As I was looking over Prokofiev's Lt. Kijé Suite for
this
weekend's performances, I began to wonder about the place of
movie music in our concert halls. I was struck by the fact
that after a century of great cinematic achievements, very little
of the often equally as great music has made its way onto our
classical concerts. Outside of some of the earliest scores by
the Russian greats, Prokofiev and Shostakovich, it is rare to see
any film music on our so-called "serious" concerts.
What is the...
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Maybe I've been watching the
World Series too much, but I see this weekend's
Symphonic Hits Concert as a fast
ball, right down the middle. It's strong, it's exciting, and
it doesn't pull any punches - no contemporary works, no difficult
to understand rarity, just three masterworks from the heart of the
ever popular Romantic repertoire. We have an overture by
Bellini inspired by Romeo and Juliet, THE quintessential Romantic
piano concerto by Robert Schumann, and a fatalistic symphony...
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The
final
Symphonic Hits of the season is upon us, and in fact, it's
the final week of the Indianapolis Symphony Orcehstra's Classical
Season. Next week, summer officially begins with the
Indianapolis Symphony's move out to the
Prairie. For this last concert, we're hearing Beethoven's
final two symphonies led by Music Director Emmeritus, Raymond
Leppard.
These two works are as different as they could be. The 8th
Symphony is bubbly and delightful (it even lacks a slow movement),
and imitates...
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"Give it more vowel," Assistant Artistic Director Michael Davis
implores the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir. "A little longer -
really full," he coaxes. "Keep everything going."
This past Tuesday I found the Indianapolis Symphonic Choir hard at
work, preparing for next week's Indianapolis Symphony
Orchestra performances of
Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. Watching them, I was
struck by how much time and effort goes into preparing for a work
as grand as this one.
The work starts weeks, months,...
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I've
been really looking forward to
this week's Symphonic Hits concert for a long
time. While I love the music we play week in and week out,
it's nice when the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra turns to
something that is a bit different from its usual stomping
grounds. This week's concert includes the Vivaldi
Four
Seasons which comes from the Baroque Period in music history,
and it's one that we here at the ISO don't often get to
visit.
The Four Seasons is of course one of the most
famous...
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This year, I am honored to be conducting the Indianapolis Symphony
at
Spotlight 2011, the
Indianapolis Performing Arts Community's annual benefit for HIV
education and prevention in Indiana. Created by David Hochoy
of
Dance Kaleidoscope and Rob McPherson
formerly of IRT 18 years ago, Spotlight has grown over the years
and now encompasses most of Indianapolis' major arts organizations,
all of whom volunteer their time for this
project.
Tonight, the Indianapolis Symphony string section will be...
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For the next Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
Symphonic
Hits Concerts (
April
1 and 2 at 7:30), we welcome up-and-coming British conductor
Michael Francis, who was brought on board just a couple weeks ago,
replacing Mark Wigglesworth who is expecting a child back in
England. Michael Francis has made quite a reputation stepping
in at the last minute. In fact he launched his conducting
career in 2006 by stepping out of the bass section of the London
Symphony and into a rehearsal of Shostakovich's...
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This week on the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra's
Symphonic Hits series we're presenting three works by
the great Czech composer, Antonin Dvorak. I am also very excited
that we are recording the entire concert for later release on CD!
While all three works on the program have interesting
backgrounds, I thought that here on the blog we could get to
know Dvorak, the person, a little bit better. Many people know that
he lived for a short time in America, but I hope on the following
list you'll...
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During
every season at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, we have
orchestra members, soloists and conductors who push through a
concert despite a cold or a sore back, but this week our soloist,
IU South Bend's own Alexander Toradze
is playing after emergency surgery just three days
ago.
For 10 days, Mr. Toradze had been experiencing blurred vision
in his left eye. After a visit to his regular eye doctor, he was
referred to Dr. Thomas Hauch at South Bend Retina and Vitreous who
diagnosed him...
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Whenever someone asks me to recommend something as an introduction
to the symphonic repertoire, I always encourage them to listen to a
variety of works. Just like most things, music isn't
one-size-fits-all. Many people think that if you don't like
one piece of classical music, then you don't like any of them, but
that's not necessarily so! This holds true even for those of
us more experienced symphony fans. One day you might discover
your least favorite composer actually wrote something you...
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Symphonic Hits and Sound Off are
back! This week we open our second season with
one of the most exciting concerts yet including more symphonic
hits and our resident ensemble, Time for Three (Tf3). This
season
Sound Off (our pre-concert event held in the
theater at 6:30 before the performance) also has a new host.
While I'm now in my third season as a staff conductor at the
ISO, I'm thrilled to be joining
Sound Off to bring you a
behind-the-scenes look at our concerts. For my first
Sound
Off we...
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