Time flies - Civic Orchestra of Victoria concert on 12 November
Hi everyone,
Here I am, writing my newsletter much closer to the concert date than I would otherwise, due to the fact that I have been quite busy with all kinds of things that aren't, well, writing a concert newsletter.
I'm playing in a Sunday matinee, this coming Sunday, 12 November, with the Civic Orchestra of Victoria. We have a guest conductor, Mike Klazek, who I also played with in July for an outdoor concert. He has chosen three excellent pieces, each of which has ties to Vienna:
Franz von Suppé — Pique Dame (Queen of Spades) Overture
This is the overture to an operetta based on a Pushkin story; it's a comic opera, so of course it involves a love triangle, or perhaps a square, or some other love geometric figure. It's a fun romp - apparently it used to get a lot of play as accompaniment to silent films, back in the day.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Clarinet Concerto, K.622
Soloist: Mary Backun
It's probably Mozart's most famous clarinet concerto, and also one of the last things he ever wrote. If you're wondering what that number after the name means, it's referring to the Köchel catalog; that catalog is in numerical order, starting from one, and it goes up to something like number 624. This is astounding when you think about the fact that Mozart only lived until the age of 35. What would we be able to listen to if he hadn't died so young? How much more could he have written, and what would it have been like? We'd have gotten a whole lot more butt jokes, for starters.
Well, anyway. We're lucky to have this, and with a fantastic soloist, to boot.
Johannes Brahms — Symphony No. 2, op.73
When we first started rehearsing this, I knew it better than I had expected to know it, and I realized after a while that I knew it because I played it with LUCO only a few years ago. But that was pre-pandemic, so it was also a billion years ago. I really love this symphony though, so I'm so happy to be playing it again. The fourth movement is my favorite, because it feels like a sustained expression of barely-contained exuberance. It's my favorite by just a hair, though, so you'll have to tell me which one your favorite is, if you come.
The concert is at 2pm, at the Dave Dunnet Theatre in Oak Bay. Get your tickets here, and come say hi if you attend!
As always, thanks for listening.
Melinda
Here I am, writing my newsletter much closer to the concert date than I would otherwise, due to the fact that I have been quite busy with all kinds of things that aren't, well, writing a concert newsletter.
I'm playing in a Sunday matinee, this coming Sunday, 12 November, with the Civic Orchestra of Victoria. We have a guest conductor, Mike Klazek, who I also played with in July for an outdoor concert. He has chosen three excellent pieces, each of which has ties to Vienna:
Franz von Suppé — Pique Dame (Queen of Spades) Overture
This is the overture to an operetta based on a Pushkin story; it's a comic opera, so of course it involves a love triangle, or perhaps a square, or some other love geometric figure. It's a fun romp - apparently it used to get a lot of play as accompaniment to silent films, back in the day.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart — Clarinet Concerto, K.622
Soloist: Mary Backun
It's probably Mozart's most famous clarinet concerto, and also one of the last things he ever wrote. If you're wondering what that number after the name means, it's referring to the Köchel catalog; that catalog is in numerical order, starting from one, and it goes up to something like number 624. This is astounding when you think about the fact that Mozart only lived until the age of 35. What would we be able to listen to if he hadn't died so young? How much more could he have written, and what would it have been like? We'd have gotten a whole lot more butt jokes, for starters.
Well, anyway. We're lucky to have this, and with a fantastic soloist, to boot.
Johannes Brahms — Symphony No. 2, op.73
When we first started rehearsing this, I knew it better than I had expected to know it, and I realized after a while that I knew it because I played it with LUCO only a few years ago. But that was pre-pandemic, so it was also a billion years ago. I really love this symphony though, so I'm so happy to be playing it again. The fourth movement is my favorite, because it feels like a sustained expression of barely-contained exuberance. It's my favorite by just a hair, though, so you'll have to tell me which one your favorite is, if you come.
The concert is at 2pm, at the Dave Dunnet Theatre in Oak Bay. Get your tickets here, and come say hi if you attend!
As always, thanks for listening.
Melinda
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