INFANTILE JOURNALISM

posted by James Reel

    So the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, of which I’m a board member, puts on a week-long festival with top-notch musicians including the Tokyo Quartet and presents a lot of out-of-the-ordinary music, including a brand-new work by a leading composer, to packed houses. What aspect of this does the Arizona Daily Star cover? The kiddie concert—the element of least possible interest to the adult reading public. It’s also the angle that requires no critical discernment, because the reporter need only recount the children’s reactions to the presentation, not form her own response from an adult perspective. Draw your own conclusions, and pause for a moment of silence for the protracted death of serious cultural journalism.

DÉJÀ VU ALL OVER AGAIN

posted by James Reel

    I could’ve sworn I got into the car and drove four miles to see a play at the University of Arizona, but I seem to have stayed home and watched the Turner Classic Movies channel, colorized:

    These days, young classical musicians head straight to the CD shelf to listen to what the pros have done before they dare to develop their own interpretation of a piece. Similarly, I think some of the young cast members of The Philadelphia Story at the UA spent more time watching the classic film version of the play than internalizing their characters. …
    On opening night last week, the first scene didn't seem at all lived-in; the actors were more focused on technical issues than addressing their character dynamics. Gradually, though, the actors found their groove, and began delivering performances of greater involvement. By the end, things were cooking nicely.
    They weren't following original recipes, though. Sarah Hayes didn't play Tracy Lord so much as she played Katharine Hepburn, or, actually, it was more like playing Cate Blanchett playing Katharine Hepburn in The Aviator. Similarly, suave Dane Corrigan filled the role of Dexter by channelling Cary Grant. (In fairness, this is a version with more backbone of a characterization Corrigan offered to good effect in The Rivals, so maybe this is just his natural demeanor.)
    Celebrity impersonation like this can be amusing, often comforting, and in the case of Tracy Lord unavoidable, but ultimately it gives no idea of what an actor can do without hewing to a famous model.

SPIFFY

posted by James Reel

    Last week I grumbled mildly that it was hard to find certain local content on the KUAZ/KUAT-FM Web pages. Well, coincidentally, a newer, cleaner, easier-to-navigate design went up this week, and this morning Robert Rappaport also began posting news items on the KUAZ page. There are some other nice features there, too. Take a look!

A GOOD TALKER

posted by James Reel

    Sometimes interviewing composers, especially in front of an audience, is about as happy an experience as do-it-yourself dentistry. There are shy composers, who respond to questions with the briefest of unenlightening phrases. There are theory-smitten composers, who respond with the longest, most bombastically unenlightening phrases. There are composers who can put their points across all right, but they've obviously saved most of their personality for their music.
    Interviewing Jennifer Higdon during last night's pre-concert chamber festival talk was, in contrast, a treat. She's in her mid 40s, which means she's come up in a period when composers have been expected to interact with the public. She's fully comfortable in front of an audience, personable, natural, intelligent and articulate. I tried to throw her a few questions she hadn't already answered in a hundred other interviews, and she responded smartly without missing a beat (except for the stall-for-time comment "That's a good question"; she never hesitated or resorted to "umms"). People in the audience later told me how delighted they were by her comments and presentation.
    Her brand-new string quartet, An Exaltation of Larks, also went over very well in its premiere by the Tokyo String Quartet. Like its composer, the work has a distinct musical personality. From the very first bars, I thought, "That sounds just like Jennifer Higdon!" She definitely has an identifiable style, beginning with a Copland-via-Bernstein sonority but relying more strongly on her own distinctive set of thematic gestures, harmonies and textural preferences. No wonder she's fully booked up with commissions for the next five years, including requests from the likes of Lang Lang and Hilary Hahn. Jennifer Higdon is a fine composer, and she knows how to handle herself well.

SLOPPY

posted by James Reel

    I'm making dumb beginner's mistakes this week. Because I didn't program one of the CD players the way I  usually do just now, the disc kept playing after it should have been history, letting my golden voice have the airwaves to itself. Yesterday, when changing my mind about where to slip in a little bit of fill music, I wound up not setting up the discs in my customary sequence, and consequently played a couple of seconds of the wrong piece before switching to the music I'd actually announced.
    Lack of focus, I guess, and it's probably going to get worse as the week drags on. Yesterday I had to record an interview with a member of the Tokyo Quartet during my air shift, then zipped out to the Tucson Weekly to take over while the top editor is on vacation. After that, I managed to get home long enough to shave before heading out again to teach an Elderhostel class on chamber music with UA professor Jay Rosenblatt. Today, from KUAT I go again to the Weekly, take time out for a doctor's appointment I scheduled six months ago, go back to the Weekly to put it to bed, then head downtown to give the pre-concert talk for tonight's Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival performance. Tomorrow, after KUAT, it's Part 2 of the Elderhostel class in the afternoon, then another pre-concert talk in the evening. Things may lighten up a little on Thursday, in the period after I MC the festival's kiddie concert in the morning and before the pilgrimage to the Tucson Symphony concert that night.
    Right now, I'm thinking about junking the music schedule, putting on an 80-minute Mahler CD, and taking a little nap. Thinking, not planning.

SOCK IT TO ME

posted by James Reel

    One of the most striking aspects of violinist Benny Kim is his socks. Although he eschews the traditional musician's formal tails, he does stick to sober black and white wear in concert. But he also seems to have taken the advice of men's fashion maven Alan Flusser: If a gentleman wishes to make a personal statement even in the most formal setting, the best place to do it is in that dull little expanse at the ankle.
    During yesterday's opening Tucson Winter Chamber Music Festival concert, Benny clearly was wearing some riotously colorful socks, but not enough material was showing to make the pattern clear. After the concert, at a dinner for musicians and board members, my wife asked Benny to show her his socks. By then, he wasn't wearing any hosiery at all, but he admitted that for the day's concert he had chosen a Scooby-Doo motif. "Wednesday night," he promised, "it'll be the Tasmanian Devil!"