Toccatas!

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A series of Toccatas were presented in concert by the Emory University Graduate Organ Alumni yesterday.  The venue was the Emerson Concert Hall Schwartz Center for Performing Arts.  The program consisted of 14 toccatas written by composers from Frescobaldi to Ad Wammes.  I was not familiar with several of the modern composers (e.g., Len Bobo).  There were several standout pieces for me.  The first was the “Toccata all’Elevazione” by Frescobaldi.  This early baroque piece did not fare well on the Jaeckel organ.  The structure of the piece was lost in the large romantic organ.  “La Campanella” by Liszt is so over-familiar that it seemed almost silly in the context of the sophistication of the rest of the program.  I particularly like Moonikendam’s Toccata.  It had wonderful pedal notes that underscored the fast keyboard fingering.  I also liked Bobo’s “Toccata from Appalachian Prelude.”  It demonstrated the full range of effects possible on the organ.  The program finished with a nice performance by Hyoun Joo Song of the “Toccata from Symphony V” by Widor. This is a well known piece that is joyful and written to be performed on an organ like the Jaekel.  Some of the pedal notes didn’t have quite the sweep that I have heard from others, but Ms. Song played it very competently. 

The day was beautiful, with just a bit of the snow from Atlanta’s recent winter storm.  The Emory Campus is beautiful with nice architecture that is in keeping with the surrounding residential area.  The area it is in also has a small-town college vibe.  Spent some time at a local coffee shop reading and drinking a latte.  First latte I have enjoyed in some time.  It was a great afternoon. 

Mental Illness on the National Stage

The shootings in Arizona (and the recent school shootings in Nebraska that did not receive much national attention) (see: http://www.action3news.com/Global/story.asp?S=13826122) were sad for those involved as well as for our nation.  I hope that all involved can endure the pain of their losses and find strength as a result. 

My condolences also go to the parents of Jared Laughner, the alleged shooter.  Their pain, shame, and guilt must be tremendous; particularly as they ponder their contributions to his behavior- as we all do when our offspring do something that is unacceptable.  In time, they may come to realize that, in fact, they are not nearly as responsible as they likely think they are.  I hope that they can endure their pain and find strength also.

I am troubled by the national discussion that Mr. Laughner is mentally ill and that he somehow “slipped between the cracks.” No one bothers to define what they mean by “mental illness” so the analysis is particularly specious.  Further, this kind of analysis is wrong on so many levels.  As best I can tell, there seems to be an assumption that only mentally ill people could shoot innocent people in this manner. (Note that we never called the 9/11 perpetrators mentally ill, but rather “terrorists.”  The national discussion after the Columbine shootings labeled Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold as mentally ill also.  Maybe the difference in labeling is that foreigners (especially Muslims) are called terrorists while American killers are “mentally ill.”)

I do not make the assumption that someone who shoots another is mentally ill.  To me, it gives the vast majority of persons with mental illness a bad name.  In fact, people who shoot others are angry, disaffected, marginalized, lonely, unhappy people.  Even with all of that baggage, it does not make all shooters mentally ill.  I have read some of the material written by Laughner that the news media cite as evidence of mental illness.  So far, I have not seen anything that is particularly wild, paranoid, or out of touch.  He may seem angry, disaffected, marginalized, lonely, and unhappy, but so far, I have not seen anything that would lead me to believe he is mentally ill. Because he writes material that is esoteric or focuses on out-of-the-mainstream thought also does not justify calling him mentally ill.  In fact, I was listening to NPR the other day and heard a discussion of poetry on the Krista Tippet “Being” show.  I am way too concrete a thinker to understand poetry and the satisfaction people get from reading it.  But Tippet and her guest talked about poetry in ways that I thought was esoteric and possibly outside of the mainstream.  Tippet kept using the term “the other” to reference people who are different.  If I were like so many discussing the Arizona shooter, I might call Tippet mentally ill, which is likely very untrue. 

If we allow ourselves to tie up Mr. Laughner in a little package called “mentally ill”, we will miss the bigger picture about how people become shooters, for example, what are the political, cultural and societal issues that permit shooting to be an acceptable way to deal with grievances.  We know that there are a myriad of individual, social, family, spiritual issues that make shooting acceptable, but those issues float within a cultural pool.  Let us not fail to address the larger issues while we focus only on the individual and his hypothesized mental illness. 

Finally, if Laughner is found, by competent authority, to be mentally ill, then may we not then say that “he fell through the cracks.”  In fact, there may have been nothing in his behavior that was remarkable (except when people apply present facts to interpret past behavior) that would have caused him to come into contact with a social service agency.  There may have been no cracks to fall through.  Let’s not blame the mental health safety net for somehow failing to see the raging demons in Laughner when there may not have been any that were visible. 

It’s just too easy for us to let ourselves off the hook by saying that shooters like Laughner, Kelbold, and Harris are mentally ill.  To do so says that we want to only hold “sick” individuals responsible rather than examining our own roles in setting the occasion for these tragedies to happen.  Maybe we have no collective guilt, but if we do, let’s be sure we find out why and address it so that situations like Arizona, Nebraska, and Columbine don’t happen again. 

How sublime....

The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, under conductor Robert Spano presented a most intriguing and memorable concert this week.  The program included:

Gandolfi:  Pageant

Liszt: Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2

Bartok:  Viola Concerto

Brahms:  Piano Concerto No. 2

The Gandolfi is a fanfare written for the tenth anniversary of Mr. Spano’s directorship with the ASO.  The music struck me as if it was an overture waiting for an opera, ballet, or whatever.  It was pleasant, with a few hummable melodies, but in general I forgot each note as soon as it was played.

The Liszt is colorful, tuneful, but certainly not profound.  It would be equally at home on a pops concert playbill.  The ASO did a wonderful job with the piece and Spano seemed to enjoy it. 

I am a great admirer of Bartok.  Some of his music is undeniably the best of the 20^th century.  His “Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celesta” has inspired so many movie rip-offs, but it is eerie, startling, and wonderful.  His “Concerto for Orchestra” is dark, sometimes moody, and clever.  The “Miraculous Mandarin” music is so primitive, colorful, and strange.  So if Bartok composed nothing else, he would have made his mark with these three pieces.  The Viola concerto is another matter.  It was a work left unfinished at his death but was “completed” by various others including his son (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viola_Concerto).  I thought the work does not feel like an integrated whole.  It lacks a strong rhythmic or melodic focus.  The viola, by its very nature, is dark-toned and a bit somber. The soloist for this performance was Reid Harris, the principal Violist of the ASO.  Mr. Harris had not committed the piece to memory, so when he played he frequently was looking down to the music score.  His posture reminded me of students who have yet to master the music.  He seemed to lack confidence and, at times, his sound was totally overwhelmed by the orchestra.  I think this contributed to my feeling that this was a rather lackluster performance. 

After the intermission, Yefim Bronfman joined the orchestra to be the soloist in the Brahms.  This concerto is, for me, some of the most sublime music ever composed.  Brahms ability to write a wonderful melody and then develop it is the pinnacle of the romantic period.  It is a long piece- 50 plus minutes, but it went by so quickly.  Bronfman is a master musician.  He is a commanding presence and his strength was evident in the first few notes as well as the last bombastic notes in the finale.  I so thoroughly enjoyed this music and performance.  My only sight quibble was with the French horn players, who are not the best section of the orchestra.  There were a few intonation problems, but they were insignificant when compared to the success of the total performance. 

Our Greatest Actor?

I recently watched three movies starring Jeff Bridges.  Some reviewers are absolutely smitten with the actor- some even calling him our greatest actor.  (What happened to Keanu Reeves and Ryan Reynolds?)  The movies were :  “The Door in the Floor,” “Tron: The Legacy,” and “True Grit.”   Bridges is a very large presence in these movies, much like Meryl Streep is in her movies.   Both Bridges and Streep bother me, but for different reasons.   Streep’s “great acting” reputation went down like the Hindenburg for me after seeing “Doubt.”  She was so unsubtle and I had the sense that each time she over-acted she was saying to herself “Yes, another Oscar.”  Bridges bothers me because he has settled into the “grizzled old man” role, using his beard, commanding size and mumbling to create his characters.  Yet, he was wonderful in “Starman”, for which he won an Academy Award nomination.  I really liked his intensity, especially when he said “I love you Jennie Hayden.”  But now, he strikes me as an old stoner who has become the next big thing.

 

In “Floor” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Door_in_the_Floor)  he  plays a womanizing heavy drinker, Ted,  who is married to a spaced-out wife, Marion, played by Kim Bassinger.  The source of their current distress is the death of their two sons.  The story is odd and almost seems like the two main characters were created, then the end of the story was written, and then the story was written backwards to justify the ending.  But Bridges is large and powerful.  Bassinger is truly in touch with the despair and hopelessness of Ruth.  The movie was nonetheless powerful because it shows some of the terrible ways we behave when we are trying to cope with the disasters in our lives.  Alcohol and sex dominated the lives of Ted and Marion when what they were really feeling was loss, hurt, anger, and disruption in their lives as a result of the terrible accident that took their two sons.  I thought both Bridges and Bassinger were top notch in a story that seemed a bit over-the-top.  The good news also was that I could actually understand what Bridges was saying, most of the time.

I have already reviewed “Tron: The Legacy.”  The only good acting from Bridges in this movie was that he could say those ridiculous lines with a straight face.  But, one saving grace was that I couldn’t always understand him so the ridiculousness was muted a bit.

Now there is much “chatter” (as we love to say today) about Bridges being a favorite for the Oscar for “True Grit” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/True_Grit_(2010_film). Actually, I thought the best actor in the movie was  Hailee Steinfeld.  She did a wonderful job of pulling of the role of the precocious and officious character Mattie Ross.  Again Bridges was the hefty, grizzled old man with a beard, who mumbled. Worse, the Coen brothers, for some strange reason, did not allow the use of contractions, which made the dialogue stilted and unreal. 

I did not like the movie all that much.  I will give it credit for making 1877 Arkansas seem like a dirty, dusty, and generally nasty place.   Bridges character, Roster Cogburn, was equally dirty, dusty, and generally nasty.  But that was not enough to make it a good movie for me. 

So who is our greatest actor?  I have some suggestions: Robert Downey, Jr., Johnny Depp, or Anthony Hopkins.  So far they have not lapsed into being old, grizzled, and bearded. 

The Atlanta "Nutcracker"

The Atlanta Ballet’s “Nutcracker” is creative and engaging.  It is choreographed by Artistic Director John McFall, and differs from the Balanchine version.  The story is set in St. Petersburg, Russia and the colorful costumes reflect appear authentic to the period.  The original “Nutcracker” was not specific to time or location so a little creativity is welcome.  My only criticism of the choreography is that the Divertissement of the second act seem disconnected from the story of the first act.  In fact, Marya mirrors some of the solo of the Sugar Plum Fairy- I was not sure what that was all about.  Also the wonderful coda, of the Fairy’s dance, played by the celesta, was not used in this version.  The Atlanta Ballet was fortunate to have it own orchestra accompany the story.  This is so much better than having a recording. 

Several of the dancers were outstanding.  Cortney Funk and Tommy Panto were outstanding in the Spanish dance.  Panto performed some outstanding kicks.  Stephen Word was funny and creative as Mother Matruska.  He inserted contemporary mannerisms that were wonderful, e.g., he pointed to an audience member and with his finger to his ear, mouthed the words “call me.”  Jonah Hooper was a polished Cavalier, although the choreography did not allow him some of the flashier moves familiar in the Balanchine version.  Trepak was a gymnastics routine with comedy built in.  The crowd liked it- I didn’t. 

The performance took place at the Fabulous Fox Theater in Atlanta.  The Atlanta Ballet scheduled 23 performances of “The Nutcracker.”  I attended a Thursday performance and the theater was packed. 

The Fabulous Fox is a historic venue.  It has nearly 5000 seats, and it seems to be perfectly preserved from its days as a movie palace (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_Theatre_(Atlanta,_Georgia).  I took a few pictures before the photo Nazi’s nixed my efforts.  The style of the theater is not to my taste, but the fact that it remains as it was is a real tribute to the community.

 

This “Nutcracker” is well worth spending a few hours to enjoy it and the Fox Theater. 

A Great Holiday Gift

New Trinity Baroque (NTB), conducted by Predrag Gosta, presented its Baroque Candlelight Christmas concert last evening. The program included:


• Georg Friedric Handel:

Concerto for Organ in F major, "The Cuckoo & The Nightingale," HWV 295

• Johann Sebastian Bach:

"Jauchzet Gott in Allen Landen," cantata for soprano, trumpet and orchestra, BWV 51

- intermission -

• Johann Sebastian Bach:

"Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme," Chorale Prelude for Organ (Schübler Chorale No. 1), BWV 645

• Antonio Vivaldi:

"Gloria" for soloists, choir and orchestra, RV 589

This was a wonderful concert in a nice setting, St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Atlanta. The Handel was performed by Brad Hughley on the church’s Rosales Organ. The music is delightful, well-known, and here, played sublimely by NTB and Mr. Hughley. Amanda Pepping, of Georgia State, played the natural trumpet. After a few warm up problems, Ms. Pepping mastered the devilish instrument admirably. The Bach Cantata was performed by the NTB, Miss Pepping and Wanda Yang Temko, soprano. Ms. Tempko is well-known around Atlanta and has developed an international career also. Her voice is smooth, well-controlled, and warm. She is not the least breathy. Her performance of the “Alleluia” at the end of the Cantata was exciting. I was fortunate to sit in the first row, middle seat during the performance and her voice was thrilling.

The Bach Chorale is a very familiar piece that was played in a clipped style by Hughley, which was entirely appropriate for this baroque masterpiece. Too often it is played in a bloated romatic style that makes it “pretty” rather than authentic. Hughley provided both- pretty and authentic.

The Vivaldi was performed with a small chamber choir, which was entirely appropriate for the setting and for the small size of the NTB. I recently heard the Gloria performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and Chamber chorus, which was a large-scale concert performance. Bopth approaches are valid, but the NTB performance was so intimate that it provided an opportunity to share what the experience must have been like in the royal courts of Vivaldi’s day. The chamber choir at times had to struggle against the volume of the NTB, but this is a miner quibble. The soloists for Gloria were Tempko and Zorica Pavlovic. The power of the voices of these two women was perfectly suited to the music.

The conductor of NTB is Predrag Gosta, who gives a brief review of the music before each performance. His enthusiasm for what is does is palpable. And he does a lot, from controlling the house lights, to helping move the harpsichord off the stage. He deserves much credit for the success of the NTB. In spite of it being made up of contract players, the NTB plays as if it were a well-established period orchestra. Gosta should take pride in what he has accomplished.

This was a great concert.

"Tron: Legacy"- something to avoid

“Tron: Legacy” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tron:_Legacy) is a sequel to the creative “Tron” from 1982. “Legacy” is an excuse to have 3-D (in order to charge more for admission) effects, a loud soundtrack (the music of which is quite good), and one more movie with the grizzled Jeff Bridges. I used to like Bridges, especially in “Starman”, but lately he has adapted to his casting as the disheveled older guy, who can be be a good guy or a villain. He was particularly awful in “Ironman”, with that ridiculous beard. In “Legacy” he is both a good guy and a villain. For the bad guy he looks like he did in “Starman” ; for the good guy, he is back to being old and grizzled. This movie has more exposition that any in recent memory. The characters have to narrate what is going on since understanding the plot from the movie’s action is simply not possible. The movie seems to be a series of motorcycle races for no immediately obvious reason.

I had read that the 3-D effects were wonderful. It must have been another movie because I sure didn’t see any that were worth the additional $3.00 admission.

While I consider the whole movie to be a waste, there was one grave injustice in it. Olivia Wilde plays a character named Quorra. Wilde is a beautiful and photogenic actress, but in “Legacy” she wears a terrible short wig. It has all of the grace of a straw brush and does nothing to enhance her striking face. But appearances aside, I hope that Wilde begins aiming higher in her choice of movies. “Tron: Legacy”, “Year One”, and “The Next Three Days” a strong resume do not make.