Detroit Symphony Blog: June 2008

Monday, June 23, 2008

Attacking the Invisible Wall

The final 8 Days in June standing O (one among many) for maestro Peter Oundjian and the ladies and gentlemen of the Detroit Symphony

It was Peter Oundjian who brought it up. He was on the stage of Orchestra Hall just prior to the final concert of the DSO's 8 Days in June extravaganza. He and Tom Allen were talking over the sophomore year of 8 Days, when Peter pointed out how crucial it was to break down the invisible wall between the performers and the audience.

Then Tom actually leapt through that wall, taking a microphone into the pre-concert crowd like a latter day Phil Donahue, and we were off. Here was the real payoff of 8 Days.

More than the music, though the performances I heard were uniformly thrilling.

More than the programming, though there was plenty of adventure in that department (Glass, Messiaen and Cage? In the same week?).

More even than the deliciously casual, free-flowing atmosphere filled with newcomers of all ages, which has been discussed elsewhere on this blog.

More than all of that, it was this deliberate thrust to consistently and directly engage the audience that puts this festival into a very special category indeed.

Case Study No 1: Schnittke Happens

On Saturday night's program, following Mendelssohn's brilliant Overture to a Midsummer Night's Dream, up comes a quirky modern piece called (Not) a Midsummer Night's Dream by Alfred Schnittke. In a pre-8 Days world, hearing this kind of thing cold turkey would empty large sections of Orchestra Hall. Not this time.

Out come Tom and Peter, not with a lecture on atonality and the influences of the Second Viennese School, but with the simple statement that we should expect "a lot of wrong notes." It makes all the difference. The thing is a spoof. Now that we're all in on the joke, instead of uncomfortable fidgeting once the music starts to go off the rails, the audience actually laughs out loud. We get it. And a load of bricks are dislodged from that invisible wall.

Case Study No. 2: Cage Match

Last April Fool's Day, Tom Allen on his CBC morning show held a Cage Match of competing performances of 4'33" by John Cage, a notorious piece wherein the musician is totally silent. Well, on Day 6 Tom got the chance to participate in a real contest when the festival presented Cage's Lecture on the Weather, a typically unconventional composition featuring overlapping excerpts of texts by Henry David Thoreau. True to form, the element of chance underlies the composition by design, so that no two performances are alike.

At intermission there is a spirited discussion over what was heard including a couple of patrons who "just didn't like it at all." And then they performed it again. The whole piece. And sure enough it came out differently. This time our disappointed patrons actually liked the piece. And another load of bricks fell out of the wall.

Now the point here is not that anyone was "converted" to modern music. The real gem of this incident, and the festival's gold standard of success, is that here was an audience that felt comfortable enough (and safe enough) to actually say out loud that they didn't like something. In front of the people who played it.

That's why when I asked Tom for some of his post festival impressions, he told me without hesitation that the real star of 8 Days In June was the community of listeners that emerged around the concerts.

"Every night there were more interesting and insightful comments, every concert brought the ideas, the musicians and the people listening a little closer together. The lines that have traditionally kept great music at a distance from the people who love it are growing fainter and fainter, and the wonderful 8 Days audience is telling us to keep going further in that direction. That means bright things ahead!"

And the wall came a tumblin' down.

Amen.

Related Stories:

8 Days in June fest a chaotic success, by Mark Stryker; Detroit Free Press; June 23, 2008

Orchestra's '8 Days' festival a mix of fun, insight, by Lawrence B. Johnson; Detroit News; June 23, 2008

(From The Well-Tempered Wireless)

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Hearing With New Ears?

Sometimes before I go to an orchestra concert, I think to myself, "I should listen to a recording of the pieces on the program before I go, so that I can better appreciate the music when I'm hearing it live." But actually I tend to reject the idea, though, because I enjoy the thrill of being surprised, hearing something for the first time (or for the first time in a long time.)

So I didn't listen to the Mozart or the Holst before Friday night, and I don't regret that decision at all. The Holst was absolutely thrilling live, as familiar as several passages are. I was glad to listen to Mozart's music through the prism of Tom Allen's comments. He spoke of the desperate straits Mozart found himself in while writing this transcendent music. Mozart's financial troubles and health problems are well-known, but contemplating the contrast between his life and his work added a poignant dimension to the listening experience.

Something kept nagging at me, though.

I love hearing orchestral music live, whether it's music I know well or a piece I'm hearing for the first time. I love watching the musicians on-stage, and I also play a little game with myself trying to sense how the audience around me is responding to the music (as I pray that no one will decide to unwrap a cough drop during a quiet passage, ahem!).

But I wonder, when a piece is as seminal as Mozart 41, is it really possible to hear it differently? Can we come to it with new ears? And if so, how do we do it?

I've been thinking lately how odd it is that we go to the symphony to hear music we've already heard before. Why bother? Why get all dressed up, pay for tickets and parking, and fight traffic just to hear music you already know? Do we do the same for other art forms? We go to the movie theater to see the latest release, not something we own on DVD and have watched any number of times, right?

Well, not exactly, evidently. Some classic movies get audiences out of the house, whether they're available on video or not. Then there are rock concerts. The audience goes wild when the band plays their biggest hits, but this can be frustrating for the band members, who might be more excited about playing cuts from their latest album. But audiences can get mighty testy if their expectations aren't met. I've read that the singer Ani DiFranco got so tired of her audiences drowning her out singing along with her songs that she changed them around and made it impossible for the audience to sing along. The people were not pleased!

Being a composer myself, I confess that I get impatient sometimes with what sometimes seems like a form of musical ancestor worship. How's a living composer supposed to compete? I think what it comes down to is, there are (at least) two kinds of listening experiences that a classical concert provides, and they're pretty distinct from each other.

The Trust Walk

The less common experience is the thrill of hearing something for the first time. I know that many people get frustrated with unfamiliar works; It can be so hard to know what to expect. When you're hearing a brand new piece by a composer you may never have heard of, it can really feel like a roll of the dice (or worse, a game of musical Russian roulette!). Will the music be spiky and dissonant or smooth and consonant? Will it use the repetitive techniques of minimalism, or will it be formally idiosyncratic? You can't know for sure until the music starts, even if you have program notes or the composer's comments to prepare you.

The biggest favor you can do for the composer is to be willing to be taken on a journey along a road you've never traveled before. It might feel a bit like a "trust walk," where you're blindfolded and have to have faith that the person guiding you won't walk you into a wall. Fortunately, you can't hurt yourself too badly listening to music, even if you don't end up liking a particular piece.

The Familiar Path

Even though I'm a composer, and therefore a new music enthusiast, I still understand the appeal of hearing a piece you love and know well. It's a powerful experience. I think it's worth exploring why it's so powerful, though -- it has to be more than just the comfort factor. If you come to a concert simply to be made comfortable, expecting the music to function like an aural security blanket -- well, I don't mean to scold, but you need to do a little homework. You need to eat your veggies before you can have your dessert. ;) I've written before about my professor John Swackhamer, who responded to students' complaints about modern music that they "couldn't understand" with the damning rhetorical question, "Do you think you understand Beethoven?" No matter how familiar and beloved a piece of music is, it should never be treated like audio wall paper -- unless that's what the composer intended, of course!

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Read more from Miss Music Nerd at her very own blog.

Tuesday's Patterns and Structure

I have seen many great performances at the DSO over the last 7 months or so, but last nights Day 4: Patterns and Structure with the FLUX Quartet and New Music Detroit was easily one of my favorites, if not my favorite.

The night started off with a very intense performance of John Adams' Shaker Loops. I have never seen the performance performed before, so I guess I don't have anything to compare the performance to, but I loved it. I thought the FLUX Quartet did an amazing job and definitely blew me away.

Their second piece was Steve Reich's Different Trains. Again, FLUX did an excellent job. I was really interested in this piece because of the context in which it was made. This was a good balance with Shaker Loops in the beginning too.

The program ended with New Music Detroit performing Les Moutons de Panurge (which means The Sheep of Panurge) by Frederic Rzewski. Because all of us here at the DSO have been so busy these last few weeks getting ready for 8 Days, I almost skipped out of the last performance because I still had many things to do before I had to go to sleep last night. But I am glad I didn't. New Music Detroit killed it on this one. I especially liked the drums on it and loved that there was a jazz feel to it as well.

All in all, it was one of the best programs I've seen here. I especially liked the John Adams piece. I think I'll look for that on vinyl.

See you tonight at Being and Becoming.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

All City's Playlist

So a few patrons and fellow employees wanted me to post my playlist from Friday night's 8 Days in June opening night party. It was actually pretty cool. Among other things, I had old men coming up to me talking about old vinyl records (I could talk about that for hours), another man was shocked he was hearing Moondog in a public setting and 2 older ladies actually asked me to write down a couple of tracks I played. One of them exclaimed, "I guess this is one way music connects our generations." I couldn't agree more. Here she is...

Cristo Redentor by Donald Byrd
All Things To All Men featuring Roots Manuva by Cinematic Orchestra
Stamping Ground by Moondog with Orchestra
Quiet Dawn (Examples Of Twelves Remix) by Nostalgia 77
Fairy Take From A Dusty Crate by Skalpel
Hurry On Now featuring TM Juke by Alice Russell
High And Dry featuring Bilal by Pete Kuzma
Broadway by Sebastien Tellier
Oscar Brown, Jr (remix) by Matthew Herbert
Sympathy for the Devil by Rolling Stones
Its Simple by Visioneers
L.O.V.E and You & I by Jazzanova
I Am The Black Gold Of The Sun (4 Hero Remix) by Nuyorican Soul
Everything Featuring Bajka by Radio City
Sirius B by The Heliocentrics
Stars and Rockets featuring Auora Dawn (peter_thomas_sound_orchestra_ remix) by Spiritual South
Listen To The Drums [Original Edit] by Outlines
Waltz For Goddess by Soil & Pimp Sessions

See You At 8 Days.

Dominic Arellano
DSO Employee
(All City - the Few Records)

Labels: 8 Days in June

Monday, June 16, 2008

1 Day in June

Friday, June 13, 2008. Opening night of the Detroit Symphony's 8 Days in June festival. It was a blast last year. Would the magic be back tonight?

Initial indications were promising. For people-watching, it was a target rich environment. From club wear to polo shirts over jeans, from Saville Row suits to Hawaiian shirts and Birkenstocks and just about everything in between, it all contributed to the pre-concert buzz in the atrium of the Max Fisher Music Center. At the box office a line of ticket seekers grew until it snaked onto Woodward Avenue. So far, so good.

As you enter Orchestra Hall, you're welcomed by beaming t-shirt clad ushers who, like the musicians warming up on stage, have ditched the formal wear. Casual Friday returns to the Max. Another good sign.

Now the music begins and it's time for the promise to be kept. Could lightning strike again?

Long before the end of Mozart's Jupiter symphony, I had my answer. As that miraculous fugal finale unwound in front of me, the adrenalin coming off the stage was seeping into the audience, culminating in a roar of appreciation as we headed to intermission. In the second half, Holst's The Planets was dazzling, a tour de force for a great orchestra in a great hall.

Following another thunderous ovation, a glowing crowd poured into the atrium to keep the party going to the infectious world music rhythms filling the Max Fisher Music Center.

The reviews in The Detroit News and Free Press, while giving generally high marks for the DSO's performance, took issue with how successfully the "Power of Change" theme of the festival was working. Perhaps it is a bit of a stretch, but for me that's not important.

What I saw in a packed Orchestra Hall Friday night, taking up most of the row in front of me, was a group of 20-somethings decked out for a fun night coming to hear Mozart.

I heard one mature couple behind me making conversation with another that "hadn't come down here in years." Maybe now there won't be as much time between visits.

I saw a pre-teen red-headed boy who could have stepped out of a Norman Rockwell painting pick two seats right in the front row, where he and his younger brother stared in rapt attention at every move maestro Oundjian made, for the entire concert.

To all those concerned about the future of classical music in this country, these are powerful signs that it is alive and well in Detroit.

There are 7 Days in June left. Come as you are. Sit where you like. But whatever you do, don't miss it.

(From The Well-Tempered Wireless)

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Detroit's Lucky Day!

If you're superstitious, you probably already have your lucky rabbit's foot or some such charm or talisman at the ready, tomorrow being Friday the 13th and all. I would say that tomorrow is a very lucky day for Detroit, though. At a time of year when they could be taking a well-deserved post-season break, the DSO is kicking it into high gear for 8 Days longer. It's like a fabulous, flambéed-Cherries-Jubilee bonus at the end of an already decadent and delectable multi-course meal!

I'm particularly looking forward to hearing Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie on June 18. A killer piano part, massive percussion section, and ondes Martenot, all in service of the theme of forbidden love? Who could ask for anything more? ;)

Also, you don't want to miss anything that New Music Detroit is involved in, and you get two chances to hear them during the festival: after the Mozart/Holst festival opener on Friday night, walk across the street to the MOCAD and stay up late with John Zorn, then come back on June 17th for Patterns and Structure.

Don't just take my word for it, though -- attend the whole festival and decide for yourself what the highlights are!

Why is this festival so important? Well, a few weeks ago, Dominic posed the following question to readers here:

"How do you think music helps change Detroit for the better?"

Here's my answer: while thrilling performances of outstanding music are the obvious draw, this year's festival has special significance for me personally. I moved from Southern California to Detroit exactly one year ago with my new husband, who was beginning his medical residency at the Detroit Medical Center. I confess that my expectations for the classical music scene here were not very high. Fortunately, while still camping out on the floor of our apartment waiting for our furniture to arrive, I heard about 8 Days in June on WDET radio, and a whole new world opened up for me. The Fisher Music Center is now one of my favorite places.

Then there's the bigger picture. Both longtime residents and newcomers to Detroit are painfully aware of the city's less-than-sparkling public image, both at home and nationwide. Try telling your friends and family in California that you're moving to Detroit, on purpose -- the mixed expressions of revulsion and pity on their faces are priceless. "But Detroit's still on fire from the riots in the sixties!" someone actually said to me. Then try telling them that Detroit is being revitalized and there are actually some cool things going on, and they just assume you drank too much champagne on your wedding day and never quite recovered.

In short, the old dictum, "There's no such thing as bad publicity" doesn't apply in this case! :P

So, Detroit needs as many marks in its "good" column as it can get. I think having things we can be truly proud of will help Detroiters better face the city's challenges. The DSO is one of the jewels in Detroit's crown.

One more little story: I've spent some time on Facebook lately, reconnecting with friends from high school and college. Upon learning that I'm in Detroit now, one friend had this to say:

"The tune for "Detroit Rock City" is inextricably linked to any mention of your town. I don't think of the place as even having a symphony. :-)"

I'll tell him June would be a great month to visit! :D
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Read more from Miss Music Nerd at her very own blog.

Labels: 07-08 season, 8 Days in June, New Music Detroit

Getting Jiggy with the DSO

Seems like the modern symphony orchestra has always been grappling with the challenge of attracting younger concertgoers without alienating their loyal but aging core audience. Sometimes these attempts show promise, sometimes not so much. But in today's Detroit Free Press, music critic Mark Stryker called the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's 8 Days in June festival

" . . . that rare example of an orchestra trying to be hip and mostly pulling it off with natural flair and true adventure."

And pull it off they sure did. Last year's inaugural festival was extraordinary. Adventurous programming was a big part of it, but for me at least as important was a host of welcome changes that seemed to blow untold decades of cobwebs out the roof of Orchestra Hall.

The orchestra had ditched the penguin suits for tasteful (and I'm sure more comfortable) black shirts and slacks. The attendees in the audience were a stimulating mix of hip-hop, Gen X, and urban funk mingling with the regular clientele. Seating was more open, allowing groups to gather spontaneously as they met.

As festival host Tom Allen took the stage to contextualize the music, the atmosphere was giddy with excitement and anticipation.

What followed blew the lid off the place.

Led by maestro Peter Oundjian, the concerts were electrifying. The crowds were fully engaged and the whole experience was so totally vibrant it made me fervently hope it could spill over into the rest of the season. This is what concertgoing was meant to be. Not a reverent homage to a dusty, long-gone past, but a living exaltation of the human creative spirit.

And it's coming back, starting Friday. Fantastic!

(From The Well-Tempered Wireless)

Why I Can't Wait Until Wednesday

Here is what I am most anticipating in the next 8 Days: Day 4: Patterns and Structure, Day 5: Being and Becoming and Day 6: Civil Disobedience. And which of the three am I most excited about, you ask? Day 5, because Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is AMAZING. Something about that piece of music makes me absolutely crazy—in the best sort of way. The first time I heard it performed was in Orchestra Hall during the 2006-2007 season opening weekend. It was Peter Oundjian conducting Lang Lang and the DSO, and the performance was incredible. It was completely transporting, and I was very close to dancing around in the box seat area of Orchestra Hall. Which, since I am employed here, might not be entirely appropriate. (You, however, should definitely dance around in the boxes.)

I’ve been obsessed with this piece ever since that weekend. I have it on my Ipod (Valery Gergiev conducting Lang Lang and the Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre) and I listen to it in the car quite a bit. I love cruising down I-75 and blasting this Rachmaninoff piece. I’m sure people who pass me on the road and see me dancing around in the car would guess that I am listening to some Minor Threat, or at the very least, a good Neil Diamond jam. But really I am listening to Rachmaninoff! Anyways, don’t miss hearing this piece on Wednesday. You’re crazy if you do. Stuart Goodyear is supposed to great—and Peter and the DSO always are. And you can look for me—I’ll be the DSO employee behaving inappropriately in the boxes.

Mari

Labels: 06-07 season, 07-08 season, 8 Days in June, audience