CGF Newsletter 22: Concert Spelunking
A doctor in the building; new encounters with old music; real apps for classical-loving teens
Name That Tune
This week’s Name That Tune is a Maestro Will special. Your hint is that this is a tone poem that I remember hearing mentioned quite a bit when I was a kid, but it’s fallen totally out of fashion in recent decades. I’ll be interested to know if any others had the same experience.
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
CGF Newsletter 21
Saint-Saëns, Quartet No. 2 in G Major Op. 153, mvmt. 3
Listener Kevin may be a prolific NTT guesser, but his submission didn’t inspire anyone (other than me) to guess. 🙁 So sad, Kevin!!
My guesses were, in the end, pretty bad (Haydn and Schubert) but in my defense, Saint-Saëns is generally a quite conservative composer; I should have used that knowledge to my advantage.
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.
Good Read
“The violin doctor,” Chicago Magazine
My friend Elly wrote this fantastic article about John Becker, violin doctor to the violin stars (including folks like Josh Bell and James Ehnes.) All sorts of fascinating insights abound, but this caught my eye in particular:
Becker also plans to replace the violin’s sound post, which he had noticed was slightly loose. Carved from aged spruce, it’s an unassuming yet critical piece. When its tension isn’t precisely right, the instrument will not resonate properly. A well-fitted sound post is essential to revealing the full richness of the violin’s timbre.
The new sound post will be a tenth of a millimeter taller than the current one.
Discoveries
Seattle doesn’t have much international (or even national) cred as a classical music mecca, and indeed, when I moved here in 2018, I thought it would be just another city as far as concert life was concerned. The reality has blown me away. There is so much classical music activity here, I can hardly believe it, and I certainly can’t keep up. I wish it was a fact more widely known; I do my little part to try to get the word out.
All that’s to say, last weekend, I attended four performances, and that’s an average weekend for me. (I also participated in one rehearsal and three church services.) Rather than give a series of concert reports, I’d like to highlight all the new-to-me pieces that I was introduced to in just three days’ time:
Chopin, Piano Trio. Did I have any idea that Chopin had composed a piano trio? I did not. He was only 18 when he wrote it, and it’s a bit of a masterpiece. I never would have guessed it was Chopin, at least not until the beginning of the last movement. I heard it performed excellently at the opening night of the Seattle Chamber Music Society
Haydn, Philemon und Baucis. Hardcore classical-knowers know that Haydn wrote operas and that they are very good, but that he knew his operas weren’t as good as Mozart’s, so he sort of gave up on them and pursued string quartets and symphonies where he felt he was every bit Mozart’s equal (if not his better.) This opera was originally written for a marionette theater, and the music was lost until 1950. I saw it performed by students at a University of Washington opera workshop production. The original score was a bit of a mish-mash, and the music team for this production mished and mashed even more, interpolating additional Haydn scherzi for scene change and action music.
Martinů, Symphony No. 6. What strikes me about Martinů’s music is that there’s nothing especially peculiar about it, and yet, it remains elusive somehow. I find that an intoxicating mixture, and I always leave performances of his work hungry to go deeper into his oeuvre. The symphony was performed quite excellently by the Seattle Symphony (who, apparently, have performed it at least twice before in recent memory!? This piece must be more settled in the repertoire than I thought.)
Chávez, Sinfonía India. OK, this piece was not actually new to me, but I heard new things in it in an excellent performance by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber Orchestra. Seriously, this was the best performance I have ever heard of this piece, either in person or on recording. I hope they took a good video of it and will post it online. In the past I’ve been a bit wishy-washy on this piece, but now I’m all in.
Joey’s Behind the Curtain: getacceptd.com
It’s application season for me and thousands of other young musicians around the continent, as summer festivals and competitions tend to bunch their application deadlines around February. What this means for our collective browser history is the predominance of one website: www.getacceptd.com.
Acceptd is an application platform used by, in their words, “hundreds of arts organizations around the world.” (Can confirm!) Many festivals, competitions, fellowships, and other programs work in this way. First, applicants submit pre-screening materials, which typically include a résumé, biography, audio/video recordings, and sometimes a letter of recommendation and/or essays to write. A jury goes through these and chooses a certain number to accept to a program/competition. Occasionally, there is then a live round of audition.
Acceptd comes in during the pre-screening, serving as an online platform that putatively makes it easy for applicants and institutions alike to consolidate materials. I don’t really have anything against Acceptd (and other websites like it), but its seafoam green theme probably triggers hundreds of 20-somethings every day as they gather their video recordings and upload their slightly edited CV’s to send to (often unidentified, always mysteriously working) jurors who say ‘no’ more than they say ‘yes.’ It’s a numbers game!
Classical Mixtape
Bach, Magnificat: “Esurientes”
I’ll be conducting the Bach Magnificat this weekend, and oh what a joy this piece is. It’s the smallest of the “Big four” Bach choral masterpieces, and every movement is a little gem. When people think of the Magnificat, I think they generally imagine the festive trumpets of the opening and closing movements or the rhythmic drama of the choral bits, but my favorite is this absolutely adorable little solo for alto accompanied by two flutes and continuo. If this music doesn’t put a smile on your face, nothing will.
NTT: Only because of the music-box-ness of the first bit, I'll put in Lyadov. Because of the Carl Stalling-esque shifts, I'll also put in John Alden Carpenter (only know his Krazy Kat, but this made me think of it). The hint does not help me know if I am anywhere close...
Herbert or Grofé? Have knocked out Bax, Chadwick, and Zemlinsky!