Music promoter wanna-be, but doing this only as a fan right now, of the following genres: Catholic, Chamber, Choral, Classical, Classical - Crossover, Symphony, Orchestral, Opera, Irish Country, Irish Folk, Irish Contemporary, etc.!! Absolutely no rock music!!
This is a perfect song for anyone who has lost a loved one!! Perfectly written and perfectly sung by Ireland's own Gary Gamble!! He must have experienced this himself because no one can write this song so perfectly without experiencing such a loss themselves!! Certainly a bit of a tear-jerker!! Perfectly beautiful!!
How many times have I typed 'perfect'ly?? Well . . . it IS perfect!! So, here it is!! Please enjoy:
God bless YOU, Gary, and please keep up the beautiful singing!! I'll be prayin' for your father's soul!!
(Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let Perpetual Light Shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.)
He’s stolen kisses and broken hearts, but has opera’s great Casanova gone a step too far? Find out in this exciting new production of Mozart’s classic masterpiece, directed by Michael Gow.
The Don spends his days in the company of gorgeous women, fine food and the best champagne, and he’s ready to add more women to his catalogue of conquests, but this time his dalliances are not going entirely to plan. The abandoned Elvira is trying to track him down, Donna Anna wants to avenge the death of her father (which Giovanni may have had something to do with), and Zerlina just wants to get married without the Don’s amorous interference… or does she?
But something more sinister is waiting just around the corner. Is opera’s favourite bad boy about to meet his match?
Be swept up in the stylishly sexy decadence straight out of La Dolce Vita in Oz Opera’s new production of Mozart’s classic opera. Our smouldering Don is about to seduce audiences all around Australia – watch out ladies!
Sung in English with a chamber orchestra.
“This classy production is set to bring a great deal of joy and pleasure to a great many people.” – Canberra City News
“It is a dramatically convincing and visually beautiful production.” – Canberra Critics Circle
Tickets: $36.90-$44.90
Duration: 2hrs 40 mins including Interval (approx).
Warning: This production uses a very small amount of atmospheric smoke and a fake cigarette.
Back in August, 2008, I officially got on facebook. As I was looking up some people on facebook, I decided to look up Karl Scully, to see if he was on it -- which he was. Karl Scully is one of The Irish Tenors -- he replaced Ronan Tynan, who has since returned to The Irish Tenors. So, at that time, it was Finbar Wright, Anthony Kearns, and Karl Scully and then it became, once again, Finbar Wright, Anthony Kearns, and Ronan Tynan as The Irish Tenors.
So, I found Karl Scully on facebook. I looked at his list of facebook 'friends', and requested 'friendship' among some of them. One of them was Jeff Howard and I remember seeing, for the first time, "RWCMD Staff" after his name on Karl Scully's 'friends' list. Well, at that time, I had absolutely no idea as to what "RWCMD"; but, I figured that whatever it was, it was pretty important -- it sounded pretty important, anyway. ("RWCMD" stands for "Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama", as I later found out.) So, I requested friendship with Jeff Howard.
It was through him that I found out about Only Men Aloud! because at that time, he was their accompanist. Immediately after we became facebook 'friends', in our private, facebook conversations, and most definitely upon me asking him about "Only Men Aloud!", and as I have never heard of them previously, I certainly became very interested in them.
The first time I ever heard them sing was the first time I ever saw the video that they performed with The Cory Band (which makes it also the first time that I ever heard of The Cory Band, who are an absolutely FANTASTIC brass band from Wales who have won numerous awards). This particular video was of them singing, and The Cory Band playing, "Cantilena" from the Karl Jenkins CD, "This Land of Ours". On this particular CD, which was produced by EMI, Only Men Aloud! was known as "Cantorion" because, from what I understand, EMI thought that the name "Only Men Aloud!" sounded "sexist." So, "Cantorion" (Only Men Aloud!) sang the songs on the CD and The Cory Band played all the music.
As soon as I started hearing the song "Cantilena" (which is in Welsh), I KNEW these guys were GOOD!! I have never ever heard a song like THAT before and I KNEW that I just had to get these guys to come to MY city, here in The U.S.!! I was DETERMINED to make it happen!! Well . . . it did, but in a different way.
So, here is the video "Cantilena" sung by "Cantorion" (Only Men Aloud!), with the music by The Cory Band:
When I saw this video, for the first time, it was somewhere during the last half of August, 2008. Then, Jeff Howard told me about Only Men Aloud! being contestants in BBC One's "Last Choir Standing". Here is a clip of them singing "Cwm Rhondda" during this competition:
If I'm correct, it was the last Thursday of August, 2008, that Jeff Howard told me that the next night was the FINAL night of this competition, where Only Men Aloud! was one of two choirs still standing and that a winner was to be chosen between the two. Well, I couldn't cast a vote for them from all the way over here, in The U.S., obviously!! But, what I could do, and did do, was pray for them. In fact, I turned to Blessed Titus Brandsma, OCD, for his intercession. (Blessed Titus Brandsma was a Carmelite martyr for the Catholic Faith who died in the Concentration Camp at Dachau.) Whenever Blessed Titus intercedes for me, and my requests are granted through his intercession, it is always immediately. From my experiences with him, if it's something that has to be done here-and-now, and if it's God's Most Holy Will, then he'll do it. But, if it's something that one would request of him in a nine day novena to him or something that can be answered in the future, then one will have to ask that of another Saint, because Blessed Titus just seems to want to get the request done "right here and right now" and not have to wait about it.
So, based on my experiences with him, and based on the fact that the very next day was the last day of BBC One's "Last Choir Standing", I asked Blessed Titus Brandsma to please help Only Men Aloud! to win and to please be there during this last time.
Well . . . they DID win and they won BIG TIME!! From what I understand, they had 1 million MORE callers call in than the other choir!! This is a clip of the moment that they were waiting for:
After that, and because of being the winners, during the first full week of September, 2008, they signed a 7 - digit, 5 album contract with Universal.
So, they signed the contract with Universal and then during the first full week of October, 2008, they recorded their self-titled debut CD!! At the very beginning of that week, half of this 18 - 20 voiced choir was sick and the other half was well. By the end of the week, the half that were sick were well, and the half that were well were sick!! Also during that week, about 10 minutes or so after they got done with a photo shoot, their new agent dropped dead in front of them, basically -- it was a heart attack (Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let Perpetual Light Shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.) -- AND, being that the guys were sick, their choir director, Tim, went to the store to buy some more vitamins and, without realizing it, he walked right into a robbery that was currently taking place and he got escorted out by the London police because they thought he was involved in this robbery!! On top of all that, and in a week or less, Only Men Aloud! did 60 hours of recording!! Phew!! This is enough to almost make someone's throat strained just thinkin' about it -- with all that went on that whole week!!
So, somewhere around the middle of October, 2008, they were finally done with their 60 hours of recording, and then the music had to be recorded. Their debut albums release date was November 17, 2008!! So, basically one thing happened after another.
They were hitting #1 in pre-sales with their debut album!! Likewise, once it was released!! In fact, within a few weeks after it's release in the U.K. it went to either Platinum or Gold -- whichever is the highest of the two.
In the meantime, I'm over here, in The U.S., only hearing about all of this excitement going on over there in The U.K. and realizing that we're missing all of this excitement over here!! By this time, I'm sure that EMI was really regretting that they made Only Men Aloud! change their name to "Cantorion" just for Karl Jenkins' album, too. EMI lost out big time and, the last I heard about EMI, Universal bought them or was in the process of doing so.
Here is a clip of one of Only Men Aloud's songs from their self-titled debut album:
As all this excitement was going on over there, as a fan of theirs, I wanted to do something for them over here!! I wanted to help get them KNOWN over here, in The U.S.!! I had absolutely no experience, and no knowledge whatsoever, in what I was about to do!!
Other than the internet, there was no way that we, Americans, could purchase a copy of their CD!! And, there was no way that any Americans even knew of them without first SEEING them -- a picture of them, that is. Well, I was DETERMINED that somehow, as strictly a fan of theirs, that I was going to help make their CD more available to us, Americans, although I had no idea as to how.
So, I started with the music store "Borders", which no longer exists. But, "Borders" was a world-wide chain that sold books and CD's. So, sometime during Only Men Aloud's pre-sales, I started emailing "Borders" over here, regarding trying to get Only Men Aloud's CD sold over here -- or more available for purchase. I always, always, ALWAYS addressed myself as a fan of theirs when emailing "Borders" (and the others). ALWAYS. I even corrected "Borders" on several occasions when they seemed to think that it was MY CD that I was asking them to consider selling.
However, "Borders" would tell me who to email regarding this, and I would email those people/companies -- always addressing myself as a fan of Only Men Aloud! and nothing more!! I couldn't speak HIGHLY enough of Only Men Aloud! to these people, via email!! Sometimes I would get emails from people from these particular music companies telling me that they forwarded my email to someone who works at a company who's in charge of them. I honestly can't remember the names of these various music, marketing, companies (or whatever they were), whom I corresponded with via email regarding trying to get Only Men Aloud's debut CD sold over here in The U.S. I have those company names written down somewhere. However, not one person, whom I corresponded with, turned me down, which means that they did not turn Only Men Aloud! down!! In the end, somehow, through all of this correspondence with these various people, I found out about "All Music Guide". Every CD that is sold in all of these music stores in The U.S. (and maybe even around the world), must be 'registered' with AMG ("All Music Guide") first and all that they require is a copy of the CD -- which they accepted a link to all of songs on Only Men Aloud's debut album, instead of a CD -- maybe it was via itunes. I can't remember.
So, around the beginning of January, 2009, I received a response from AMG, via email, regarding the link with all of Only Men Aloud's debut CD songs, basically stating that it would take 6 - 8 weeks; but I can't remember if it was a 6 - 8 week decision process or that it would take 6 - 8 weeks for the debut CD to be on AMG web site. However, that doesn't matter any more. In February, 2009, I again looked on "Borders" web site . . . and this time, to my joy and to my surprise, there was Only Men Aloud's debut CD!! It was on "Borders" web site because it was also on All Music Guide's web site . . . and it's been on AMG's web site ever since, which means that anyone, in The U.S. (and maybe even around the world) can order that CD through any record store or the record store's web site.
During all of this time, too, Only Men Aloud! had somewhat of an idea that I was doing this for them -- only according to what I revealed to them. Needless to say, they were quite happy with my success and so was I!! Week after week after week after week, I was consistently in contact, via email, with all the right people, who guided me as to how to get Only Men Aloud's debut CD available to us Americans. Beforehand, I had absolutely no experience whatsoever and all during this time, I just did this all myself because I believed in Only Men Aloud! They were so well worth it and I absolutely LOVED doing what I did -- I gained experience and I LOVED it!! I would do all of this all over again, in a heartbeat!!
Now, I can use that experience to help other recording artists. I don't even have to go through all of those various steps anymore. All I have to do is just tell them to contact "All Music Guide". It's as easy as that!!
And, by-the-way, within several months after Only Men Aloud! won Last Choir Standing, besides them inspiring young men to join choirs over there in Wales, their beautiful singing inspired me to join my college's choir, which I was involved with for 2 years and in the top sopranos section. In fact, Only Men Aloud! really inspired me so much, that not only did I join my college's choir for 2 years; but I also added the music minor to my Criminal Justice major, that I was going to college for ( I never graduated, though), and the music minor included voice and piano lessons; and I also worked as a Federal Work-Study Assistant to the Music Department for about a year-and-a-half and I absolutely LOVED it and I gained such a passion for good music!! Not only that, but because of the fact that my choir director, my piano instructor, and myself realized that I have a gift of writing music, I became a life-long member of A.S.C.A.P. -- American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers!! All of this is basically because of OMA!, as we, the fans, call them for short. They never talked me into any of this. I just did all of this because of the ripple effects of the good inspiration that they had on me with their beautiful singing!!
Although some people may think that this whole post seems prideful, I certainly didn't write it for that reason. Most people don't know about any of this because I've only chosen to reveal this to a small amount of people. I think that only a small amount of people will read this post, too; but I hope that they are the right ones because I really hope to do all of this music stuff on a more professional level someday. Why should I let my experience go to waste when I can use it to help other good recording artists?? There is so much unknown talent out there and they MUST BE MADE KNOWN!!
Since their debut CD, OMA! has recorded a couple of others. Here is a clip of a song from the second CD, entitled "Band of Brothers". This song is called "Men of Harlech" and it is sung in Welsh:
Luv you and God bless you, OMA!! Keep up the beautiful singing, guys!!
P.S. Only Men Aloud! is now in the process of being 're-structured'!! So, I can only hope that they're re-structuring doesn't flop, but is successful!!
Well, PRAISE GOD AND BLESSED BE GOD FOREVER for these beautiful fans!! We need to keep orchestras around because they are the REAL DEAL!!
Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra saved after fans raise £70k Classical music fans have clubbed together to save the 88-year-old Brighton Philharmonic Orchestra from closure. The ensemble was set to close within two weeks unless £70,000 was raised
Experience the Berliner Philharmoniker live every time they perform at their home venue, or you can browse our video archive and enjoy great past concerts.
Plácido Domingo: 'I've done nothing to deserve this voice'
At 72, Plácido Domingo enjoys a reputation as the opera superstar with no time for fame’s airs or graces
Placido Domingo 'I know that things can go wrong, but very, very rarely do I complain’ Photo: REX FEATURES
By Matthew Stadlen
7:00AM BST 25 Aug 2013
Earlier this summer, Plácido Domingo was admitted to hospital in his native Madrid with a pulmonary embolism resulting from deep vein thrombosis. Soon afterwards, I watched him at the Saltzburg Festival sing the part of Giacomo, Joan of Arc’s father, in his comeback performance of Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco. In only weeks, he was back in front of an adoring public, and we duly rose to our feet at the end. Some performance. Some comeback.
His work ethic is phenomenal: he has played 143 roles, performed more than 3,632 times and conducted almost 500 concerts. Nothing holds the 72-year-old back – not age, not the colon cancer he had operated on in 2010, not even the realisation that his tenor voice, which had deepened with age, meant a new challenge: becoming a baritone.
We meet the day after his performance in an ornate hotel across the River Salzach. Wearing a sharp grey suit with a dark-green collar, he’s not big, but broad. “There have been moments in my career when I was overweight,” he admits in his heavily accented English. “But I think it’s important that you are believable as a character. There are singers with phenomenal voices where it didn’t matter, but I think, generally speaking, the public wants to believe in the characters.”
He says he’s feeling much better following his illness. “I was very lucky. Fortunately, it came to my lungs – it didn’t go to my head or heart. I was in hospital. Now I’m taking my medicines.”
In any case, his work remains his passion. “Everybody has work and when it’s finished, that’s it. But in my career, every thing and every time is something. If it’s not making plans, it’s doing interviews. If you have a lunch, it’s because you’re planning something. I have very little time, but you get used to it, and it would be tough for me now to be three months in one place without travelling.”
This passion would explain his bold decision to change his vocal range – after all, giving up opera completely would have been difficult for a man who says that his life is the stage. The baritone roles of Verdi – his favourite composer of opera (he wishes Beethoven had written many more operas than Fidelio; and says he’s sorry that Brahms didn’t write a single one) – helped him to make the change from tenor.
“I believe Verdi wrote his best music in the scenes when the father and daughter, or father and son, are singing together because unfortunately in his life he had two children and he lost both.” (Domingo, incidentally, has three sons.) “So I think you feel the drama and the feeling of his music in those scenes and I want to do these roles.” His part in Giovanna d’Arco was such a role, and his chemistry with the Russian soprano Anna Netrebko lifted an already sumptuous performance.
Born in Spain, Domingo was brought up by parents who performed zarzuela, the Spanish form of operetta. The family moved to Mexico when he was eight, and Plácido only began voice lessons after studying the piano and conducting. Before breaking through as an opera singer in his early twenties, he made money playing the piano in bars and taking small acting roles in television plays. Indeed, his operatic acting is frequently commented upon, and his performance in Otello, the role for which he is the most famous, was even praised by Laurence Olivier. “Opera is drama,” Domingo has said.
He quickly established himself as a tenor with an international reputation. By the time the world was awed by the first Three Tenors concert during World Cup Italia 1990, he had been on the scene for almost three decades: “Each of us had 25 years in the bag.”
Nonetheless, singing with Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras enhanced Domingo’s standing worldwide. They sang in 35 concerts together, a blend of impeccable pedigree and bonhomie. “We had the best time.”
Was their any professional rivalry? “It was healthy competition – it was like anything you can do, I can do better.”
In 1983, he declared he wouldn’t go on singing beyond the age of 50 because there were other things he wanted to do. Later, he took up directorships at the Washington National Opera and the Los Angeles Opera, adding a coast-to-coast lifestyle to his air miles. He says he accepted them because he thought he would have to retire and so he would conduct instead. “And here I am, almost 20 years later, and I’m still singing.”
Then, in 2009, after almost half a century as a tenor, he decided to take on a baritone role. Domingo intended to play the baritone part in Verdi’s Simon Boccanegra when he felt ready to retire as a tenor and leave it at that. But Daniel Barenboim “pushed” him into it earlier than he had planned, in Berlin and at La Scala. And then everyone started to ask him to do it, and so he did – in London, New York, Madrid, Vienna.
This led to an offer to do Rigoletto as a baritone in a live broadcast from Mantua: “Live television. Big danger, risk! I did it, and it worked. So then I said, Listen, I cannot sing the tenor roles the way I was doing it before – obviously at my age, it will be impossible – but I find my voice is there, and I can colour my voice to make it darker. I don’t pretend to be a dramatic baritone, but I think the public is happy with what I’m doing and I think it’s working.”
He says that he doesn’t pretend to be the greatest baritone of all time but that he wants to touch the public. “It’s a privilege for me to make them happy.”
Domingo also credits his wife of 51 years with playing a key role in his performances. After his brief first marriage – begun when he was just 16 – Domingo wed fellow singer Marta Ornelas in August 1962. They studied together and went to live and sing in Israel for three years. They now have eight grandchildren.
“My wife was a singer, a wonderful singer, soprano,” says Domingo. But she gave up singing to bring up their boys and help him with his career. Much later she became a stage director. “She has such a phenomenal culture for aesthetics. You see a rehearsal – you might see everything is fine. She immediately finds what is not working, what is working, and she applies that to me. She doesn’t get in the way of the director but concentrates on what I should do aesthetically, and my performance starts to develop.”
While Domingo feels his country’s economic pain – “I’m pro-EU, but I don’t think it’s working, I think it has become too big” – he does his own suffering on stage. He’s a happy person in real life. “It is fabulous to be able to live these different characters. One day, you are one character, then another day you are another. You suffer so much. I love to suffer on the stage.”
But if he purges himself on stage, he can still be restless after a performance. “So yesterday, for instance, I couldn’t sleep until about 4am. Because I was thinking about everything that had happened, and then when you think you can’t sleep, you still think, you take the score, you see the things that you’d like to improve. So it is difficult.”
Unlike many in his profession, Domingo is no prima donna. Sir Antonio Pappano, music director of the Royal Opera House, has said: “For Domingo to cancel, he would have to have been on his death bed”.
So how does he manage to combine decency with stardom? “It’s because I believe things can finish tomorrow. You haven’t done anything to deserve to have a voice, it’s something that is given and could be taken away. There are some people who make everything difficult. They don’t want to rehearse, they want this, want that, they complain about everything – and OK, I know that things can go wrong, but very, very rarely do I complain.”
Just how long Domingo will continue to sing is impossible to predict. “I don’t know if I will sing maybe one more week, maybe a month, maybe a year, maybe five.” At least when he finally retires, there will still be the recordings. He’s made more than 100 – not just complete operas but compilations and crossovers, too – won 12 Grammys and has just launched an album of 18 Verdi arias, his first as a baritone.
Who will be the great tenor of the future? “Oh, it is already Jonas Kaufmann.”
When the man who – if he remembers – likes to walk on to the stage left foot first, does step off it for the last time, he may have a little more time for a different audience. “I have to do so much rehearsing that I very rarely sing for myself – even though some of my best performances are under the shower.”
Whether it's Friday or not, who cares when listening to this FANTASTIC country song by Ireland's own Derek Ryan!! When I watch this video, and listen to this uplifting music, I usually play this video over and over and over again. It is just so absolutely uplifting!! For those of you Americans, who don't like country music, please give this one a listen because this is not like American country music!! This is Irish Country Music -- FANTASTIC stuff!!! And, since you're reading this, please check out Derek's website here (which you will also find the above picture there, too): http://www.derekryanmusic.com/
I know it's a little bit early for some Christmas music; but, for us Tenors fans, it's never too early!! We could listen to Christmas music, from The Tenors, all year 'round, and some of us fans probably do. I'm one of those fans who does.
Their rendition of "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" is, by far, the BEST rendition I have ever heard!! The music and the singin' -- it's POWERFUL!! VERY POWERFUL!! EXTREMELY BEAUTIFUL, VERY IMMENSE, AND VERY POWERFUL!! After every time I hear this beautiful rendition, one word comes to my mind (if it's really even a word at all): WOW!! Probably every listener will agree with me!!
So, if you have never heard The Tenors before (and even if you have), please have a listen and please enjoy:
A lil shout out to the Tenors Friends Forever, by-the-way!!
GOD BLESS YOU, REMIGIO, FRASER, VICTOR, AND CLIFTON and keep up the beautiful singin', guys!!
Dell’Arte Opera (Friday through Sunday) This ensemble, a valuable source of performing experience for young artists, is staging two operas set in ancient Rome this summer. Monteverdi’s “Incoronazione di Poppea” (Friday and Sunday) is directed by Victoria Crutchfield. Christopher Fecteau conducts Mozart’s “Clemenza di Tito” (Saturday); the director is Walker Lewis. Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m., Sunday at 3 p.m., East 13th Street Theater, 136 East 13th Street, Manhattan, (646) 796-3492, dellarteopera.org; $30, $20 for students and 65+. (Zachary Woolfe)
★ Glimmerglass (Friday and Saturday) It is always worth the drive to Cooperstown, N.Y., to attend this summer festival. Productions are presented in an ideal opera house, seating just 900, amid beautiful rural environs. Steve Smith wrote in The New York Times that the festival “rises to new levels of innovation, curiosity and, yes, chutzpah.” In this final weekend of the festival, all but one of the four major productions, “Passions,” can be seen. Wagner’s “Flying Dutchman” (in German with projected English text) is directed by the festival’s general and artistic director, Francesca Zambello, and features Ryan McKinny as the Dutchman and Melody Moore as Senta. The classic Lerner & Loewe musical “Camelot,” presented with a full orchestra and without amplification, is directed by Robert Longbottom, with Nathan Gunn as Lancelot and David Pittsinger as King Arthur. Verdi’s “King for a Day,” the composer’s second opera, a rarely-heard comedy, is being presented in a new English adaptation, directed by Christian Räth and conducted by Joseph Colaneri. “Camelot”: Friday at 7:30 p.m.; “King for a Day”: Saturday at 1:30 p.m.; “The Flying Dutchman”: Saturday at 8 p.m. Glimmerglass Opera, 7300 State Highway 80, eight miles north of Cooperstown, N.Y., (607) 547-2255,glimmerglass.org; $26 to $132; $10 to $25 for youth (18 and younger). (Anthony Tommasini)
Classical Music
Bargemusic (Friday through Sunday, Wednesday) The weekend at this floating concert hall brings classics: on Friday, Schubert and Liszt from the pianist Gleb Ivanov; on Saturday, music for shifting configurations of piano, violin, viola and clarinet; and on Sunday, the final three of Bach’s six suites for solo cello, with Jeffrey Solow. An abrupt shift on Wednesday brings the first of four performances in the Here and Now series’ Labor Day festival, featuring a motley assortment of works by Elliott Carter, George Perle, Russell Platt, Patrice Fouillaud, Colin Jacobsen, David Del Tredici, Oliver Knussen, Thomas Adès and others. At 8 p.m., except for Sunday when the performance starts at 2 p.m., Bargemusic, Fulton Ferry Landing, next to the Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn, (800) 838-3006, bargemusic.org; $35, $30 for 65+, $15 for students. (Woolfe)
Taka Kigawa (Monday) This excellent, adventurous pianist has become a classical mainstay at Le Poisson Rouge, drawing large crowds with his performances of Bach and contemporary fare. Here, he focuses on 20th- and 21st-century works, offering Elliott Carter’s Piano Sonata and “Night Fantasies”; John Zorn’s “Carny”; and the Preludes by Sean Shepherd, a rising young American composer. At 7:30 p.m., Le Poisson Rouge, 158 Bleecker Street, near Thompson Street, Greenwich Village, (212) 505-3474,lepoissonrouge.com; $20 in advance, $25 at the door. (Vivien Schweitzer)
Maverick Concerts (Saturday and Sunday) This season’s concerts, which take place in an atmospheric barn built in 1916, celebrate the Britten centenary. Saturday’s program, which explores the connection between Britten and Rostropovich, features the cellist Zuill Bailey and the pianist Robert Koenig in Britten’s Sonata in C (Op. 65), as well as works by Henry Eccles, Schubert and Lukas Foss. On Sunday the Enso String Quartet performs Britten’s String Quartet No. 2, Mozart’s Quartet in C “Dissonant” and Verdi’s String Quartet. Saturday at 6:30 p.m., Sunday at 4 p.m., Maverick Concert Hall, 120 Maverick Road, Woodstock, N.Y., (800) 595-4849, maverickconcerts.org; $25 and $40, $5 for students. (Schweitzer)
Mostly Mozart Festival (Friday and Saturday) After a focus on Beethoven and a new-music-hungry residency by the International Contemporary Ensemble, the festival closes with a not-just-mostly, but all-Mozart program. Louis Langrée conducts the festival orchestra in the last three symphonies, Nos. 39, 40 and 41 (“Jupiter”). At 8 p.m., Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, (212) 721.6500, lincolncenter.org, $25 to $85. (Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim)
Tanglewood (Friday and Sunday) The closing weekend at the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer retreat in the Berkshires brings, on Friday, the orchestra’s assistant conductor, Andris Poga, in a program that includes Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano and Winds (with Peter Serkin as the soloist) and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. And, for a traditional finale, more Beethoven: the mighty Ninth Symphony, conducted by Bernard Haitink with Erin Wall, Tamara Mumford, Joseph Kaiser and John Relyea as the soloists. Friday at 8:30 p.m., Sunday at 2:30 p.m., Koussevitzky Music Shed, Tanglewood Music Center, Lenox, (888) 266-1200,bso.org; $9 to $105. (Woolfe)
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let Perpetual Light Shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
Richard Angas, a popular veteran of British opera, collapsed in a rehearsal of Peter Grimes today at Opera North and died soon after in hospital. He was 71.
After a debut with Scottish Opera in 1966, he was in demand for bass roles with almost every UK company until the day of his death. The news has sent a shockwave through the singing community. May his family find comfort in the affection he inspired.
Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let Perpetual Light Shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- For many pianists, playing all 32 of Ludwig van Beethoven's piano sonatas is a career achievement, a monumental test of strength, endurance, emotion and intellect. The feat has been compared to scaling Mount Everest. Collectively, the sonatas have been called the New Testament of piano playing, the Old Testament being both volumes of J.S. Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier. The idea has been tugging away at University of Montevallo piano professor Cynthia Perry MacCrae for three or four years. On Monday and Tuesday, Aug. 26-27, she will take her first steps from base camp in the first of 10 recitals -- actually 20, if you count repeat performances. She will play them at LeBaron Recital Hall in Montevallo and the Alabama Piano Gallery in Hoover.
"It had been mulling around in the dark recesses of my mind," said MacCrae, a Huffman native who studied at Alabama School of Fine Arts, Indian Springs School, University of Alabama and Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y. "Would anything ever come of it? I didn't know. It kept popping back up. In the last decade or so, I've grown to love the sonatas more and more. They just called to me."
The Beethoven cycle has been completed in many ways. Fine recordings are available from the likes of Murray Perahia, Wilhelm Kempff, Richard Goode, Artur Schnabel and Vladimir Ashkenazy; Arthur Brendel, Daniel Barenboim, Seymour Lipkin, Claudio Arrau and Emil Gilels. But performing them all live adds a new dimension for performers and listeners alike. Cycles range from multi-year stints to a single day.
Canadian pianist Stewart Goodyear recently performed them all in three installments on a single day -- June 22 -- in Philadelphia. It was his third time to do so following sessions in Ottawa and Toronto. Richard Goode's two-week, seven-recital cycle in 1987 in Kansas City was an exhausting and memorable extravaganza. In 1994, Birmingham-Southern College's William DeVan completed them in a two-year cycle.
'HAMMERKLAVIER' AT THE SUMMIT
For the Beethoven cycle, MacCrae is planning the 10 programs over a five-month period.
"I toyed with the idea of doing eight recitals, but I thought shorter programs would work better," she said. "After awhile, the brain can't absorb as well. I also wanted to go easier on the audience, as well as myself, to keep the audience coming back for future performances. If they are exhausted by the end of a recital, they may not look forward as much to the next one."
Although MacCrae is still unsure whether to include intermissions, but each recital is expected to last about an hour and have between two and four sonatas.
The most intimidating part of the series?
"The Fugue of the 'Hammerklavier,'" she said without hesitation, referring to Sonata No. 29 in B flat, Op. 106. "I tell you, if I could trade any four sonatas for the 'Hammerklavier,' I would."
At 45 minutes, the length of the "Hammerklavier" is unprecedented for Beethoven's time, and from the outset it projects the composer's inner struggles and psyche. "The third movement is almost like you're looking too deeply into someone's subconscious," she said. "To sustain the attention, plus the listener's attention, for that length of time, is an awesome task."
In planning the order, MacCrae was more concerned with key relationships than chronology. The first recital, for example, includes the keys of E major, F sharp major, C sharp minor ("Moonlight") and A major, all keys with sharps in the key signature.
The final three recitals will include Beethoven's last three sonatas -- Opus 109, 110 and 111, but the final recital will also include, appropriately, Sonata No. 26 in E flat major, Op. 81a -- "Les Adieux" (Farewell).
"I really admire someone who does Op. 109, 110 and 111 in one recital, but you need contrast of styles and moods, too," she said.
Although the performances will not be memorized, MacCrae will be turning to a high-tech device for assistance. In place of a printed score, pages have been loaded onto an iPad that will be placed on the music rack. Page turns will be controlled remotely by foot pedals -- right pedal for forward, left for reverse.
"I had seen Christopher O'Riley use a computer monitor, so I knew there was something out there," she said. "I read that Jeremy Denk uses this and has had a lot of success with it."
TWO PIANOS, TWO CITIES
Every recital will be performed on a nine-foot Steinway, but each was built in a different city. A Hamburg Steinway has resided at UM since 1983. MacCrae, who has been on the UM faculty for 20 years, is intimately familiar with its moods and peculiarities.
"It has had good years and less wonderful years as the hammers get to a certain usage point," she said. "It's probably at 75 percent of its prime now -- it sounds really good. There have been times when it is jaw-droppingly good. It's the best piano I have ever touched."
At the Piano Gallery, a Steinway dealer, the newer New York-built Steinway has received fine treatment, she said.
"It is in really good shape," said MacCrae. "It's a lovely instrument and it's being maintained very well. It gives me everything I need to work with. For every recital I do, I have to get used to the piano. I'm accustomed to playing on a lot of different instruments."
"This music has the ability to feed the soul and speak to the spirit."
Technical issues, instruments, iPads and stamina aside, taking on the project means tapping into the soul of a genius who died nearly two centuries ago.
"He was such a brilliant mind and composed such a wealth of material," she said. "This music has the ability to feed the soul and speak to the spirit. The sublime is always referred to when you're talking about Beethoven."
To illustrate the technical versus creative aspects of the project, she recalled a story from her childhood about two bricklayers.
"If you ask one of them, 'What are you doing?' he says 'laying bricks.' If you ask the other one the same question, he says, 'I'm building a cathedral.'"
THE 32 PIANOS SONATAS OF BEETHOVEN Cynthia MacCrae, pianistMonday nights at the University of Montevallo, LeBaron Recital HallTuesday nights at Alabama Piano Gallery, 1425 Montgomery Hwy., HooverAll performances start at 7:30 p.m. Admission: Free.
1. Monday, Aug. 26; Tuesday, Aug. 27
Opus 14, no. 1 (1799), Piano Sonata No. 9 in E majorOpus 78 (1809), Piano Sonata No. 24 in F sharp majorOpus 27, no. 2 (1801), Piano Sonata No. 14 in C sharp minor "Moonlight"Opus 2, no. 2 (1796), Piano Sonata No. 2 in A major
2. Monday, Sept. 9; Tuesday, Sept. 10
Opus 27, no. 1 (1801), Piano Sonata No. 13 in E flat majorOpus 10, no. 1 (1798), Piano Sonata No. 5 in C minorOpus 53 (1803), Piano Sonata No. 21 in C major "Waldstein"
3. Monday, Sept. 23; Tuesday, Sept. 24
Opus 90 (1814), Piano Sonata No. 27 in E minorOpus 10, no. 3 (1798), Piano Sonata No. 7 in D majorOpus 109 (1822), Piano Sonata No. 30 in E major
4. Monday, Oct. 7; Tuesday, Oct. 8
Opus 7 (1797), Piano Sonata No. 4 in E flat majorOpus 2, no. 1 (1796), Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minorOpus 26 (1801), Piano Sonata No. 12 in A flat major
5. Monday, Oct. 21; Tuesday, Oct. 22
Opus 31, no. 1 (1802), Piano Sonata No. 16 in G majorOpus 49, no. 1 (1792), Piano Sonata No. 19 in G minorOpus 79 (1809), Piano Sonata No. 25 in G majorOpus 28 (1801), Piano Sonata No. 15 in D major
6. Monday, Nov. 4; Tuesday, Nov. 5
Opus 31, no. 3 (1802), Piano Sonata No. 18 in E flat majorOpus 22 (1800), Piano Sonata No. 11 in B flat majorOpus 57 (1805), Piano Sonata No. 23 in F minor "Appassionata"
7. Monday, Nov. 18; Tuesday, Nov. 19
Opus 10, no. 2 (1798), Piano Sonata No. 6 in F majorOpus 31, no. 2 (1802), Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor "Tempest"Opus 101 (1816), Piano Sonata No. 28 in A major 8. Monday, Dec. 2; Tuesday, Dec. 3
Opus 2, no. 3 (1796), Piano Sonata No. 3 in C majorOpus 13 (1799), Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor "Pathetique"Opus 110 (1822), Piano Sonata No. 31 in A flat major 9. Tuesday, Jan. 7 (Hoover)*; Monday, Jan. 13 (Montevallo)*
Opus 54 (1804), Piano Sonata No. 22 in F majorOpus 106 (1818), Piano Sonata No. 29 in B flat major "Hammerklavier"
10. Monday, Jan. 27; Tuesday, Jan. 28
Opus 49, no. 2 (1792), Piano Sonata No. 20 in G majorOpus 81a (1809), Piano Sonata No. 26 in E flat major "Les Adieux"Opus 14, no. 2 (1799), Piano Sonata No. 10 in G majorOpus 111 (1822), Piano Sonata No. 32 in C minor *Note reversal in venue order, this program only
A forum on Tuesday by Orchestrate Excellence looked for ideas to solve the ongoing Minnesota Orchestra lockout and labor dispute.
We know what the management wants, and we know what musicians want. But what do fans and patrons of the Minnesota Orchestra want?
More than 400 people gathered Tuesday in Minneapolis to voice their ideas about how to move forward a stalemate that has silenced the orchestra for nearly a year.
Orchestrate Excellence, a community coalition, organized the forum at Westminster Presbyterian Church — which coincidentally sits across the street from an Orchestra Hall that appears nearly complete after a yearlong renovation. After a keynote speech from Alan Fletcher, CEO and president of the Aspen Music Festival and School, citizens broke into groups to brainstorm ideas to ensure the orchestra’s future.
“Is it possible to find a way for the Minnesota Orchestra to be artistically excellent and financially secure?” asked Paul DeCosse, a donor and fan of the orchestra and a co-founder of Orchestrate Excellence.
Some people said they would pay more for tickets, or that initiatives should be started to distribute tickets to underserved groups; others argued for musicians on the board of directors or at least a broader community representation; getting government officials involved was a popular idea and one group suggested tapping the expertise of people in the Obama campaign who developed grass roots fundraising.
Lee Henderson, a Minneapolis attorney, asked if Orchestrate Excellence could be a new voice at the bargaining table.
In his comments, Fletcher had comfort and cudgel for both sides. He said the 11-month lockout of musicians should end “unconditionally.” That drew applause from a crowd that was generally partisan toward musicians. However, Fletcher also said he believes the orchestra’s financial problems are real and that the management had done nothing underhanded in using endowment funds to balance budgets. The orchestra, Fletcher said, has a structural deficit that needs to be addressed.
He also said the decision to remodel the hall, at a cost of $52 million, may be a good idea and that fundraising for that venture is “clearly different from raising money for annual funds or endowments. It is not a contrivance.”
Aspen does not have a collective bargaining agreement with its musicians. However, Fletcher has had experience with deficits and turmoil. He said the organization agreed on a solution that would chip away at deficits over several years, while trying to increase fundraising. He cautioned against a one-size-fits-all solution. Financial problems at U.S. orchestras are “as unlike as they are like,” he said. “What works in one place does not necessarily work in another.”
DeCosse said the group will produce a report with the ideas that were gathered Tuesday night and make them public within 10 to 15 days.
"First movement (chorus) from cantata BWV 191 "Gloria In Excelsis Deo" (Glory be to God on High), performed by the J. S. Bach Foundation of St Gallen under Rudolf Lutz. Further information on the Bach Foundation at www.bachstiftung.ch. The DVD with the complete cantata, introductory workshop and reflection lecture (in German) is available at: http://www.bachstiftung.ch/en/shop/it.."
This country band is from County Wexford, Ireland. They sound pretty good considering they were "founded" on September 26, 2012, according to their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DavittCountry/info You all can check out their web site here: http://www.davittcountryband.com/ But, I think that if you want to order their CD, you would probably have to send an email to their management here: info@cajunpromotions.com because I don't see an order form on their facebook page or website. However, they are worth the effort of emailing their management in order to purchase a copy of their CD, provided that their CD is on the market at this time.
Charles Dharapak/Associated Press Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Supreme Court last month.
By JESSE WEGMAN
Published: August 17, 2013
The bellowing voice tumbled down from the upper level of the theater, from an older gentleman of considerable girth, slight beard and apparently less-than-optimal hearing. “Madam Justice!” he declared in a High Dickensian boom. “Raise your head to the balcony please!” Ruth Bader Ginsburg, so addressed, stopped speaking for a moment and peered up toward the rafters. The Supreme Court justice, whose audience usually sits below her, had come to the Glimmerglass opera festival, in Cooperstown, N.Y., to give a talk on the two passions of her life — opera and the law. It was a rainy Friday afternoon, and the 900-seat house was packed with fans of both the material and the speaker. Justice Ginsburg, 80, and remarkably small-boned, perched on a high chair at the front of the stage, a grand piano to her right. She had been answering a young woman’s question about becoming a lawyer when the man called out from above.
Before she could reply, he bellowed again. “Did you hear me?”
The theater fell into an awkward silence. “Yes, I think I heard you,” she responded with the calm of a woman accustomed to being interrupted by declarative men. “You can’t hear me?” The exchange could stand for much of Justice Ginsburg’s career on the court she joined 20 years ago this month — and particularly for her complicated relationship with Justice Antonin Scalia, fellow opera buff and frequent ideological antipode. Where Justice Scalia so often plays the bilious baritone, Justice Ginsburg, who imagines herself a lyric soprano, sings more sweetly, although with no less moral clarity. In her lengthy dissent from the court’s ruling in June striking down a key part of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, she wrote that throwing out part of the law “when it has worked and is continuing to work to stop discriminatory changes is like throwing away your umbrella in a rainstorm because you are not getting wet.” (There is even a new opera, “Scalia/Ginsburg,” that dramatizes the pair’s battles over constitutional interpretation.) Among the music Justice Ginsburg discussed at Glimmerglass was “I Accept Their Verdict,” an aria from “Billy Budd,” the 1951 Benjamin Britten opera based on Herman Melville’s novella. Budd, a sailor, is sentenced to death after striking and killing an officer on his ship who had falsely accused him of organizing a mutiny. The aria is sung by Captain Vere, who knows he must uphold the sentence as lawful despite his belief that Budd was in the right:
... I who am king of this fragment of earth,
Of this floating monarchy, have exacted death.
But I have seen the Divine Judgment of Heaven,
I’ve seen iniquity overthrown. ...
Before what tribunal do I stand if I destroy goodness? Justice Ginsburg noted that Melville based the character of Vere on his father-in-law, a Massachusetts judge who had ordered that an escaped slave be returned to his owner. The judge, Ginsburg said, opposed slavery but was obliged by his oath to uphold the law in spite of his personal beliefs. It was difficult to listen to her speak of Captain Vere’s decision haunting him throughout his life — of the “conflict between law and justice,” as she put it — without taking it as a comment on her own job. A Supreme Court justice may, after all, decide that a law cannot be carried out justly, regardless of how it has been viewed under the Constitution. Justice Harry Blackmun struggled for years before coming to that conclusion about the death penalty. Perhaps it is no surprise that Justice Ginsburg is drawn to an art form so often preoccupied with questions of crime and punishment, of vengeance and mercy. Near the end of the afternoon, a member of the audience asked whether the Supreme Court was either art or theater. “It’s both,” she responded, “with a healthy dose of real life mixed in.” Justice Ginsburg remains on the bench after two bouts with cancer, the death of her husband and increasingly frequent questions about whether she will resign while a Democratic president can still appoint her successor. One suspects she would serve another 20 years if she could.
** For the repose of the soul of her husband: Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let Perpetual Light Shine upon him. May his soul, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, rest in peace. Amen.
