Thursday, June 23, 2016
Naumburg Orchestral Concerts (6/14/16) (I of V)
On an absolutely beautiful Tuesday evening, Ensemble LPR opened the 111th season of the Naumburg Orchestral Concert series. That’s a mighty impressive run. There are four more this summer in case you want to join in on the fun. Ensemble LPR is the “house band,” if you will, of the downtown performance venue Le Poisson Rouge. I’ve never attended anything there, so I’m glad I got to hear the ensemble in Central Park.
Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (1910) – Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)
Concerto for Clarinet, Strings and Harp (1947–1949) – I. Slowly and expressively – Cadenza; II. Rather fast – Aaron Copland (1900–1990)
Cruel Sister (2004) – Julia Wolfe (1958–)
The Unanswered Question (Revised Version ca. 1934) – Charles Ives (1874–1954)
The Fantasia’s opening was quiet and somewhat stately. The piece, for strings only, also included a rich sound with some strong accents. I particularly enjoyed a step-out viola mini-solo. I’m not sure if it was the composition itself, the outdoor setting, or perceived relaxation, but it felt ever so slightly rambling at times. Nevertheless, the entire piece was lovely.
Vasko Dukovsky, clarinet, jogged onstage and cued the ensemble to begin the Copland Concerto. The lyrical opening was for solo clarinet and strings, with harp and piano adding a bit of heft, as well as light percussive accents. The clarinet cadenza introduced more “tunes” and the energetic clarinet jazz riffs, plus a foray into swing, swept right into the second and final movement. The swing section was more classical swing than classic swing, and rounded out the piece nicely. Both the ensemble and the soloist played really well. The piece was commissioned for Benny Goodman and you can easily feel and hear Copland’s ear in framing the piece for him.
After intermission, Pulitzer Prize-winning (Anthracite Fields, 2015) Julia Wolfe’s piece began with an introduction set in the low strings that was rhythmic but not totally driving. There were repetitions of phrases, building of mild tensions, and returns to the initial rhythms, sometimes with rhythmic variations. While the piece didn’t really gel for me, there was a drone-sound section that neatly coincided with being able to see the International Space Station crossing the NYC sky—not your everyday concert experience!
The Ives also started out with a very quiet beginning that was so quiet that many in the audience didn’t realize the piece had actually begun. In fact, the quiet openings to all four of the pieces were a little too similar for my taste. Of interest to me, and others, was the juxtaposition of the ensemble onstage, a solo trumpet out in the house (house right), and a small contingent of woodwind players just off of the stage (house left). The piece was aptly slightly amorphous—hello! unanswered question—but once again beautiful and beautifully played. I already have the next four Naumburgs on my calendar. Kudos to WQXR, who will be broadcasting all of the concerts live, and to Jeff Spurgeon, who hosted with just the right mix of dignity, charm, and humor.
ConcertMeister
Sunday, June 19, 2016
American (North and South) Timeline (6/9/16)
Alex Wu, piano, presented a relatively low profile concert on Thursday afternoon. He’s an artist that I know, and he was the draw that got me to the concert. The venue was yet another branch of the New York Public Library—this one on West 23rd Street—in a small meeting room. The audience numbered 30 to 40 tops.
There was no printed program, so all of my notes were taken while listening to
Mr. Wu announce from the front of the room. The first piece was A New Hiding Place, by Henry T. Burleigh, based on the tune My Lord What a Mornin’, and had some slight syncopations but also sections of grandeur. This was followed by The Easy Winners (1901), a nice, bright and breezy “rag” by Scott Joplin. Mr. Wu reminded us (and I have read about this before) that there is an annual Scott Joplin festival on or around June 5th in Sedalia, Missouri.
Heading to South America, we heard Manuel Poncé’s In Spite of Everything, a tango for left hand only that was written in honor of a sculptor friend of his who lost his right hand in an accident, yet still continued working as a sculptor. It was an effective slow tango. This was followed by Ernesto Lecuona’s Midnight Conga, a Cuban 1920s composition that was a little frantic, more jazz influenced, and almost clangorous at times.
Back in the US of A, we next heard Earl Wild’s variations on Gershwin’s The Man I Love and Fascinatin’ Rhythm; the former was rippling and technically very busy/difficult while the latter had a hint of Flight of the Bumblebee. I enjoyed both of them (and have heard Mr. Wu play Fascinatin’ Rhythm at least once before). From the ’30s and ’40s, we heard a couple of Duke (Edward Kennedy) Ellington tunes, the first moving from roots and hints of ragtime into the beginnings of swing while the second was from Canadian Suite, originally composed for Oscar Peterson. (Yes, I was frantically scribbling notes.)
Moving further into the 20th century, we heard some film score music—Cool (Leonard Bernstein), music from A Streetcar Named Desire (Alex North), and the theme from The Magnificent Seven (Elmer Bernstein, no relation). Taking us back into Latin flavors, we had Antonio Jobim’s Girl from Ipanema and Astor Piazzola’s Street Tango, with a mix of hard, driving rhythms countered with gentler ones, and a mix of classical styling thrown in. It seemed to me as though Mr. Wu was using the pedals of the piano almost as a percussive element. It’s unknown to me whether that was Piazzola’s intent, but I found it quite interesting. At least until someone’s phone went off!
The afternoon finished with Dave Brubeck’s Blue Rondo à la Turk, apparently written as a blues/jazz tribute to Mozart. It had a powerful build of repeating rhythms, eventually interspersed with blues and jazz riffs in a dense structure that was very effective. All in all, a well-thought-out and well-played concert from
Mr. Wu. Exactly as I expected.
ConcertMeister
Thursday, June 16, 2016
Odds and Ends
OK, here's an attempt at being a real blogger, as opposed to someone who sweats and slaves over each individual post. I have recently attended (5/23/16) the finale (that's an end) of the Songbook series, Joseph Trefler, at Lincoln Center Library for the Performing Arts; the 10th season finale (6/2/16, another end) of "Chamber Music at Rodeph Sholom"; [for those of you keeping score at home, the close quote before the semicolon is correct]; the 10th Anniversary Season Finale (6/5/16, hello! another end) of the New York Piano Society (first half only, more on that later); an abbreviated late 19th/20th century timeline of American music (7/9/16), Alexander Wu, piano; and the inaugural concert of the 111th (!) season of the Naumburg Orchestral concerts, Ensemble LPR (7/14/16).
So, it's not as though I haven't been busy. I just haven't had time to write and post. And I really do enjoy writing, printing, hard copy editing, and finally posting—but it is time consuming. I hope to flesh all of these out (at least a little bit) later.
ConcertMeister
So, it's not as though I haven't been busy. I just haven't had time to write and post. And I really do enjoy writing, printing, hard copy editing, and finally posting—but it is time consuming. I hope to flesh all of these out (at least a little bit) later.
ConcertMeister
Wednesday, May 18, 2016
Hail, Hail, the Gang’s All Here (5/14/16)
Via the Silent Clowns Film Series, Saturday afternoon at the movies featured Hal Roach’s Our Gang in four shorts—Firefighters (1922); Thundering Fleas (1926); Baby Clothes (1926); and Crazy House (1928). With Our Gang spanning from 1922 to 1944, we learned that once a core group was established, different kids were brought into the fold as others outgrew the films. But the Gang had a fairly set cast of characters—a freckle-faced kid, the pretty girl he has a crush on, a good-natured fat boy, and a wiseacre black kid who was usually named after cereal (thank you, Steve Massa, for your fun and informative Program Notes).
I was really surprised by the number of costumed animals in Firefighters. There was a pair of geese, several chickens, and a dog, as well as an un-costumed mule, cat, pony, and dog. And at one point toward the end of the film, all of the animals were drunk, since the fire wagon pumper that the Gang commandeered was actually a moonshine still. When attempting to put out a “fire” (really just some steam from Ma’s cook stove), the pumper was hauled by the pony, the ladder truck was pushed by the mule, and a sled was pulled by the dog, with the sled holding the driver and the fire chief (the littlest of the Gang).
Thundering Fleas managed to incorporate live action (the Gang) with animation (the star flea of a flea circus). The star flea flees, and the Gang sets out to find him, amassing many, many fleas along the way. The fleas infest the Gang in one scene and then infest a group of adults at a wedding ceremony. Every time the pastor asks the worried bridegroom whether he takes the woman as his wife, the fleas attack him and all he can do is keep shaking his head, No. Funny situations, leading to funny comedy. Funny how that works.
Baby Clothes involves an adult little person being punished for picking a fight with a kid. He has to wear baby clothes until he sees the error of his ways and he gives up fighting. Well, that’s not going to happen. Another plot twist has a couple bemoaning the fact that the $50 a month they receive from an uncle would be nice if it was more money. Of course, the uncle is sending the money for the care of their two children (which they don’t have). When it’s learned that the uncle will be making a visit, money changes hands with a hotel employee and the Gang gets pressed into service imitating an eight-year-old girl and a two-year-old baby. Well the girl is a Gang guy in drag and the baby is one of the other Gang members. Uncle arrives, different situations lead to multiple babies, including the black Gang player at the time, Farina (Allen) Hoskins, playing the baby. Uncle hauled out Farina as his surprise for the scheming couple. I don’t really remember how the zaniness ended, but there were laughs a-plenty.
Crazy House has a plot device where the adults are planning an April Fool’s Day party, so everything in a local mansion has been altered—air jets coming up from the floor, electric shocks from the piano bench, all of the food made from rubber and/or cotton wool, etc. Somehow, when the adults leave for a bit the Gang gets in and all of the craziness affects them, too. Eventually the adults come back, mayhem ensues, and at the end there is a massive balloon drop. While the police try to make some sense of the scene, the Gang manages to crawl through the adults’ legs, and get balloons attached to them, so the last sight we see is the new Balloon Gang running away down the street.
Even though for me and most of my generation, Our Gang equates to The Little Rascals television revival of the talkies Our Gang films from the end of their movie run, I was surprised at how many title cards all of the films I saw had, and how briefly each was on display. It makes me think that the original silents were geared more toward adults than to children, who probably wouldn’t be able to read the words that quickly. Then again, maybe the sight gags alone were enough to thrill the children.
As always, Ben Model did a bang-up job as the afternoon’s accompanist on the grand piano, Bruce Lawton provided the commentary at the beginning of the afternoon, and the aforementioned Mr. Massa joined them on the stage after the screenings to take questions from the enthusiastic crowd. The hall was filled almost to capacity, and this on a spring day that could have kept lots of people outdoors. The only thing missing was the popcorn (no food is allowed in the Bruno Walter Auditorium).
ConcertMeister
I was really surprised by the number of costumed animals in Firefighters. There was a pair of geese, several chickens, and a dog, as well as an un-costumed mule, cat, pony, and dog. And at one point toward the end of the film, all of the animals were drunk, since the fire wagon pumper that the Gang commandeered was actually a moonshine still. When attempting to put out a “fire” (really just some steam from Ma’s cook stove), the pumper was hauled by the pony, the ladder truck was pushed by the mule, and a sled was pulled by the dog, with the sled holding the driver and the fire chief (the littlest of the Gang).
Thundering Fleas managed to incorporate live action (the Gang) with animation (the star flea of a flea circus). The star flea flees, and the Gang sets out to find him, amassing many, many fleas along the way. The fleas infest the Gang in one scene and then infest a group of adults at a wedding ceremony. Every time the pastor asks the worried bridegroom whether he takes the woman as his wife, the fleas attack him and all he can do is keep shaking his head, No. Funny situations, leading to funny comedy. Funny how that works.
Baby Clothes involves an adult little person being punished for picking a fight with a kid. He has to wear baby clothes until he sees the error of his ways and he gives up fighting. Well, that’s not going to happen. Another plot twist has a couple bemoaning the fact that the $50 a month they receive from an uncle would be nice if it was more money. Of course, the uncle is sending the money for the care of their two children (which they don’t have). When it’s learned that the uncle will be making a visit, money changes hands with a hotel employee and the Gang gets pressed into service imitating an eight-year-old girl and a two-year-old baby. Well the girl is a Gang guy in drag and the baby is one of the other Gang members. Uncle arrives, different situations lead to multiple babies, including the black Gang player at the time, Farina (Allen) Hoskins, playing the baby. Uncle hauled out Farina as his surprise for the scheming couple. I don’t really remember how the zaniness ended, but there were laughs a-plenty.
Crazy House has a plot device where the adults are planning an April Fool’s Day party, so everything in a local mansion has been altered—air jets coming up from the floor, electric shocks from the piano bench, all of the food made from rubber and/or cotton wool, etc. Somehow, when the adults leave for a bit the Gang gets in and all of the craziness affects them, too. Eventually the adults come back, mayhem ensues, and at the end there is a massive balloon drop. While the police try to make some sense of the scene, the Gang manages to crawl through the adults’ legs, and get balloons attached to them, so the last sight we see is the new Balloon Gang running away down the street.
Even though for me and most of my generation, Our Gang equates to The Little Rascals television revival of the talkies Our Gang films from the end of their movie run, I was surprised at how many title cards all of the films I saw had, and how briefly each was on display. It makes me think that the original silents were geared more toward adults than to children, who probably wouldn’t be able to read the words that quickly. Then again, maybe the sight gags alone were enough to thrill the children.
As always, Ben Model did a bang-up job as the afternoon’s accompanist on the grand piano, Bruce Lawton provided the commentary at the beginning of the afternoon, and the aforementioned Mr. Massa joined them on the stage after the screenings to take questions from the enthusiastic crowd. The hall was filled almost to capacity, and this on a spring day that could have kept lots of people outdoors. The only thing missing was the popcorn (no food is allowed in the Bruno Walter Auditorium).
ConcertMeister
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Jane’s Walks (5/7–8/16)
I discovered Jane’s Walks (named for activist/author Jane Jacobs, who would have turned 100 this year) last May, when I went on a tour of outdoor murals in East Harlem. So I was really glad to see/hear about them again this year. I had a very ambitious list for myself, and while I didn’t do them all, the ones I actually did were tons of fun.
The first was Saturday morning at 10:30 called Mansions, Money, and Scandal: Gilded Age Splendor on the Upper East Side. The tour guide,
Alan Engler, was superb! He brought wit and humor to the plate, as well as lots of knowledge. I had a noon walk on my schedule, in case I wanted to leave the first tour early. As they say in Hawai’i, “No-a way-a!” In a concentrated area (East 70th Street/Fifth Avenue/East 72nd Street/Madison Avenue, down to East 66th Street), he packed in a ton of very interesting tidbits, even pointing out something that most New Yorkers and tourists alike had not seen in a long time—the sun! I highly recommend this tour. In fact, I did recommend it to other Jane’s Walkers I met on Saturday, since he repeated it on Sunday morning. Interestingly, one of the first stories he recounted was about himself. He’s given this tour before as Gilded Age Splendor on the Upper East Side. He got double the attendees after he added the Mansions, Money, and Scandal part. I even jotted down other buildings to visit and the titles of a couple of books to possibly explore.
Walk number two, at 2:00 in the afternoon, also had a catchy title. Home on the Grange chronicled the history and moving of Alexander Hamilton’s home that he had built in Harlem in 1802. Although there is a Hamilton Heights Historic District, Hamilton always referred to his neighborhood as Harlem. According to the Park Ranger leading the tour, Hamilton Heights, as a neighborhood, came into being in the 1970s as a term coined by the real estate industry. The house was first moved in 1889, by horse-drawn wagons. In 2008, it was moved to its current home in
St. Nicholas Park. For that move, it had to be hydraulically lifted 30 feet in the air in order to clear a tower structure of the church it sat next to. Once again, a great tour. I have only the highest regard for the Park Rangers I’ve dealt with. They’ve all been very knowledgeable and very helpful.
The third walk on my abbreviated Saturday schedule was a bit of a bust. I was at
St. James Church on Madison Avenue at the appointed time, and was joined by a few other walkers. Alas, no tour guide ever arrived—or at least not during the thirty minutes I waited.
Sunday morning’s tour was a little on the strange side. I met the tour guide,
Cynthia Ladopoulos, and her assistant, and then we were met by one more walker. The tour guide wanted to wait a few minutes, in case others showed up a little late, since Sunday morning transit had had some rerouting going on. The second walker seemed antsy to get walking. In fact, due to transit changes, he bailed after only about ten minutes of walking so that he could get to the Bronx for another walk. So I had a private tour of my old stomping grounds in the East 70s. The tour guide was once again very informative about different buildings in the neighborhood, some of which I knew and others I didn’t. Highlights included the Apple store, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church (I worked there for a while and sang in the professional choir there for a time), the Bohemian National Hall, and the Cherokee Apartments (we even got a tenant to let us into the locked courtyard, where we saw the Guastavino-tiled arches). I then quickly made my way to 53rd Street and Park Avenue for a noon tour. But I got there at about five minutes past noon and didn’t see a soul. Bummer. While trying to salvage my schedule I glanced at my printout and realized that I wasn’t late—I was really early for the 1:00 tour.
This tour was run by two bona fide architects, so architectural features were heavily commented upon. Highlights there included the Seagram’s building, Casa Lever, St. Bartholomew’s Church’s Hildreth Meièr mosaic tiles (I once sang an afternoon of Gilbert & Sullivan music at St. Bart’s as part of a quartet), and Grand Central Terminal, including the upside down olive tree in the food market (I’m not making this up, you know!). Not new to me were the plaques along Library Way, though Architects’ Walk a little to the east was new to me. All of the plaques are the work of artist Gregg LeFevre. I also jotted down another book title to follow up with. I could have rushed to a 3:00 tour, but I was pretty pooped by then, so I went home and got to see the Mets win on TV. Not a bad day.
Here’s what was on my list that I didn’t get to: Harlem Noshwalk, Abraham Lincoln on Broadway, Gay Bars that Are Gone, and Madison Square Park. Maybe they’ll be prime contenders for next May.
ConcertMeister
The first was Saturday morning at 10:30 called Mansions, Money, and Scandal: Gilded Age Splendor on the Upper East Side. The tour guide,
Alan Engler, was superb! He brought wit and humor to the plate, as well as lots of knowledge. I had a noon walk on my schedule, in case I wanted to leave the first tour early. As they say in Hawai’i, “No-a way-a!” In a concentrated area (East 70th Street/Fifth Avenue/East 72nd Street/Madison Avenue, down to East 66th Street), he packed in a ton of very interesting tidbits, even pointing out something that most New Yorkers and tourists alike had not seen in a long time—the sun! I highly recommend this tour. In fact, I did recommend it to other Jane’s Walkers I met on Saturday, since he repeated it on Sunday morning. Interestingly, one of the first stories he recounted was about himself. He’s given this tour before as Gilded Age Splendor on the Upper East Side. He got double the attendees after he added the Mansions, Money, and Scandal part. I even jotted down other buildings to visit and the titles of a couple of books to possibly explore.
Walk number two, at 2:00 in the afternoon, also had a catchy title. Home on the Grange chronicled the history and moving of Alexander Hamilton’s home that he had built in Harlem in 1802. Although there is a Hamilton Heights Historic District, Hamilton always referred to his neighborhood as Harlem. According to the Park Ranger leading the tour, Hamilton Heights, as a neighborhood, came into being in the 1970s as a term coined by the real estate industry. The house was first moved in 1889, by horse-drawn wagons. In 2008, it was moved to its current home in
St. Nicholas Park. For that move, it had to be hydraulically lifted 30 feet in the air in order to clear a tower structure of the church it sat next to. Once again, a great tour. I have only the highest regard for the Park Rangers I’ve dealt with. They’ve all been very knowledgeable and very helpful.
The third walk on my abbreviated Saturday schedule was a bit of a bust. I was at
St. James Church on Madison Avenue at the appointed time, and was joined by a few other walkers. Alas, no tour guide ever arrived—or at least not during the thirty minutes I waited.
Sunday morning’s tour was a little on the strange side. I met the tour guide,
Cynthia Ladopoulos, and her assistant, and then we were met by one more walker. The tour guide wanted to wait a few minutes, in case others showed up a little late, since Sunday morning transit had had some rerouting going on. The second walker seemed antsy to get walking. In fact, due to transit changes, he bailed after only about ten minutes of walking so that he could get to the Bronx for another walk. So I had a private tour of my old stomping grounds in the East 70s. The tour guide was once again very informative about different buildings in the neighborhood, some of which I knew and others I didn’t. Highlights included the Apple store, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church (I worked there for a while and sang in the professional choir there for a time), the Bohemian National Hall, and the Cherokee Apartments (we even got a tenant to let us into the locked courtyard, where we saw the Guastavino-tiled arches). I then quickly made my way to 53rd Street and Park Avenue for a noon tour. But I got there at about five minutes past noon and didn’t see a soul. Bummer. While trying to salvage my schedule I glanced at my printout and realized that I wasn’t late—I was really early for the 1:00 tour.
This tour was run by two bona fide architects, so architectural features were heavily commented upon. Highlights there included the Seagram’s building, Casa Lever, St. Bartholomew’s Church’s Hildreth Meièr mosaic tiles (I once sang an afternoon of Gilbert & Sullivan music at St. Bart’s as part of a quartet), and Grand Central Terminal, including the upside down olive tree in the food market (I’m not making this up, you know!). Not new to me were the plaques along Library Way, though Architects’ Walk a little to the east was new to me. All of the plaques are the work of artist Gregg LeFevre. I also jotted down another book title to follow up with. I could have rushed to a 3:00 tour, but I was pretty pooped by then, so I went home and got to see the Mets win on TV. Not a bad day.
Here’s what was on my list that I didn’t get to: Harlem Noshwalk, Abraham Lincoln on Broadway, Gay Bars that Are Gone, and Madison Square Park. Maybe they’ll be prime contenders for next May.
ConcertMeister
Monday, May 9, 2016
The Soap Myth (5/2/16)
What is truth? What is memory? What is real?
Those questions go largely unanswered in Jeff Cohen’s The Soap Myth which I saw in a semi-staged reading a week ago. The very talented and excellent cast was Ed Asner, Jayne Atkinson, Donald Corren, Blair Baker, and an uncredited stage manager-cum-cue person.
Staged in commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day, this thought-provoking play was really enjoyable and, oddly, sometimes humorous. Bureaucrats, a holocaust survivor, and a magazine writer wrangle about whether or not the Nazis really made soap out of the remains of concentration camp prisoners. Grim stuff.
That said, this was a very touching performance. Some of the actors portrayed more than one character, and did so very well. Mr. Asner was the holocaust survivor who was trying to get information about the soap making added to a Holocaust Museum. The bureaucrats, who had previously included the information, were essentially saying that the hard evidence no longer existed and that history evolves and changes. The magazine writer was pretty much torn both ways and was stuck in the middle, trying to broker a compromise.
I’m not an automatic standing ovation person, but at the end of the performance I was up on my feet with the rest of the audience immediately. I’m very grateful to the Library for the Performing Arts for presenting this and other programming. And it’s always a thrill for me to see a living legend (at least in my mind) perform on stage. The co-producer was the National Jewish Theater Foundation – Holocaust Theater International Initiative. Kudos all the way around!
ConcertMeister
Those questions go largely unanswered in Jeff Cohen’s The Soap Myth which I saw in a semi-staged reading a week ago. The very talented and excellent cast was Ed Asner, Jayne Atkinson, Donald Corren, Blair Baker, and an uncredited stage manager-cum-cue person.
Staged in commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day, this thought-provoking play was really enjoyable and, oddly, sometimes humorous. Bureaucrats, a holocaust survivor, and a magazine writer wrangle about whether or not the Nazis really made soap out of the remains of concentration camp prisoners. Grim stuff.
That said, this was a very touching performance. Some of the actors portrayed more than one character, and did so very well. Mr. Asner was the holocaust survivor who was trying to get information about the soap making added to a Holocaust Museum. The bureaucrats, who had previously included the information, were essentially saying that the hard evidence no longer existed and that history evolves and changes. The magazine writer was pretty much torn both ways and was stuck in the middle, trying to broker a compromise.
I’m not an automatic standing ovation person, but at the end of the performance I was up on my feet with the rest of the audience immediately. I’m very grateful to the Library for the Performing Arts for presenting this and other programming. And it’s always a thrill for me to see a living legend (at least in my mind) perform on stage. The co-producer was the National Jewish Theater Foundation – Holocaust Theater International Initiative. Kudos all the way around!
ConcertMeister
Monday, May 2, 2016
April Songbook (4/25/16)
David Reiser
This was the penultimate Songbook for this season. David Reiser’s music (composer and lyricist) has an awful lot of energy. Many of the performers on Monday evening rocked back and forth, stomped their feet, and were very, very energetic. Maybe a bit too much, as it made the lyrics difficult to hear and understand.
Two of the fifteen songs presented were from Any Other Way, two were from Abey Baby, five were from Joni, one was from Dude, and two were from Static Electro. The other three were stand-alone songs.
Hey Rebecca (Any Other Way) had an interesting twist in that it was a duet by the same character at different ages in her life, and they were able to converse with each other. Kacie Sheik and Alison Luff did a good job with just the right amount of country twang.
I Got a Son (Abey Baby) was a cute, very high energy number performed by
Mr. Reiser. (As corrected from the stage, his name is pronounced “Reezer” and not “Riser”—I just thought you should know.)
Different (Joni) was performed by Karen Mason and may have been my favorite of the evening. In it, she’s providing advice to her son about how to provide advice to her granddaughter. Part of the reason I liked it is that it used piano only, instead of the guitars/electric guitars/drums that provided so much energy to the other songs. This one was the most straightforward at getting the message through, and Ms. Mason’s performance also played a very strong part of that. Along the same line, The Way We’ve Always Been (Joni) was a very nice father/daughter duet performed by Laura Dreyfuss and Dana Haynes (who was also the excellent pianist for the entire evening) that had some pleasant harmonies.
A stand-alone song followed. You Are Everything (Mom and Dad’s Song) was an unabashed love fest from Mr. Reiser to his parents, who were in attendance. Bobby Cronin gave a heartfelt performance.
Both songs from Static Electro, a techno musical that was far too techno for my taste, were once again so energetic that the songs themselves got lost, as far as I was concerned. And that pretty much sums up my feeling about most of the evening. Mr. Reiser is talented, but maybe with a little more fine tuning, the message will get across better.
On another note, I was joined for the concert by a friend of mine that I hadn’t seen for a very long time. I’m not sure that I made a Songbook convert out of him, but it was good to see him and then get a bite to eat afterwards. I’ll definitely attend the closing Songbook later this May.
ConcertMeister
This was the penultimate Songbook for this season. David Reiser’s music (composer and lyricist) has an awful lot of energy. Many of the performers on Monday evening rocked back and forth, stomped their feet, and were very, very energetic. Maybe a bit too much, as it made the lyrics difficult to hear and understand.
Two of the fifteen songs presented were from Any Other Way, two were from Abey Baby, five were from Joni, one was from Dude, and two were from Static Electro. The other three were stand-alone songs.
Hey Rebecca (Any Other Way) had an interesting twist in that it was a duet by the same character at different ages in her life, and they were able to converse with each other. Kacie Sheik and Alison Luff did a good job with just the right amount of country twang.
I Got a Son (Abey Baby) was a cute, very high energy number performed by
Mr. Reiser. (As corrected from the stage, his name is pronounced “Reezer” and not “Riser”—I just thought you should know.)
Different (Joni) was performed by Karen Mason and may have been my favorite of the evening. In it, she’s providing advice to her son about how to provide advice to her granddaughter. Part of the reason I liked it is that it used piano only, instead of the guitars/electric guitars/drums that provided so much energy to the other songs. This one was the most straightforward at getting the message through, and Ms. Mason’s performance also played a very strong part of that. Along the same line, The Way We’ve Always Been (Joni) was a very nice father/daughter duet performed by Laura Dreyfuss and Dana Haynes (who was also the excellent pianist for the entire evening) that had some pleasant harmonies.
A stand-alone song followed. You Are Everything (Mom and Dad’s Song) was an unabashed love fest from Mr. Reiser to his parents, who were in attendance. Bobby Cronin gave a heartfelt performance.
Both songs from Static Electro, a techno musical that was far too techno for my taste, were once again so energetic that the songs themselves got lost, as far as I was concerned. And that pretty much sums up my feeling about most of the evening. Mr. Reiser is talented, but maybe with a little more fine tuning, the message will get across better.
On another note, I was joined for the concert by a friend of mine that I hadn’t seen for a very long time. I’m not sure that I made a Songbook convert out of him, but it was good to see him and then get a bite to eat afterwards. I’ll definitely attend the closing Songbook later this May.
ConcertMeister
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