Verdi and the Mambo Kings
May 5, 2008 by Janz
Well, since nobody has asked a question recently, I’ll write about this past weekend’s concerts. Saturday night we were joined by the Mambo Kings for a Pops concert. I thought they were great, though I am biased as I have a soft spot for Latin Jazz. I especially enjoyed their orchestral arrangements. They were fun and interesting to play, not too many footballs. For those of you that are not familiar with the term “footballs” applied to orchestral playing, “footballs” is the insider’s term for whole notes. As in “Man, this concert is nothing but footballs!”. Here’s a picture of a whole note.
I guess they sort of look like footballs. Now, playing a whole note is not the end of the world, we do play them often and nobody gets hurt. However, at times we play music that is pages and pages of “footballs”, inevitably marked fortissimo. Not only is this absolutely mind-numbing, but also physically tiring. So say no to footballs and yes to the Mambo Kings and their arrangements.
Sunday we performed an adaptation of Verdi’s Requiem , The Defiant Requiem. You can read about it by following the link, but in a few words, between 1943 and 1944 prisoners in the Nazi concentration camp of Terezín put together and performed Verdi’s Requiem 16 times. The Defiant Requiem tells their story through the use of film footage, interviews, and narration interspersed throughout Verdi’s work. It was a powerful performance. The music of the Requiem is incredibly moving on its own and combining it with the story of the Terezín concentration camp made it even more poignant. It puts the Requiem text in a different light and meaning.
Obviously two very different concerts but together made for a nice weekend of music making. Next weekend it’s Ravel’s La Valse, Paderewski’s Piano Concerto and Tyberg’s Symphony No.3. In the meantime, how about asking a question to make our blogging easier?!?
P.S. If you were at either of these concerts last weekend, please do post comments. It’s always fun to hear what the audience thought of our performances. And don’t worry if it’s not all good, we are quite thick skinned, we can take it!
My husband and I attended the Defiant Requiem on Sunday. We enjoyed the concert and the narration very much. My husband did tend to nod off in the quiet sections but that didn’t last long when the loud sections came along. It was very moving.
By the way, I play the bassoon in our church orchestra and I agree with the comments about the whole notes. They can get quite mind numbing na d exhausting. Quite often I will forget where I am in the music. I plan on using your your term about the footballs at practice. Thanks!
Ellen, thanks for your comment. The concert was just over 2 hours long, without intermission, so you can’t really blame your husband for nodding off here and there! Glad to hear you enjoyed the performance.
My wife is also a bassoonist so I am very familiar with bassoon writing, and honestly I feel some composers don’t really use the bassoon to its fullest potential, which is a shame given its great character and timbre. Luckily the great composers do put them to good use!
Hi, Buffalo Chamber Players, I am an alto in in the BPC and also sang with the Schola Cantorum in the Thomas Swan heyday between 1981 and 1993. I wanted to congratulate your group for forming and striving to present some lesser known musical works. I have joined your e mail list and look forward to attending some of your concerts. Even though I grew up in Rochester and was a prep student at the Eastman School of Music many years ago, I think that the Buffalo music scene rocks..
As a bassist, I agree: just say no to “footballs.”
I attended the Sunday performance of the Requiem and it was indeed a moving experience. I must confess I was afraid that Verdi’s music might be diminished by Mr. Sidlin’s script (as I have witnessed in other Concert Illuminations), but it was an effective, emotive presentation. Bravo to Amy Glidden for her fortitude during her beautiful concluding solo! And thank you to the BPO for a memorable performance.
Here’s a question: did anyone check out the artwork in the Mary Seaton Room that was displayed during the Verdi concert, and if so, what was your reaction? I think it was a great idea to combine visual arts and music around a central theme.
Cathy, thanks for your kind words! The Buffalo Chamber Players has really been a musically satisfying project for us. Since you already joined our mailing list at our site, you probably saw that we are having a concert next Wednesday. For the rest of you, you can find details about it at buffalochamberplayers.com. We even have a blog there too!
Ann, I wished they had told the musicians about the artwork in the Mary Seaton room! This is the first I hear of it. I agree with you that combining visual and performing arts can make for some powerful synergy. It’s interesting, I also shared your skepticism about adding the script to the music. But as you stated, in this case it definitely worked. Just out of curiosity, which of his other “Illuminations” have you seen/heard? He seems to have a ton of them!
The “Illumination” I saw a few years ago in Aspen was “Who Killed Mozart?”. The music was great of course, but the script used elements from the TV show Law & Order and turned out rather silly. I like Law & Order (and its variations) so when the show’s characteristic two-note sound byte was used, it was very funny…the first time. They used the sound clip several times and it quickly lost the novelty. The “Illumination” seemed to focus more on the kitschy gimmick of Law & Order rather than Mozart or his music.
I thought I had seen at least one other of his Illuminations at the Aspen Music Festival, but my husband informs me we were working during the concert, so we only saw portions of it. I saw part of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony performed during the “Russian David, Soviet Goliath” Illumination, but I don’t think I watched any of the scripted portion. I did see the actor Jack Nicholson in attendance, though, which was very cool!