ABOUT THAT MENDELSSOHN CADENZA

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

    I don't think Strings magazine has gotten around to publishing that article I mention below about the Mendelssohn concerto, so I'll give you a sneak peak, even though it's a bit technical:

    “It has been butchered and malplayed by so many people, it’s time somebody pleaded the composer’s case,” declares violinist Vincent Skowronski. “This is not a soccer match or a hockey game. It’s a very nice piece of music to play.”
    Skowronski is defending the honor and integrity of Felix Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. It’s a popular work that is arguably played too often, and in Skowronski’s opinion too early and too fast.
    “When you are a student,” he says, “after the Vivaldi A-major, and after one of the five Mozart concertos, you are immediately thrust upon the shoulders of Mr. Mendelssohn. I think young violinists get this piece way too early in their careers, because they approach as their first meaty concerto, the first thing Grandma would actually like to hear, and they’re taught to play it ‘impressively,’ at a breakneck speed. Yet Mendelssohn was a very refined, erudite composer; he was not a crasher and banger.”
    Skowronski became sensitized to the speed issue as a young man in New York City. “I went to hear Ruggero Ricci play the Mendelssohn violin concerto because I had recently worked on it and Ricci was one of the great virtuosos,” he recalls. “It was so fast and so out of control I thought Ricci had a plane to catch. From that time on, every time I heard the Mendelssohn I paid attention to the speed the violinist would take, and across the board, every violinist I’ve heard plays it way, way too fast.
    “In the 1950s, Ray Still was the principal oboist of the Chicago Symphony. One day he had to complain to Fritz Reiner, ‘Can’t you talk to Mr. Heifetz and tell him it’s almost impossible to double-tongue at the speed he takes the last movement?’ He couldn’t double-tongue that fast, and Ray Still was one of the fine, fine oboists. People just tear through that thing, and I don’t think it’s necessary at all, not to mention that it’s harmful.”
    Skowronski asserts that the true character of the concerto reflects Mendelssohn’s own character and milieu. “Mendelssohn came from a very well-to-do family. He was raised with people like Goethe and the great thinkers of the time coming to visit. He was refined. Even his physiognomy was refined. What he wrote was refined. So why brutalize the concerto? Among violinists, if you like to chop wood and you want to play Mendelssohn, you have to compromise in the middle and not beat the hell out of it.”
    Skowronski observes that the portion most subject to brutalization is the first-movement cadenza.
    “If you ask your average man on the street what is a cadenza,” he says, “nine out of ten will say it’s a piece of a concerto where you can do anything you want. Well, it’s not. In the case of this concerto, the composer notated it himself and had a good idea what he wanted from people. According to legend he was a hell of a violinist, and he knew what he was doing.
    “He starts off going up by arpeggios and ascending scales, always ending on E natural so you have no mistake what key it’s in. Then he gets to the marvelous trill section, which everyone mistakenly thinks should be done as fast as the last page of the Saint-Saëns Rondo Capriccioso. Mendelssohn has taken away all the eighth and sixteenth notes, and now he writes only half notes with trills. If you take the tempo you have established in the first part of the cadenza and translate it to the half-note notation, the trill section will not be as fast as people play it; they play it as if those were eighth notes. After that, with the arpeggios and spiccato, speed is ridiculous, because when the oboe comes in and states the theme, the theme would have to be three times as fast as the beginning of the concerto. That simply is not right.
    “Milstein, when he came to the bariolage section leading up to the recapitulation, he took it so fast it was laughable. It was machine-gun stuff. Any conductor should say it’s not that fast, but you don’t argue with the likes of Heifetz and Milstein and those boys. So basically the piece gets faster and faster and you get to the point where you can’t play it.”
    Skowronski insists that the proper tempo relationships are specified in the score for all to see.
    “Where the trills begin,” he says, “someone has written ‘Tempo I.’ I can only assume that comes from the pen of Mr. Mendelssohn. It means you have to go back to the beginning of the concerto, and what you took for a tempo primo at that time. You must try to replicate that in this section. If you start the concerto like a bat out of hell, that’s what you do here. If you use a more sensible tempo at the beginning, you return to it here.
    “No matter what, the trills will sound terribly slow. So if you write in ‘poco a poco accelerando’ or ‘stringendo’ to indicate, ‘Look out, folks, we’re gonna have a beginning and middle and end to this section,’ it takes a marvelous shape, through many brief modulations. Finally you arrive at that high E- natural harmonic, which you hope you can hold forever. After that, there are no tempo markings, so if you have accomplished a dramatic accelerando to the finale of the trill section, when the bariolage section starts you go back to Tempo I, so when you reach the oboe theme you’re back to the tempo where you started the whole thing.”
    Skowronski hesitates to recommend any recordings that demonstrate what he’s talking about. And although the concerto was once one of his specialties, he doesn’t play it anymore. “I want to remember how I did it the way I wanted to do it when I did it,” he says. Don’t look to other violinists for good examples, he insists; take your inspiration from what Mendelssohn wrote in the score.
    “It’s a classy concerto, or it should be,” he says. “Unfortunately, I have rarely heard it in the classy vein; it’s always at the virtuoso let’s-beat-it-to-death crash-crunch level. It’s a victim of speed and lack of refinement. To play this concerto the way Mendelssohn wrote it, you have to battle the majority of violinists who just want to make fast notes, play in tune, and convince people that this is all music should be.”

REVIEW: TUCSON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA/CAITLIN TULLY, VIOLIN

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

    It seems counterintuitive that a slower-than-usual performance of anything could be refreshing, but that was exactly the case when teen prodigy Caitlin Tully, a freshman at Princeton, soloed with George Hanson and the Tucson Symphony in Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto in E minor Thursday night. The Mendelssohn is usually the first concerto a young professional packs into the touring bag, and older violinists have played it so much that they feel obliged to do something spectacular with it. For both reasons, the concerto too often comes off as a mere display vehicle.
    Not in Tully's hands. As violinist Vincent Skowronski insisted when I interviewed him for a magazine article about the concerto, specifically its cadenza, “It has been butchered and malplayed by so many people, it’s time somebody pleaded the composer’s case. This is not a soccer match or a hockey game. It’s a very nice piece of music to play.” Skowronski pointed out how the first movement must be unified by certain tempo relationships, and if you start the work too fast, you end up playing the end of the cadenza laughably fast. Yet nobody laughs--that's how it's been done by many, many leading violinists from Heifetz and Milstein to the present.
    Tully, in contrast, played as if she'd taken Skowronski's direct advice. She actually studies privately with Itzhak Perlman, whose influence could be heard in Tully's generous use of old-fashioned slides in the first movement; yet she hasn't quite assimilated what all that portamento should mean, because otherwise she took an oddly non-legato approach to the main themes. That issue aside, Tully started out at a measured pace and managed to make the whole thing hang together beautifully, preferring warmth to brilliance. It wasn't quite a perfect performance; early in the third movement, for example, Hanson's woodwinds pulled her along a little faster than she initially seemed inclined to go. But overall, on its own terms, the reading was highly expressive and a welcome change of pace ... especially if you've ever wondered what the Mendelssohn concerto would sound like as makeout music.
    It was a fine concert all around. Well, Hanson's way with Mendelssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream overture (a little masterpiece) and scherzo was just a bit faceless, but very well played. The scherzo, in particular, boasted fine flute work, and the orchestra was unusually sonorous; the low strings had unaccustomed resonance, without making the music seem heavy. (Where was the famous "Wedding March"? Hanson saved it for the encore.)
    Hanson was fully in his element in Schumann's Symphony No. 4. Perhaps it's no coincidence that Hanson's best work can be heard in the composers for whom his idol, Leonard Bernstein, had a special affinity: Mahler and Schumann. Hanson's way with the symphony was dynamic from beginning to end--the scherzo was especially vigorous--and all the tricky transitions were beautifully managed (notably the buildup between the third and fourth movements). The weight and speed of the first-movement introduction were perfectly judged, and the only jarring element was the lack of a first-movement repeat.
    The concert began with the premiere of Sudden Light by Arizona State University professor Rodney Rogers. Rogers cites Stravinsky and Bartók as major influences, but Sudden Light sounds like something else entirely: early David Diamond, full of plush harmonies and lyrical gestures, with a bit of mid-period John Adams slipping into the background ostinati. It's a very attractive work, but a bit of a stretch on a concert called "Dawn of Romance"; better to have saved Rogers for another concert, and opened with something that truly did help launch the Romantic era, as did Mendelssohn and Schumann. A Weber overture would have fit perfectly. Still, Hanson should be congratulated for avoiding the predictable--and so should Caitlin Tully.

TSO SLINGS A NEW WEB

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

    Remember the very polite round of fisticuffs I hosted in October, in which arts consultant Drew McManus and a former Tucson Symphony employee sparred over issues relating to the orchestra’s badly out-of-date Web site? Well, a few days ago an orchestra player alerted me that the TSO has finally gotten its big redesign online. I was hoping to poke around in it and offer some comments of my own, but I’ve been too distracted by other tasks. So I’ll simply let you evaluate it yourself. Find out what the orchestra is up to here.

HELP WANTED

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

    I apologize for my lack of bloggage this week. I’ve been busy with various things, one or two of which actually relate to my work here at KUAT. One thing I’m doing today is recording this Saturday morning’s shift, so I won’t have to come in and do it live. And why would I be working on Saturday in the first place? Because we are seriously short of relief announcers.
    Have you ever daydreamed about being a classical disc jockey? Of course you have. Well, here’s your chance. Management has just put out a call for applications for part-time announcers, and the emphasis during the round is on people who have classical-music knowledge rather than people with lots of radio experience. You can be trained how to push a few buttons; music knowledge is harder to pick up on the fly. Here’s the low-down; help keep me out of the studio on the weekends!

Radio Announcer (Part-Time - multiple positions available)
Job Number:                                        36782   
Department:                                         3102-Radio Broadcast Services   
Posted Rate of Pay:                            $10.87 per hour   
Category  Classified:                          Part-Time (less than 20 hours)   
Job Open Date:                                    12-01-2006   
Job Close Date:                                   Open Until Filled
Review begins on:                               (Continues until position filled)  12-14-2006   
Benefits Eligible:                                  No   
Full Time/Part Time:                            Part Time   
Days and Schedule to be Worked:   Weekend evenings; other shifts as scheduled   
Number of Hours Worked per Week:    Up to 19 hours/week   

Documents, in addition to application, which are required for a complete application: 
    Resume (Include instructions for submission)
    Audition recording (CD or cassette) required for a complete application.

Send to:
KUAT Communications Group
P O Box 210067
MLB Rm 233
Tucson, AZ 85721-0067   

Position Summary:
KUAT Radio Broadcast Services seeks individuals who can Host/Anchor local network programming and/or introduce and announce classical musical recordings for the KUAT/KUAZ radio stations on assigned shift and on-call basis. On call availability involves weekend evenings, holidays and other shifts as scheduled. This is a permanent, part-time position with hours not to exceed 19 per week.   

Duties and Responsibilities:
Operates control room equipment and board during broadcasts.
Documents discrepancies and maintains Federal Communication Commission programs and engineering logs on assigned shifts.

Cues and starts music and programs, maintaining volume level.
Introduces and announces various music recordings.
Provides announcements to the audience on the programs and matters of interest.
Reviews program schedules and obtains recordings from library for on air.
Responds to calls from listening audience.
Participates in fundraising as required.   

Arizona Board of Regents Minimum Qualifications:
No prior experience required.   

Additional Minimum Qualifications:
Skill in speaking clearly with a well modulated voice.
Excellent working knowledge of classical music, including musical history, composition, composers, and performers; working knowledge of Jazz a plus.

Audition recording (CD or cassette) required for consideration.
 
Preferred Qualifications:
At least six months of radio announcing experience.
* Skill in the pronunciation of foreign and technical names, places, and titles.   

Standard Pre-Employment Screening:
The University of Arizona conducts pre-employment screening for all positions, which includes a criminal background check, verification of academic credentials, licenses, certifications, and work history.   

What kind of criminal background check is required for this position?  This position is non-security sensitive and requires a name-based criminal background check   

Departmental Home Page: www.kuat.org       
To apply go to Quick Link:  www.uacareertrack.com/applicants/Central?quickFind=185861   
   
As an equal opportunity and affirmative action employer, the University of Arizona recognizes the power of a diverse community and encourages applications from individuals with varied experiences and backgrounds.

The University of Arizona is an EEO/AA - M/W/D/V Employer.

If a job is reposted, you will be unable to apply for it a second time. You can compare the job number of a posted job to the job number on the Application Status page to see if you have already applied for that position.

TRU TO ELLA

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

    Two stage entertainments snag my attention in the current Tucson Weekly. First, Ella Fitzterald has been resurrected at the Temple of Music and Art:

    Last spring, a friend of mine was exasperated when he heard that Arizona Theatre Company would present Ella, a show in which an actress pretends to be Ella Fitzgerald in song and reminiscence. One of his objections echoed my longtime complaint that throwing a couple of singers and some musicians on stage for a survey of somebody's hits makes a nice cabaret show, but it ain't dramatic theater.
    My friend's greater protest, though, was that it was foolish for anyone to try to be Ella. We've got decades' worth of her classic jazz vocal recordings, a fair amount of video footage and not-yet stale memories of what the singer was really like. What's the point of trotting out an Ella impersonator?
    My indignant friend will probably continue to boycott ATC's Ella even if I tell him that the show is not just a cabaret toss-off tribute. Jeffrey Hatcher's script may be sketchy and rely on biographical truthiness more than facts, but it serves its purpose, and star Tina Fabrique is terrifically entertaining.

    Beowulf Alley Theatre Company, which prides itself on being "daring and distinctive," has gone soft for the holidays. Heartwarming, even. The company is presenting Truman Capote's Holiday Memories, which is a welcome break from the usual Christmas Carol/Messiah/Nutcracker fare. Unfortunately, the production is not all it could be.
    Literally. Holiday Memories, adapted from Capote stories by Russell Vandenbroucke, is in two parts, one covering Thanksgiving and the other revolving around Christmas. Beowulf Alley has elected to present only the second part, which is called A Christmas Memory, and that makes for a very short evening--you're out in less than an hour.
    Less literally, the production is not all it could be insofar as it lacks the free, easy flow of true memories. It might be tightened up later in the run, but on opening night, the seams showed.

TOWING THE CELLO

posted to Cue Sheet by James Reel

    Yesterday afternoon I developed car trouble on the way to my cello lesson, limped on to my teacher’s house and from there arranged for a tow to the garage. Not wanting my cello to roll around in the car during the long haul across town, I stashed it in the cab of the tow truck. The driver asked if it were a guitar. No, I said, a cello. He observed that it was pretty small and light for a cello. I soon determined that he had the double bass in mind. This fellow, who was not stupid, had little idea what a cello is. Seems that hardly anybody outside the classical realm does anymore.
    You’ll find the bass as a primary rhythm instrument in all sorts of music, but rarely the cello (even though it was once quite common in traditional Scottish music). That’s changing now, as music teachers are developing “alternative styles” curricula for all string players, and young cellists like the outstanding Natalie Haas are making names for themselves in Celtic, Appalachian and other forms of fiddle music.
    Purists might find the cello’s incursion into non-classical music degrading, but not so. Sure, you can get stuck plucking mindless bass lines in some bands, but the cello has the potential for so much more, not only enriching the rhythm section in novel ways, but also taking melodic turns. And trust me: Really good jazz and bluegrass string playing requires just as much technique as, and perhaps even more inventiveness than, good classical playing. I’m happy to see the cello spread into all kinds of music. After all, it has the most beautiful sound and most versatile range of all string instruments, at least in the right hands (that is, hands other than mine).