A brief update to tide you over

It's concert week and that means extra rehearsals in different places with more people. It also means that I, your faithful blogger, am busier than normal. In lieu of a thoughtful, lengthy post I'll instead update you on some things I mentioned last week.

Apparently when Dr. Macdonald received his gold medal on April 1st there were others at the ceremony also receiving medals. Who was he standing next to? Lance Armstrong, that's who. I think now it's safe to say that we definitely have a celebrity in our midst.

Last night was our third installment of cake (marble with buttercream again!). Our board president, Marilyn, told us not to get used to this kind of thing; I think once you've started down the primrose(ette) path of having cake at every rehearsal there's no turning back. Let's hope I'm right.

Look for a real post later this evening and check our Facebook page for action shots from tonight's dress rehearsal.

Gold Medals, Cake, and Berlioz

We are an orchestra that likes cake. Luckily we are also an orchestra that has had cake twice since the last concert and will have it once more before our next concert. The first time it was leftover cake from the post-concert reception celebrating our 150th anniversary (marble sheet cake with buttercream!). Tonight we had our second round (orange pound cake!) but it was to celebrate the accomplishments of one of our members.

If you look in the back of the viola section you'll find Dr. Hugh Macdonald contentedly playing whole notes and off beats.* During the day Dr. Macdonald is the Avis Blewett Professor of Music at Washington University in St. Louis. He's made his career studying the music of French composers of the 19th century like Massenet, Chabrier, Lalo, and Berlioz. He's the editor of the 26-volume (wow) New Berlioz Edition and is currently working on an online catalogue of Berlioz's works. In 2006 he uncovered a never-before performed opera by Lalo and prepared a performing edition which led to the opera's premiere. There's a lot more to Dr. Macdonald's biography and this post would be about a mile long if I tried to include everything. So, here's a link to his biography. He's a big deal and sort of a celebrity among Berlioz fans and musicologists.**

Tonight after we finished rehearsing the Roman Carnival our harpist, Sue, stood up and announced that Dr. Macdonald had recently been awarded a gold medal by La Renaissance Francaise, an organization that (according to Dr. Macdonald) "has been around for a hundred years or so and gives medals out to people they approve of." What they approve of about Dr. Macdonald is his life-long advocacy of French classical music. He's one of the first 6 Americans*** to receive this honor. It was bestowed on him April 1st at the French Embassy in DC. Here's a link to a brief article about the honor.

While we were all eating the delicious pound cake I asked Dr. Macdonald if the prize was an actual medal and he said yes, that it "looked like he'd fought in quite a lot of wars." We're hoping he wears it to our concert on the 30th. So if you see something glittering from the back of the violas that night know that it's because we have a celebrity in our midst.

*Because, you know, that's all violas ever play.

**He's also incredibly nice and quite the host.

***Well, maybe people working in America, since he's English.

Some Thoughts on Bernstein

As an undergrad I took a seminar on Leonard Bernstein. We covered his life, loves, successes and failures. I knew how he struggled to decide between a career as a performer, conductor, and composer. I knew that he had problems in his personal life that haunted him until his death. I knew he'd found success suddenly at a very young age but had suffered serious setbacks along the way. I left that class feeling like I really knew Bernstein on a personal level.

Now I'm sitting in the St. Louis Philharmonic and we're rehearsing the overture to Candide for our next concert (April 30th! 8pm! 560 Music Center in the Loop!). I've played this piece before but not since taking that seminar. It's a great piece but I'd never realized how you can see Bernstein in the work. Humphrey Burton's biography of Bernstein (which I HIGHLY recommend reading) gives you the impression that he was someone truly filled with life and vigor, so much so that it spilled out into his music. The Candide overture whizzes by at a mile a minute but still incorporates at least three major themes, a lot of different tone colors, and some really tough technical passages for the instrumentalists. The piece is exciting, lyrical, quirky, and fun. Maybe like Bernstein himself. Only someone as alive as Bernstein could do all the things that he did while life, like the tempo in the overture, was flying by.

For those of you unfamiliar with Leonard Bernstein's career, know that he rose to fame after conducting the NY Phil at a moment's notice when the scheduled conductor fell ill. He was in his 20's at the time. His career was split between conducting and composing, with performances as a concert pianist sprinkled in. He was an advocate for the newly formed state of Israel, a father of 2, the composer of West Side Story (along with several symphonies, a Mass, an opera, and smaller works), and a champion of music education (his Young People's Concerts with the NY Phil are still used in music classrooms). He did everything, saw everything, embraced everything.

Candide is an interesting part of Bernstein's career. It's a Broadway adaptation of Voltaire's satire and it was a flop. The story was too fragmented to work well as a musical despite Bernstein's brilliant score. Luckily for us the overture has become a standard part of the orchestral repertoire and is performed regularly across the country. You can even hear it performed right here in St. Louis by the STLPhil.

It's a fun piece to play. I think everyone in the orchestra enjoys rehearsing it and you'll surely enjoy listening to it. It's fast and furious but has its tender moments too. When you're listening, see if you get the impression that I have- that Bernstein is in this piece like he is in all of his compositions.

1st Post!

Welcome to the home of the St. Louis Philharmonic in the blogosphere!

First things first: The purpose of this blog will be to provide information about the orchestra, the music, and the musicians. This will be your source for everything STLPhil- from upcoming concert dates, to musician biographies, to information about the works we're playing. Check back often for insider information and amusing anecdotes.

Our next concert is scheduled for April 30th at 8pm in the 560 Music Center. The program includes works by Berlioz, Gershwin, Bernstein, Elgar, and Franck. A complete listing can be found at http://www.stlphilharmonic.org . We all hope to see you there!