From the webstie- alfredschnittke.com
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First, for all my friends who had thought about coming here as participants, I can only say that you should definitely come next year if you can. Spectacular views, fantastic food, a friendly and laid-back atmosphere and luxurious facilities- what more could you ask for.
We had our first concert last night- piano trios by Malcom Arnold and Jukka Linkola and the great Mozart Piano Quartet in E-flat, a masterpiece I was playing for the first time (actually, all of the pieces were new to me). Neither the Arnold nor the Linkola are “great’ works, but they are good fun- attractive, exciting and effective. I actually think it was very good programming on Aldo’s part, because it made for a nice, short concert and really put the Mozart front and center, where it belongs.
I’ve coached a lot of repertoire with a lot of new friends- the Brahms C minor Piano Quartet, a Devienne Trio Sonata, the Brahms Clarinet Trio (with two different groups), the Prokofiev Overture on Hebrew Themes and the Shostakovich Piano Quintet, among others. I was actually a little concerned that there were too many groups playing too much repertoire for the number of participants, but, although we will definitely scale it back next year, it seems to have worked out fine. The participants are all so passionate about music that there seems to be no end to their hunger for playing and discovery.
Speaking of discovery- I think the most memorable moment of the week so far for me was coaching the Intermezzo from the Shostakovich Piano Quintet with a group of musicians who were getting to know the piece for the first time. I can still remember playing that movement with tears streaming down my face at the Clock Tower festival two years ago, so I wasn’t too surprised at the reaction of the players to playing it for the first time. One of the violinists later said that the piece “was like a revelation. I couldn’t breathe or really see for a couple of hours afterward….” That’s how music should affect people.
It’s also been fun to discover some new colleagues like Aldo, David and Peppe (our pianist/director, violist and clarinetist respectively). They’re all great musicians, as is my old friend Byron, who I’m thoroughly enjoying playing with again after a break of over a decade. We haven’t had a lot of time for chitchat, but somewhere in the “so what are you doing the rest of the summer” conversation, one of them told me of the most unusual recital I have heard about in a long time…. He’s doing a very heavy duo program (Messiaen, Mozart and Brahms) at a nudist colony in Idaho. Yes, the audience will be naked! Clothing is very much optional for performers as well. I’ve never turned down a recital gig I could do, but……
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From the webstie- alfredschnittke.com
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Most gigs are great, because I can just slap on some black clothing, and be done with it, with little to no thought required. But something challenging like ‘whatever you want’ is more pressure filled, and relies on the assumption that I have a closet full of interesting clothing choices. In fact, I have a closet full of black clothing choices. Eventually I settled on black pants and a dressy blouse, but it took about 17 changes of clothing, and a call to a colleague who was playing the same gig.
I long ago gave up ever organizing wearwotchulike gigs, instead going for “smart casual.” The guidelines for a KW “smart casual” gig are simple- no prints, stripes or patterns, no jeans or sneakers and no garments with writing of any kind.
Of course, at every single such gig, I’ve had at least two players wearing sneakers, jeans and a striped t-shirt with the words “Nike Fans 4 Bush” accross the front. Perhaps I should call it “wearwotidonlike” instead….
]]>Today’s plotline is only mildly suspenseful at least so far. I arrived last night after a very long journey. I gripe often in these pages about airlines poor treatment of instrumentalists, but EasyJet, to my compete surprise, were completely professional and polite in dealing with me and my cello yesterday. Unfortunately, we were delayed about 45 minutes on departure from Stanstead, which meant that once I arrived in Naples I had about 40 minutes to get through customs, pick up my bag, grab a cab, cross Naples, buy a ticket and board the last ferry to Ishcia.
My bag seemed take ages to arrive, and then my heart sank when I walked out of the airport and saw a huge line for taxis. Thankfully, the line moved quickly- I was probably 70th in line, but within 10 minutes I was in a cab, which left me with about 18 minutes to catch the ferry. “Molo Beverello!” I cried to the cabby. “Presto, Presto!” When I told him how much time we had, stepped on it, and we rocked through Naples and eye-watering speed to the port.
My host had told me to negotiate a cab fare of 16 euros, but I’d completely forgotten to do so in my panic, so it was 35, at which point I also realized I’d only taken out 45 euros at Stanstead because I was getting a cash per-diem here. With 2 minutes to spare I sprinted (there are few sights more undignified than that of a grown man “sprinting” with a cello and a suitcase) up to the ticket booth, only to see a hand-written sign “sorry, no credit cards today.”
With only 10 euros left, I assumed I was, as they say, screwed. I asked if there was a cash machine, and he just laughed at me. “How much one-way?” I asked in broken Italian.
”9,84.” My heart exploded in joy, I was going to make it to Ishcia with 14 cents in my pocket.
Today started quietly- I met some of my colleagues and had a very tasty lunch, but then there were worrying rumblings of ill-tidings. Byron, our first violinist, is trapped in Paris by a transit strike. I’ve been a union member most of my life, but sometimes you can’t help saying “fucking unions!” especially when Brahms and Schnittke are at stake. As the day went on the news became worse and worse- from a delay of a few hours, it could now be a day to four days.
We read the Brahms and Schnittke without him. The Brahms is so empty without the first violin, it wasn’t very satisfying, but the Schnittke rehearsal was actually quite useful.
I had suggested the Schnittke because I remembered enjoying playing the 2nd movement, but I hadn’t listened to it since that performance. As I’ve been studying and practicing the whole piece this week I’ve decided it is a great, great, great piece. It seems like Schnittke has fallen out of the repertoire in the last few years since his death. I remember hearing Gidon Kremer and the Kremeratic Baltica play the Concerto Grosso the night Schnittke died- at that moment it felt like the whole world knew the greatest composer in the world had died. As I was working on the score yesterday, it hit me that I haven’t heard a performance of any Schnittke in a couple of years.
The String Trio was written to celebrate the 100th birthday of Alban Berg. Schnittke’s penchant for integrating styles from different historical epochs is perfectly appropriate for a memorial to Berg, and this trio’s mixture of baroque dances with intense dissonance is both effective and an appropriate memorial to another great composer. I’d say it is a great score for young composers to study- his string writing, apart from one annoyingly impossible doublestop, is both idiomatic and distinctive, and he really achieves a parlando vocabulary of articulations.
I just hope we get to hear it with Byron soon!
By the way, the food is impossibly good.
]]>Villa Arbusto, Lacco Ameno - May 11, 13, 16, 2008 - 9 pm
May 11, 2008 - 9 pm
M. Arnold - Piano Trio, op. 54
A. Schnittke - String Trio
Y. Linkola - Piano Trio
W.A. Mozart - Kegelstatt Trio
Byron Wallis, violin
David Yang, viola
Kenneth Woods, cello
Giuseppe Carannante, clarinet
Aldo de Vero, piano
May 13, 2008 - 9 pm
W.A. Mozart - Piano Quartet in E flat K. 493
J. Brahms - Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115
Byron Wallis, violin
Robert Ellis, violin
David Yang, viola
Kenneth Woods, cello
Giuseppe Carannante, clarinet
Aldo de Vero, piano
May 16, 2008 - 9 pm
Ischia Chamber Music Workshop
Participant’s Final Concert
Program to be decided
Tomorrow morning I set off for the beautiful island of Ischia in the Bay of Naples for my first visit to the Ischia Chamber Music Festival. I’m thrilled at the two programs we’re playing- I’ve always loved the Brahms Quintet, but funnily enough, it is the only major Brahms chamber work with cello I’ve never performed.
I’m a bit nervous about the Schnittke- I played the 2nd movement at another chamber festival four years ago and was heartbroken when the artistic director cut the first movement to shorten the concert. In the end, the Schnittke got the strongest audience response of anything we played that year, so I really pushed to do it here at Ischia. I hope the audience there enjoys and responds to the whole thing.
I’m looking forward to playing with Byron Wallis again, who is a dear old friend and colleague. We played together in the Strelow Quartet in Madison, then in the Taliesin Trio, which was a National Endowment for the Arts Rural Residency Grant ensemble. Between those two groups and several summer festivals, we’ve covered a lot of repertoire together. Amazingly, it has been over 10 years since we played together! Yikes!
Having just ended the OES season, it is good to be playing some cello. One of my resolutions as I approach one of “those” birthdays this summer is to play a lot more cello, especially chamber music, and next year looks exciting from a cello perspective. I’m playing the Brahms Double for the first time since 2001 and doing some exciting chamber music concerts on the East Coast in the fall and another recital.
KW
]]>First, Larry Fuchsberg in the Star Tribue writes-
Though Fleezanis has only lately taken up the Elgar concerto, she seems to have this music in her DNA. From her first perfectly gauged entrance, she managed to sound strong and vulnerable, declarative and reserved all at once; she danced Elgar’s dance of self-revelation and self-concealment with uncanny sensitivity. Her tone was almost corporeal, especially in the violin’s lower register; her ravishing pianissimos drew the listener toward her instrument.
You can read the entire review here. You may also be interested to read Larry’s comment on my last Fleezanis blog post here, which has some very interesting background on early recordings of the Elgar. I’m always excited to find someone who knows Elgar and the performance and recording history of his music well, especially if they’re in America (shameless upcoming performance plug- I’m conducting Elgar’s Symphony no. 1 with the Gulf Coast Symphony next fall on the 100th anniversary of the premiere).
David Hawley in the Pioneer Press writes-
The performance by Fleezanis is transporting. She produces a wonderfully thick, sizzling sound, especially in the lower register, where the majority of the singing in this concerto takes place. And yet there is a pleasing restraint to her reading, which is welcome. You don’t need to milk the emotion in this concerto; it’s there in abundance.
The highlight is the famous third-movement accompanied cadenza — and here Fleezanis managed to command pin-drop attention in Thursday’s first performance. Her playing was bold — almost assaultive at times — robust and heartfelt.
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Concert weekends with the OES have become awfully fun- it does feel like a festival these days. Musically, the schedule is intense to the point of being exhausting for everyone- even some of our most industrious revelers were so tired after the Friday rehearsal that they bailed on some of the merrymaking in exchange for sleep. I think this is a very good thing- if players are giving so much of themselves in a single rehearsal or run-through of a Strauss tone poem that they feel physically and emotionally drained, something grand is bound to be happening.
Part of the end of the season ritual is finalizing the planning for the coming season. We’ve had regime change in Pendleton. Michelle Kajikawa, who has been our executive director through two insanely eventful years, (including the birth of her first child, the fire in our offices, the drama surrounding the exploration of the Rivoli Theatre as a possible home, unprecedented media attention and two Mahler symphonies), is moving with her husband (and our principal bassoonist) to Bend, which I hear tell is a horrible place full of right-wing Californians. Michelle and Reid are dear friends and have been valuable colleagues- we’ll all miss them a lot.
Luckily, we have found a new executive director from within the organization, Christina van der Kamp, who has been running our youth programs with efficiency and passion for the last year or so. This concert was our first project together, and she did an amazing job of taking control of things mid-flight and guiding us to a successful conclusion of this year even while working with me in planning next year.
Planning is actually about my least favorite part of being a music director, because it is the moment you have to come to terms with the gaping difference between what an orchestra could be and what it will be, between what you can do and what you will do, between what you want to do and what there is the will to do. Don’t get me wrong- I know from experience that every concert any orchestra does is a miracle, and I think next year will be good fun, but only when you’ve gone through the budget and know dollar for dollar what you could have done with just another donation here or there can you really appreciate just how incredibly hard it is to build something of artistic merit in the absence of a sugar daddy. Eventually you try to find a compromise you can live with- you wish you could have one more rehearsal or a slightly more expensive soloist or three more string players for a program, but you say, okay, this is the best we can do right now, now I have to take it on my shoulders to make it as good as it possibly can be.
Ideally, I believe that the true measure of what an orchestra can be is the ability and commitment of its best and most committed members. An orchestra ought to be the orchestra that they deserve, and the conductor ought to be the conductor that they deserve. Such and orchestra led by such a conductor will never disappoint its public. By that measure, I know in my heart what I could and would do artistically to make the OES the best band it can be, but one never gets to have that discussion- instead, we use budgets to express our musical goals in measurable terms, a method that is sloppy and maddeningly unspecific. All too often, the budget measures our will to raise money and to invest resources, but it can’t measure our will to do what is right for the music- to make sacrifices and tough choices when needed.
The old cliché that the best way to avoid socially uncomfortable situations is to avoid conversations about religion and politics- I’ve certainly had awkward moments when I’ve discovered a dear friend has freakish notions about politics.
Another great way to create tension is to talk about money, including each other’s salaries. The OES budget process changes every year- this year, we had the best possible model, which is that Christina and I sat and hashed it out, looking together at the same numbers and presenting something to the board with a unified front. We’re still friends. Hopefully it is a document that measures in tangible ways our goals, objectives and needs for the year to come. It measures what we have to do to have the orchestra and the season that we realistically think we can have next year. What only I and Christina know is what we would have had to do to have the orchestra and the season we could have had.
How close could we have come to an orchestra worthy of its best and most commited musicians? Is there a sponsor out there I didn’t know about or a foundation we could have written to that could have made real those dreams? The only way to live with a compromise in the world of art is if you honestly believe you’ve done the best you can for the music with the resources available. Have we?
]]>You may say I have a superficial view of the world, but the world has always had a superficial view of me….
KW
]]>“I haven’t played that loud since the last time I played for you.”
It was meant as a compliment, I think. I certainly took it as one.
]]>The Star Tribune has this long and very good feature on Jorja with some unusally insightful remarks about the Elgar. The OES concert even gets a brief mention “I was flying in Oregon,” said Jorja.
That she was. I just got my hands on the CD of our concert- I’m happiest with the orchestra’s playing of the piece out of everything we’ve done here. We had a beautiful sound going that week, but most importantly, we were flawlessly with her through every twist and turn in that famously impossible accompaniment.
And we did fly- the entire performance came in at 46′51.” That’s over ten minutes faster than Kennedy’s recording, and, to the best of my knowledge, the fastest performance this side of Heifitz, who actually used some rather lousy cuts in the finale, for which I assume he is still burning in hell.
At our tempos the piece feels bigger because it hangs together in one huge, al-powerful arch, instead of being a serious a stagnant, strung-together single events.
]]>Oh yes, there is also music to learn….
I’ve already shared a few thoughts about Brahms 1 in expectation of this week’s Oregon East Symphony concert, but not much of anything about Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration, an not-insignificant piece that is also on the program….
In fact D&T is my favorite Strauss tone poem- solely on musical merit. Of course, I consider Alpine Symphony as a symphony, and Don Quioxte as a cello concerto for purposes of that list. Still, even if they were in contention, I think D&T might win out. I think that musically, it is the richest and most inspired of all the tone poems, and that it is also the most perfectly constructed. I can scarcely think of a piece of romantic music where the form more perfectly suits the meaning of the music.
Strauss’s famous dying joke(“dying is just like I composed it in Tod und Verklarung”), which I’ve quoted often this week, as well as his refusal to behave as a “serious artist” throughout his life has, I think, led some musicians to overlook the musical seriousness of the piece. Fair enough, it works beautifully as a thrill ride, but I do think the piece has a certain honest spirituality that is powerfully apparent when the piece is well performed.
In fact, as I get older, I tend to respect Strauss’s tendency to express his deepest emotions through his music and not through his letters or through an angst-ridden public persona. Strauss seemed keen to puncture the accumulated grandiosity of romantic music- think of the nihilistic ending to Don Juan or the inherent ironic posture of Ein Heldenleben, and in doing so, he liberates the style to express real feeling more directly. Ein Heldenleben, simply by virtue of the title and the subject matter, comes into existence as an affront to romantic decency, and yet, much as we resent the egotism of his choice of “the composer” as heroic figure, in the end, the piece is deeply moving- he dismantles the ironic pose and makes us believe in the viability of author as hero by the end.
While Ein Heldenleben, Don Juan, Sinfonia Domestica and Till Eulenspiegel are largely ironic in their outlook, a piece like Death and Transfiguration (as well as Don Quioxte, which is both his most comic and most serious and least ironic piece) shows Strauss the composer revealing himself in a more vulnerable way. Where the hero of Heldenleben conquers all in his path before accepting death more or less on his own terms, in D&T, the protagonist is described as someone who, have spent all his life striving, is someone who has always been met with “no.” It is only in surrender to death that he finds that which he sought.
In this sense, it is less a study in ironic triumphalism than in hope, an emotion that Strauss always treated with the utmost respect and delicacy.
In fact, you can look at the major tone poems as each connecting to one fundamental aspect of the human character- Heldenleben is a study in courage, Eulenspiegel in subversion through wit, Don Juan- nihilism, Also Sprach- will, and Quioxte in compassion. Strauss’s portrait of Quioxte as the demented Don is devastating in it’s realistic evocation of madness and dementia, and yet, for once, Strauss exchews all sense of superiority- Quioxte seems to have been the one protagonist Strauss truly loved and empathised with.
And then, in Tod und Verklarung, he abandons any pretense of superiority, writing of the protagonist “What he has sought all this time with his heart’s deepest longing, he still seeks while bathed in mortal sweat, seeks—but alas cannot find it.” In the end, Strauss recognizes the powerlessness of man– man cannot overcome all– and leaves us with hope:
“Then the last blow of death’s iron hammer rings out, breaks the earthly body in two and covers his eyes with the night of death.—But he hears mightily resounding from heaven that which he sought here longingly….”
c. 2008 Kenneth Woods
]]>My work with the preparatory orchestra is one of the things I most treasure about this job, but my travel schedule makes it difficult to find enough rehearsal time for us to put on the kinds of concerts we want to. The orchestra rehearses weekly throughout the school year under the leadership of my colleague Travis Sipher, who has always done a good job of preparing them for my time with them and maintained a productive and positive working environment all these years. Travis is leaving us the spring to move to Eugene after five years of outstanding service to the organization and the city. The youth orchestra typically begins and ends the year with weekend-long rehearsal retreats, which is fun on a social level for the players, and allows us to work together enough that my impact with them can be more than just on a surface level.
Sadly, this spring we got bumped at the 11th hour from the Bar M ranch, so we had to have most of our retreat in our usual rehearsal venue- less a retreat than an epic rehearsal slog. Much as we might have missed the mountain scenery, hot springs and fresh air, at least we still managed to get a lot done. I’ve written before of the fact that because of the small number of advanced students here, we’ve tended to do a lot of classical repertoire- lots of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, and the student’s amazing performance of Beethoven 8 in the fall convinced me that they had really begun to develop an surprisingly strong sense of classical style. As a result, I programmed our first all-Romantic and 20th c. concert for this spring, in spite of the fact that the group is really too small to do Borodin and Sibelius. The Chamber Orchestra of Europe may have claimed Sibelius for small orchestras, but I don’t think we’ll ever see pocket-sized Borodin recordings. Never mind- we’re here to teach and learn, not to be bullied by orchestration.
In the end, I think this year’s retreat was all about learning to play romantic music. At most levels, it is the kind of music you play most, and so one tends to think of the stylistic aspects- the singing and sustaining sound, the big dynamic range, the intensity- as a given. It was actually something new for me to take a group that plays Haydn and Beethoven really well, and not like kids, and have to teach them to play Sibelius, and not even really tough Sibelius at that. Fortunately, by the end of the day Sunday, the “long line” was in sight at last.
]]>My history with Northwest has not always been a happy one- I used to call them Northworst in honor of their frequent mysterious cancellations, perpetually missing bags, and often down-right mean cabin crews. However, over the last five years, their standards had improved incredibly. By and large, my flights had been taking off, I’d been landing with my baggage in the same city as me, and the in flight service had remained at more-or-less pre-9/11 standards, with a marked increase in courtesy and personal warmth, while that in the rest of the industry had sank to ever new lows.
So, it was with a groan of despair that I read that they are being gobbled up by Delta, the worst airline in the western world. I’ve written about Delta before- their treatment of musicians traveling with valuable and fragile instruments has long been so horrible that in 2006, the American Federation of Musicians called for a boycott.
Thomas F. Lee, American Federation of Musicians President wrote:
“…The AFM, over the past two years, has worked diligently and crafted proposals that create standards applicable to all airlines. This would ensure that musicians would only need to be familiar with one policy that applied to all airlines. And this policy could be reviewed by the airline industry and the AFM if modifications were needed.
Although the airlines have never expressly agreed to the terms of this policy, most have cooperated with musicians when there has been a need to stow expensive, fragile instruments. Regrettably that is not the case with all of the airlines.
I have received many complaints that Delta Airlines officials and representatives have consistently prevented musicians from carrying instruments on board. While I have no way of knowing whether every allegation is true, I have received enough complaints to convince me that Delta is either not properly instructing its personnel regarding this matter, or that it simply has no interest in the problems facing musicians. Not surprisingly, there have been many reports of instrument damage from Delta’s placement of instruments in the cargo area.
The Federation has spoken with Delta’s representatives, but without success. It appears that Delta has no concern about instrument damage. Ads a result the AFM, its members, and all musicians must take a different approach to this problem. We must publicize this unfair treatment.
I am asking all musicians and performing artists to boycott Delta. The AFM will continue to attempt to convince Delta to change their policies. In the meantime, we must use our economic power to demonstrate to Delta officials that their policies will not be tolerated and that we will count on the power of 100,000 members to spread the word that Delta is unfair to musicians…
…It is not our desire to damage relations with our brothers and sisters who work for Delta. However, then Delta officials ignore the problems that musicians encounter, we are left with no choice but to bring this to the public’s attention. Please do everything possible to assist your fellow musicians in this effort.”
Delta finally changed their outrageous practices about a year ago, and the union called for a lifting of the boycott-
“We’re extremely pleased that Delta has finally responded to the needs of our members and has instituted this policy,” AFM President Thomas Lee said. “Delta’s refusal to allow people to bring their very delicate and often very expensive and irreplaceable instruments on board instead of having to check them has been a tremendous hardship for AFM members and all musicians. We’re pleased that Delta recognized that these instruments are valuable possessions and should be treated that way, and we applaud their decision.”
Bravo to the AFM!
Now, I suppose I should be cheering Delta on for finally coming around, but as someone whose instrument was horribly mangled by an airline, I find it hard to just forget the treatment I had at the hands of Delta over the years. It wasn’t so much the fact that their instrument policies were unfair, but that they treated me with such contempt and hostility when enforcing them. I know everyone has travel horror stories, and listening to other people’s is like listening to people talk about their health problems at length, so you can move on to your next blog here if you like…
My last experience with them was in the summer of 2006. I boarded a flight at London’s Gatwick airport to fly to Cincinnati and on to Seattle for the Rose City International Conductors workshop. The plane pulled back from the gate then sat parked on the tarmac for 10 hours while they looked all over Europe for a spare part to fix a malfunctioning brake pad. It turns out that Delta does not believe in keeping spare parts on hand in their largest European hub, so they had to fly the part over from Atlanta. The next day, with me now in perilous danger of missing a chamber music concert that evening, we boarded a replacement aircraft bound for Atlanta (yes, in Delta’s world it is faster to send a replacement 777 from Atlanta than to find a brake caliper in London, and yet they say their financial troubles are not their fault), where we would be re-routed and pulled out, only to sit again for 6 hours without taking off. At this point, I was becoming apoplectic as the hours were slipping away and I was likely going to miss my gig, leading to the cancellation of the concert- a modest fundraiser for a local charity that a friend in Seattle had organized.
Anyway, I knew of the British Airways direct flight, which I could still catch, and told the flight crew who told the captain. He asked to have me taken off the plane and transferred to BA, but the Delta ground operations person over-rode him. I had never in all my life seen a pilot defied on anything, and he seemed stunned and furious, but the station manager we completely unapologetic and downright vicious. Long story short- I missed the gig, they cancelled the show, and I finally made it to Portland three days late, with no apology from Delta. At the end of it all, our cabin crew, who had been imprisoned with us for two days on the Gatwick tarmac, were wearing paper bags over their heads as they didn’t want to show their faces as Delta employees any more.
In fact the last insult really shows you the kind of company Delta has long been. Just before we finally left, a Delta rep came on board with compensation claim forms. You see, the EU has passed strict compensation rules, and the rep informed us we were all entitled to claim $800 compensation for our cancellations and delays, and that he hoped that would make up for some of the hard feelings. However, Delta’s corporate office simply refused to pay any of the claims for compensation that their own staff had told us we were entitled to, and the UK enforcement body said they couldn’t enforce the law because the costs were too high. On my way home, I had my last Delta row when a gate agent wouldn’t let me bring my bow on board because it was too long to fit in the size-wise box.
Anyway, my boycott is ongoing, and I really feel for the thousands of Northwest employees who’ve worked so hard to raise standards there the last five years. I fear thousands of them are going to lose their jobs.
Read more about Delta’s track record here and here. Here is the complete text of the AFM’s announcement lifting their boycott. Here’s some post 9/11 background from Janelle Gelfand, and her more recent piece on the subject from the time of the boycott. I must quote her on Delta’s pre-9/11 history with musicians-
This is nothing new. I first wrote about the situation for the Enquirer in June, 1997, when Delta stopped the entire Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra at the gate. After a “heated exchange” with symphony management, a few Strads and Guadagninis were allowed in the overhead. Many other local musicians have been stopped at the gate here, including CCM profs, prominent string quartets arriving to perform in Cincinnati and the entire Walnut Hills High School Orchestra.
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The concert is hosted by writer, critic and broadcaster Ivan Hewett and can be heard this Saturday, April 19th at 10:30 PM GMT on BBC Radio 3, or online at-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/index.shtml
If you are too busy to listen today, you can listen to the program anytime via the Radio 3 on-demand service for one week after the broadcast here-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/networks/radio3/aod.shtml?radio3/hearandnow
(The on-demand service usually becomes available several hours after the show)
The program includes works by Iannis Xenakis, Paul Mefano, Earle Brown and Gordon Downie. Complete broadcast information can be found here-
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/hearandnow/pip/wa051/
Program notes for the concert are here.
It was a very challenging and rewarding program, with amazing contributions from piano soloist Ian Pace and the musicians of CMEW. As part of the broadcast, Ivan Hewett will be interviewing both CMEW Artistic Director Gordon Downie and Paul Mefano, who flew over from France for the concert. The BBC website is also featuring my lengthy interview with Gordon Downie. Be sure to read it if you haven’t already.
Let me know how it sounds- I’m in rehearsals all day with the OES Preparatory Orchestra so won’t get to hear it until later this week.
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