THE POWER AND THE PENIS

posted by James Reel

In the latest Tucson Weekly, you can witness my effort to cover four plays in the space of two reviews (damned economy). First, the anatomy lesson:

Everyone knows there are a lot of pricks in the theater world, and they're something of an obsession in two shows that opened locally last week. Live Theatre Workshop's late-night Etcetera series is presenting _The Penis Monologues_, which is exactly what it claims to be, except that the monologues are _about_ penises, not _by_ them. In contrast, coyness rules at Beowulf Alley's _3 Guys in Drag Selling Their Stuff_; the male members are unremarked upon and hidden beneath skirts, tee-hee. In this case, too, the title says it all; indeed, there's nothing more to this play than what the marquee announces.

You can find the full review, including a Latin anatomical pun I’ve been waiting 35 years to use, here. Then, on to something more serious:

Power—how to wield it, how to abuse it. That's the subject of two plays, written nearly 2 1/2 millennia apart, that opened in Tucson last week. A witch-princess exacts revenge in _Medea_ at the UA's Arizona Repertory Theatre, while an American president squares off against an ambitious industrialist in _Camping With Henry and Tom_ at Invisible Theatre. Warren G. Harding is the president in question in Mark St. Germain's _Camping With Henry and Tom_. Remember Harding? Probably not, unless you're an American-history enthusiast, and the Teapot Dome scandal rings a bell. Harding was initially, in the early 1920s, a popular president, but his administration was probably the most corrupt in American history, at least until George Dubya Bush came along. To his credit, Harding was never directly implicated in the scandals, and St. Germain depicts him as merely an amiable front man for a political machine; as Roger Owen plays him at IT, he's tender-hearted and intellectually bland. Not the sort of personality you'd expect to be able to stand up to a combative Henry Ford and cynical Thomas Edison out in the Maryland woods. … Euripides' _Medea_, in a fluid, colloquial translation by Kenneth McLeish and Frederic Raphael, is onstage via Arizona Repertory Theatre. It's a student production directed with steadiness and grace by faculty member Brent Gibbs, but overall, it's an uneven effort redeemed by four strong young actors.

Get the details here.

HANSON ON THE MARKET

posted by James Reel

The e-newsletter of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra has landed in my e-mail box, with news that Tucson Symphony Orchestra music director George Hanson is applying for a job there. The Arkansas orchestra's budget is about half a million dollars less than the TSO's, according to the last figures I saw, so Arkansas would probably barely qualify as a lateral move for Hanson; most likely, he's hoping to run both orchestras at the same time (he has held simultaneous appointments in the past). True, Hanson has been in Tucson long enough that it may be time for him to think about moving on, but unless he were desperate to get out he'd be looking to move up in the orchestra world, not over. Here's a condensed version of the news item:

The Search is On! Nearly a year after ASO Music Director David Itkin announced he would be leaving the orchestra, the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra’s Board of Directors is pleased to name the five conductors selected as finalists in the search for the ASO’s next Music Director. The candidates are: Arthur Post * Currently Music Director of San Juan Symphony in Durango, Colorado (serving the four corners region) Philip Mann * American Conducting Fellow and Assistant Conductor of San Diego Symphony George Hanson * Currently Music Director and Conductor of the Tucson Symphony Orchestra Fusao Kajima * Music Director of the Bellevue Philharmonic in Bellevue, Washington André Raphel Smith * Currently Music Director of the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra in Wheeling, West Virginia

"PROCESS OF DISESTABLISHMENT HAS BEGUN"

posted by James Reel

A friend of mine, a professional musician, has been saying that given the legislature-imposed budget crisis in the state university system, the separate music programs at the UA and ASU should be consolidated into a single, world-class program, probably at ASU, which he thinks has better performance facilities and is in a much larger metropolitan center. But now I learn via Patty Mitchell’s blog oboeinsight that ASU is in the process of huge chunks of “disestablishing” its arts programs, particularly at the graduate level. You can learn what’s going to be eliminated here (scroll down to “Herberger College of the Arts"). Meanwhile, the UA, which is usually underfunded compared to ASU, is slower to announce its own cuts. We’ll have to wait and see what happens here.

ON THE BURGERS, NOT THE BOARDS

posted by James Reel

I’m seeing four plays this week (at this writing: one down, three to go), but nothing opened last week, so I have no theater reviews in the latest Tucson Weekly. I do, however, contribute to the Chow section:

Old joke: A hamburger walks into a bar. The bartender says, "We don't serve food here." The Midtown Bar and Grill does serve food, but it is a little discriminatory--it reserves its best service for the burgers.

The full review is here. Yesterday, a reader e-mailed me and wondered why I waste time reviewing mediocre restaurants when what this city really needs is informed reviews of the Tucson Symphony and Arizona Opera. On the subject of restaurant reviews, I just go where the editor sends me, and not every restaurant is going to be a winner. Regarding performance reviews, by the time a review of a short-run offering like a TSO cycle or an opera production would appear in the Weekly, the performances would have ended days before. Space is extremely tight right now, and I can barely squeeze two stories into the arts section because of declining advertising, so I’m going to focus on covering things that people can still choose to see (or avoid). I did review the TSO in this blog for a couple of years, but I wound up saying the same things about the same programming and the same kinds of performance, so if you can predict what I’m going to write, what’s the point of further writing?

I do know, however, that at least one refugee from the soon-to-shut-down Tucson Citizen may be interested in starting an online review site with fellow unemployed critics; if they can figure out a way to make money at it, we may actually end up with more coverage of classical music than we now have, since the Citizen has no real commitment to it.

CD REVIEW: EDUARADO EGÜEZ PLAYS BACH

posted by James Reel

Here's a review of Bach lute recordings I've written especially for this blog, for a change.

BACH: Lute Music, Vol. 1 (BWV 995, 997, 998) and Vol. 2 (BWV 999, 1001, 1006a, 1007). Eduarado Egüez, lute. MA Recordings MO53A and MO54A.

Argentine lutenist Eduarado Egüez, currently based in Switzerland, is not very well known in the United States except through recordings he’s made as a member of various early music ensembles. This is a pity; he’s a marvelous musician, and nowhere is this more evident than in his two-disc survey of Johann Sebastian Bach’s lute music, released in 2000 and 2002 by a terrific little audiophile label called MA Recordings.

Egüez was a student of Hopkinson Smith, which may partly explain his sensitivity as a player. His tempos tend to be moderate (though they never drag), and this allows him to bring particular expressivity to the Bach suites. Just listen to the nice, light, rocking rhythm he brings to the Gigue that concludes BWV 995. He plays with finesse and spontaneity; his intentionally hesitant phrasing in the Loure of BWV 1006a makes the piece seem like a free fantasia, and while he is perfectly capable of crisp articulation (which comes naturally to the lute and leads to mechanical playing in the hands of less gifted performers), Egüez is also a master of legato line, which he can produce without romanticizing the music.

MA makes gorgeous recordings, and the bulk of its select catalog involves very artful world music, but whatever the genre, the sonics are about the best you’ll hear in the standard Redbook CD format. Here, the perspective is close in a resonant acoustic (an old monastery), providing a sonic image that is precise and full of presence, yet airy. The audio quality enhances the character of the scores and playing: meditatative, searching performances perfect for late-night listening.

GUARNERI RECORDINGS RESURRECTED

posted by James Reel

As you may know, the Arizona Friends of Chamber Music, of which I’m an officer, will present one of the last-ever performances by the Guarneri String Quartet, on April 22 at the Leo Rich Theater. You can find the article on the Guarneri I wrote for Strings magazine here; if the site demands that you log in, use the password “chamber.”

In Tucson, the Guarneri Quartet will play Bartók, Mozart and Dvořák, quartets the ensemble recorded long ago. Many of those recordings from the 1960s and ’70s never made it to CD—until now. Take a look at this press release from its record label:

The Guarneri Quartet, a vibrant, beloved fixture on the chamber music scene for the better part of forty-five years, has launched its farewell tour amid an outpouring of critical and popular affection. Sony Masterworks pays tribute to the standard-setting ensemble with an album of new material, The Hungarian Album, featuring Dohnányi’s String Quartet No. 2 in D-flat Major, Op. 15; Kodály’s String Quartet No. 2, Op. 10; and Dohnányi’s String Quartet No. 3 in A Minor, Op. 33.

The Guarneri Quartet, one of the most distinguished string quartets of our time, will retire at the end of the 2008/2009 concert season. Violinists Arnold Steinhardt and John Dalley, violist Michael Tree, and cellist Peter Wiley (the only non-originating member of the group) have made a name for themselves with splendid, unfussy, Old-World musicianship that seems to enliven every piece they play from the inside out.

Having recorded numerous critically acclaimed albums for RCA Red Seal during its illustrious career, it was only appropriate that the Guarneri Quartet cap off this abiding collaboration with a release of new material. Dohnányi’s String Quartet No. 2 in D-flat major is a masterpiece of the repertoire — full of lean, careening, darting lines that call forth the Hungarian folk tradition in rich, Romantic tonalities. The atmosphere of Kodály’s String Quartet No. 2, only one of two that he composed, is quite different, with its silky, slinking, teasing melodies that seem to expire in a single breath. The propulsive energy of Dohányi’s String Quartet No. 3 closes the disc. Sony Masterworks is proud to present the ensemble in a recording that again demonstrates the group’s mastery of style through their understanding of a composer’s intentions.

To commemorate its longstanding recording relationship with the ensemble, Sony Masterworks is also making available for the first time in digital format an incredible sampling of the quartet’s back catalogue. These eight recordings, which were never previously released on CD, are treasures of the group’s discography. They include Bartók: The String Quartets, Brahms: String Quartets & Quintets, Mozart: String Quartets, Dvorák: String Quartets & Terzetto, Italian Album, Schubert: String Quartets, Mendelssohn/Schumann: String Quartets, and Mozart:/Beethoven/Dvorák: String Quintets. They will be available on all digital service providers, including iTunes and Amazon MP3 store on Tuesday, February 3, coinciding with the release of The Hungarian Album. CDs, complete with each album’s original cover art and liner notes, will be available exclusively through ArkivMusic.com.

The extensive farewell tour will take the quartet to almost every major city in the U.S. The earliest concert reviews are already in, celebrating an ensemble that is leaving while “still at the top of its game” (Columbus Dispatch). Mark Swed of The Los Angeles Times calls the ensemble the “Rolls Royce” of string quartets and praises the group’s “ultra-plush, million-dollar tone.” The critical response to the farewell tour is no polite acknowledgement of artists in the autumn of their abilities, but rather a celebration of an ensemble still at the height of its powers. The tour is a must-see event of the 2008/09 season.

The Quartet continues their longstanding series and residency at the University of Maryland, where they are on the faculty. As they told the Columbus Dispatch, “None of us are thinking of this as retirement in any way, because individually, we'll continue playing and we'll continue teaching.”