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Philip Glass and the Pacific Symphony review 031211, (the inside baseball version)

my review of last saturday’s symphony concert of some lesser known music of philip glass is now online at sequenza 21. i’m still getting used to writing these and overall it was an interesting concert even though i didn’t think it featured much of his A list material.

this was also my 2nd review for the blog and i should point out that so far i’m realizing that i’m not that interested in talking about the technical aspects of the performance. as a performer i understand the frustration of not getting any feedback of the show (and my apologies in advance to the pacific symphony and pacific chorus who put on a great show) but unless it was life changing great or consistently inconsistent (or worse) i’m finding i’m mostly interested in writing about the music and how it is being presented.
on the other hand for those who like to keep score i will dish a little on the performance. i did think orchestra was refreshingly well prepared for a new music concert (unlike the hollywood bowl orchestra’s half-hearted attempt at koyyanisquatsi a few summers ago) and my only specific gripes were that the violins were a bit wobbly play ravi shankar’s melody in passages (props to the basses and cellos for being rock solid the whole night), and the tambourine and stick choices by the percussion didn’t really help the orchestra line things up during complex. in the big scheme of things my gripes are pretty much inside baseball and the types of inconsistencies that are pretty common with a mid-level orchestra that is programming a variety of ambitious new music outside the more traditional musical canon. also worth mentioning was that i really liked the acoustics in the hall, but from where i was sitting (third row down front) i might not have been getting the full effect of the pacific chorale. they sounded great but i was having a hard time deciding whether they were singing at a mezzo level the whole evening or it was just because i was too far down front.

Click here to read the whole review “Full Passages and Empty Passions”

i also should also point out that for those who comment without with their email address, it’s just not worth my time to respond. if you don’t want to post that publicly you can always email me privately at paulatpaulbaileydotus

final.final note!
i have been working on an interview with chris rountree of the la based chamber ensemble wild UP and they are playing a concert this saturday night at the bootleg theatre in hollywood. chris and his collaborators andrew tholl and andrew mcintosh have a very interesting take on programming; “all music is valid” and will be performing wide range of music featuring art jarvinen’s egyptian two-step, tom johnson’s naryana’s cows and ravel’s gypsy masterpiece tzigane.
also performing during are a variety of other groups; the seasons, david shane smith, and the entropy ensemble.

concert link and info
Advance tickets are available online for $15 at http://www.ticketfly.com/event/32469/.

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 18th, 2011 at 11:33 am. It is filed under blog and tagged with pacific chorale, pacific symphony, passages, passion of ramakrishna, philip glass, sax concerto, sequenza 21, wichita vortex sutra, wildup. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.