CGF Newsletter 2: Orchestras on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

A regional opera company with a regional look; The royal family is musical!; Joey's depraved childhood watching trippy Italian cartoons

Name That Tune

This week’s Name That Tune was submitted by Listener Sam.

Joey’s hint of the week: The poetic collection from which the text of this song is taken was popular among contemporary composers. Francis Poulenc is among the many who set these poems. No Googling!

As always, your goal is to provide as much accurate analysis as possible. First try to get the nationality, year, and genre, then make educated guesses about the composer and — if possible— the piece. If you know the piece immediately, send us an email at classicalgabfest@gmail.com instead of commenting so the rest of us can have fun guessing. 

Last Week’s Results

Vivaldi, Concerto in C Major for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, and strings, RV 560

Well, this is kind of awkward, but I (Will) am in the position of having to congratulate myself on my absolutely stunning game play last week. Listener Jeremy submitted a concerto grosso for two oboes and two clarinets by Vivaldi, and I absolutely crushed it.

Now. I completely understand why you all might accuse me of foul play here, but you just have to believe me that I didn’t do any cheating of any kind. There’s so much less accountability than on the podcast, but we’re going to have to establish a trust relationship going forward. I’m just this smart.

Think you can stump your fellow Listeners? Go ahead and try!

Head to our Google Form to upload a 30-second clip of an unidentified piece of classical music for us to try to identify.

NEWS!

San Diego Opera reveals its rebrand

I’m a sucker for variety-within-unity in marketing so this is cool in my book. And I like the fact that Frank’s opera is given the same branding treatment as the two more standard pieces of repertoire — I appreciate this approach because it demonstrates that spotlighting new works does not have to detract, distract, or even be different from spotlighting warhorses. And I’m excited to see marketing for the warhorses that looks bright and contemporary, too.

Here’s the website of Raul Urias, the artist from Chihuahua, Mexico, who designed the posters.

I do have an artistic hesitation. I worry a little bit that the marketing and the artistic arms of the operation are not talking to each other. How likely is it that the productions themselves are actually visually inspired by Latin-American themes? (Not very, IMHO.) When a really culturally specific marketing effort is made that is not backed up in the product, then it feels a bit bait-and-switch-y. The marketing director, Esser, describes this marketing initiative as an effort to connect with San Diego’s “rapidly growing Hispanic population.” But does this work when the product itself takes a very different visual approach?

Regardless, I’d definitely want these hanging in my living room. I love the colors and the typography.

—Tiffany

Did you know...?

Did you know that Her Majesty, the recently departed Queen Elizabeth II, was awarded an honorary doctorate in Music from Bangor University in Wales? Admittedly, there may have been some light nepotism involved, seeing as the university’s chancellor was then His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh (aka her husband, Prince Phillip.)

Meanwhile, the new king, His Majesty Charles III, is a noted lover of classical music (he plays the cello!) and revived the tradition of appointing an official harpist to the principality of Wales, which languished after 1871. He also painted original watercolors for Sony’s 100-cd release of Bernstein recordings in 1992 (bad timing!)

—Will

Movie Club: Allegro non troppo

 You will recall from my hint to Listener Jeremy’s Name That Tune submission from last week (Vivaldi, Concerto in C Major for 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, and strings, RV 559), that it was one of two like-orchestrated concerti. Moreover, you’ll recall that I hinted that its partner was featured in a popular animated film about classical music. Many of you might have thought I was referring to Disney’s Fantasia (1940) - mwahaha - but I was actually talking about a Fantasia parody by Italian director Bruno Bozzetto. 

My family’s VHS tape(!) of Allegro non troppo (1976) was on repeat in my household from my ages 2-6, and I can probably thank it in large part for my love of classical music, and music in general. Since rewatching it as an adult, I am struck by its oddity, however. Between goofy but surreally hilarious animations set to the likes of Ravel, Dvořák, and —yes— Vivaldi, there are several live-action sequences with some semblance of an irreverent meta-plot about the making of this film, and with cheeky references to an American named Pisney?, Grisney?, who’s already done this. (There’s some comedic comparison to be made to recently-discussed The Conductor’s Week.) I’m not sure why my parents chose this instead of Fantasia for my classical indoctrination film de jeunesse, but here we are.

Even if you’re not amused by this plot, the music is good (Debussy’s Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, Ravel’s Boléro, Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite, and more), and the animations, sometimes tragic and always comic, are somehow sweet. Check it out in full, with English subtitles for those like me who don’t understand Italian, on YouTube.

—Joey

Are Orchestras At Their Breaking Point?

https://www.sfcv.org/articles/feature/are-orchestras-breaking-point 

I guess this article is worth reading to get a very broad view of *everything* that’s going on in the world of orchestras right now, but it strikes me as lacking a clear focus or thesis, though that’s clearly what it’s going for. Are orchestras at their breaking point? Well, certainly some are, and this feature is focused on the LA Phil, which is about to enter contract negotiations and has to play a lot of services. I’m sure people are tired and harried there. But “orchestras” as a general category? I think it would be tough to make such a broad categorization, but maybe I’m not sympathetic enough.

The other thing that struck me is the charge that orchestras are playing too much new music now, which is basically the reverse of the complaint one most often hears from the music journalism sphere. I don’t know how this particular author has come down on that debate in the past, but... ya can’t have it both ways!

—Will

Classical Mixtape

Charles-Valentin Alkan, Le festin d’Esope

This is just insane. A theme + 25 variations by one of the world’s greatest composers of virtuoso piano music, but somehow it avoids getting too dense / contrapuntal / pianistic for my taste. I’ve tried so many times in my life to get into the Diabelli Variations, and even though Beethoven is my favorite composer, I’ve never been able to.

This piece (Aesop’s feast), on the other hand, remains tuneful and FUN from start to finish. I think it would be a great piece to play for a group of little kids.

—Will