees Celsius). Yet the character of Summer is still different at these very different places, so is the music I have been working on. I find the summer of 2017 striking a nice balance between time off and good work. And yes, there is always composition time whenever I can get it. The new version of my first opera, “The Giant Baby” is in the making. Premiere at the end of June, 2018.

100 Years Old Music

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“Arbitrary as the choice of any year between 1880 and 1930 might be, 1913 was certainly distinguished by modernist landmarks in music, art, literature, fashion, and film /…/”

As it happens many times I don’t have access to my books in Budapest, Hungary when I need them. I have purchased and read a book entitled ‘1913’, and as much as I would love to use a couple of quotes here I cannot remember the author’s name. I tried finding the book online, but all the books of the same or similar title that pop up in a search, deal with politics and world history only instead of art. I found a great article at the Telegraph however and that is where the opening quote is from. Read the full article here:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk

Here are the dates for the pieces played by the Huntsville Symphony this Saturday for our last classical concert of the season.
Stravinsky: Rite of Spring -1913 (time of the infamous premiere performance)
Ravel: Alborada del gracioso -1905 (as a piano piece), -1918 (orchestra version)
Szymanowski: Violin Concerto #1 -1916 (composed), -1922 (premiered)

Yes, as unbelievable as it is, “The Rite of Spring” is over a 100 years old. So are the two other pieces. As you can see we are talking about a period a little over 15 years here, including some of the most turbulent times of the 20th Century, especially in Europe.
‘Rite of Spring’ was sure a “Vision of the Future” just one year before WW1 started. Ravel’s colorful Alborada del grazioso (The Jester’s Aubade) from the ‘Miroirs’ (Mirrors) piano series is one of the most popular examples of his “Spanish flavor” musical pieces. In its orchestral version it possesses the rhythmical and sound-color qualities of ‘Rite of Spring’.
I would like to encourage you to read the Wikipedia article below on Polish composer Karol Szymanowski. Upon reading his biography it’ll be clear how his gorgeous late-Romantic Violin Concerto No. 1 fits into the program.
https://www.en.wikipedia.org
By programming this beautiful piece of music, and by engaging the amazing Philippe Quint to play the solo violin part, I hope to contribute to the re-discovery of the music of this forgotten genius.

Thank You All for supporting the HSO in 2016-17!
Don’t forget to get your tickets to ‘Video Games Live’ on May 6 at the VBC! It will be the perfect ending to a great season.
Please read about our exciting next season here:
https://www.hso.org

Stay in touch and have a wonderful summer!

Bartók’s Birds

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There is the famous bird trio for flute, oboe and clarinet in Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ symphony. There are the identifiable American birds in Bartók’s Piano Concerto No.3, and the sounds of rural Romania as composed by the young György Ligeti in his Concert Românesque. The 5th classical concert of the Huntsville Symphony fits the overall theme of the season: The Force of Nature.
David Kadouch
https://www.davidkadouch.com
a young and amazing pianist from France is playing the solo piano part of the Bartók Concerto. Needless to say, I am very particular about my Bartók. David has everything a Hungarian maestro’s heart can wish for in a pianist for the Hungarian composer’s last piano concerto. He is not only a virtuoso player but he also knows all the idioms, the unique phrasing, and the sound that is required to perform this music.

Join me and the HSO this Saturday at the VBC to hear three powerful compositions about the power of nature. Experience the power of live symphony music as only we can present it here in the great City of Huntsville!

Fresh Coat of Copland

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We are ready for our third Casual Classics concert this afternoon at University of Alabama Huntsville’s Roberts Hall.
Local artist, Pamela Willis is joining the musicians of the Huntsville Symphony to create a painting live, in front of the eyes of the audience in three stages “choreographed” to the music of Aaron Copland. The painting will be auctioned out to benefit the Huntsville Symphony.
On the all Copland program we’ll be presenting
Quiet City for English Horn, Trumpet and strings
Nonet for strings
Appalachian Spring (original version)

I am especially proud of us playing the rarely performed Nonet for strings, a late composition by Copland known mostly for his Americana music. Along with two late, and well-known orchestral pieces, Connotations and Inscape, the style of ‘Nonet’ is not at all like that of Appalachian Spring or Rodeo. This music is more ‘avant-garde’, more contemplative and at points more sinister than the all sunny Copland we all know and admire. Nonet for strings was commissioned by the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library (same as in ‘Dumbarton Oaks Concerto’ by Stravinsky) and is dedicated to Nadia Boulanger “after forty years of friendship.”

Come and join us in an hour at Roberts Hall, and come back to the VBC next weekend to hear our Classical 5 concert with music by Ligeti, Bartok and Beethoven!

https://www.hso.org