Review: Christmas Concert Awesomeness

I love Christmas!

figure Christmas spirit: "Where do you think you're going? Nobody's leaving. Nobody's walking out on this fun, old-fashioned family Christmas. No, no. We're all in this together. This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny fucking Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse."

And, oh boy, do I love the symphony Christmas concert! It just fills me with the Christmas spirit.

I only wish that I could have been at all of these concerts!

So in the name of the Christmas spirit of generosity, there was so much to enjoy that I couldn't share just one review.

Review: Holly Jolly Christmas Spectacular Symphony Jubilation Mash-up

An uncommonly well-danced production of "The Nutcracker" delighted a Saturday afternoon audience at the Midland Center for the Arts Auditorium.

Subtle.

"The symphony is pleased to once again be able to present 'The Nutcracker' with live orchestra," Great Falls Symphony Executive Director Carolyn Valacich said. "Tchaikovsky's great score deserves no less!"

No less indeed. Frankly, I think more symphony concerts should feature the live orchestra.

But the singalong is coming soon, right?

The program’s popularity can be explained in just two words: Beethoven’s Ninth.

It is Christmas, who wants shit we've never heard before anyways?

Plus, that piece is long. A little too long if you know what I mean -- I'm pretty sure only socialist like music that long. Plus, I want to sing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," possibly the greatest song on the subject figgy pudding ever written.

The program started with Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor, a four-part work featuring themes that would be familiar to many listeners.

Whoa! Slow down, Poindexter. I realize that I'll be forced to sit through all these "old" pieces...but I don't need to read about them too. Let's just get onto the singalong already!

Other than the “Hallelujah,” about 100 musicians performed at any given time, a chamber-sized ensemble entirely appropriate for the Baroque piece and the size of the church sanctuary.

100 = chamber sized? But...

"Hallelujah"?! That's that one about Jebus, right? I think know the words to that one...

HAL - LE - LU - JAH!

Richardson framed the symphony as Mozart’s look...

HAL - LE - LU - JAH!

...ahead to what the future of classical music could be, and the orchestra...

HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!

...brought that vision to life...

HAL LE eh eh LU JAH!

...brought that vision to life by milking every nuance of the piece in its performance.

Whoa, I wasn't paying attention. Richardson did what now? Milked the symphony?

Understanding what they were singing about was simple. All you had to do was read the English translation of the German text...

Can you dumb it down a shade?

Next came the jazzy “Hot Chocolate” from the movie “The Polar Express.” On film and in person, it’s one of those holiday songs that uses schmaltz in a way that could be considered cheesy if it wasn’t so fun and endearing.

"Hot Chocolate"? Wasn't that the sex mini-game in Grand Theft Auto? That's not cheesy, that's just awesome.

Maybe this concert is going to feature something even better than the singalong.

Musicians and singers changed musical genres at the drop of a hat.

?

After that, the lights came up, the Yampa Valley Singers came on stage, more youth musicians set up their stands and the audience joined for a Christmas singalong.

Yeah! Finally, the singalong!

HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!

figure Christmas singing: "It's Christmas Eve. It's-it's the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we-we-we smile a little easier, we-w-w-we-we-we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year we are the people that we always hoped we would be."

While I did pay my compliments as an appreciative stranger, it seemed inappropriate to ask the name of the woman sitting in the pew behind me at Saturday's annual Holiday Pops concert by the Lubbock Symphony Orchestra....

Another gentleman in attendance at the church was right on the money, though, when he told her that, in this case, she should be singing with the choir, not with the audience.

HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!

Handel would have been proud of the community feel of the performance.

That was so much fun. Yeah!

And, oh...

figure more Christmas spirit: "The bitch hit me with a toaster."

HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH!

-----------------------------
Sources:
Red -- from the Midland Daily News
Gray -- Great Falls Tribune
Green -- from the San Diego News Network:
Purplely-pink like color -- Steamboat Today
Blue -- San Antonio Express News
Brown -- Lubbock Online

Interchangable Prepostions; Dead Editors

It's delightful, occasionally, to peruse some of the smaller papers' reviews. Also delightful is encountering the fanciful names of said papers; in this case, the Steamboat Pilot & Today.

This puff piece was, really, just fine. It could've used the light, deft touch of the practiced pen of someone perhaps accustomed to tidying up the quickly composed prose of feature writers. Oh, if only such a position existed!

But, really, all prepositions being equal...

Orchestra inspired in opener, Margaret Hair, Steamboat Pilot & Today

A trio of solo performances from...

by?

...from guest violinist Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio and a spirited rendition of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 made for a smooth opening night

(Passive voice, but whatever.)

for the Steamboat Springs Orchestra’s 2009-10 season Saturday at Strings Music Pavilion.

Also, a delightfully named Pavilion!

Sant’Ambrogio and her father, John, who is the orchestra’s principal cellist, started the program with their first public performance of Vivaldi’s Concerto in B-flat Major for Violin, Cello and Orchestra.

[I'd omit "who is" as unnecessary, but I don't get paid by the word. Er, or at all.]

The orchestra [was?] appropriately laid back for most of the piece, lightly complementing the Sant’Ambrogios’ natural similarities in playing style.

"Natural similarities" of father and daughter? Sounds more like "nurture." Is string technique inherited?

There aren’t too many hints on how loud to play and when...

"How loud to play and when"? Er, dynamics? Also: "hints on"?

I can understand not wanting to saddle the unwashed, ignorant masses of Steamboat Springs, Colorado with a bunch of Super-Technical Music Jargon Words, but let's give them a little credit. Or better, a little prose style.

...in the classical sheet music of Vivaldi’s time;

Worst. Phrase. Ever.

that had no impact on the easy interchanges between the featured violinist and cellist, who gave a seamless performance.

The lack of dynamic markings didn't hinder the soloists' interpretation? A breakthrough in Baroque performance practice!

On...

On? In?

On Franz Schubert’s Konzertstuck in D Major for Violin and Orchestra, Stephanie Sant’Ambrogio gave a strong interpretation

Okay. Good enough, but where's the period indicating that...wait, there's more sentence?

...of the classical piece.

I guess there really wasn't more sentence. Huh.

For...

For?! (In? During? Throughout?)

For Fritz Kreisler’s Tambourin Chinois, the guest soloist breezed through the choppiest patches of the virtuoso piece...

Virtuostic? Adjective?

with what seemed to be technical ease.

As opposed to metaphorical or allegorical ease? Interpretive ease?

While the first part of the program was solid, the biggest wave of energy on the night...

I like (honestly!) that the first part of the program was solid, and the second a wave (probably really a particle/wave) of energy.

While the first part of the program was solid, the biggest wave of energy on...

...of?...

...on the night came with...

During?

...with the last movement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4, a section SSO Music Director Ernest Richardson described in a program break as pure joy.

But not as "pure joy," I infer.

The rest of the group must have agreed, offering a rendition of that...

...the?...

...that last movement that filled the Strings Music Pavilion with sound for the first time in...

During?

...in the concert program.

The rest of the program was silent? Pantomimed?

Richardson has a definite gift for giving the audience access points to classical music,

"Access points?" Okay.

...and he did that with quick, sometimes humorous descriptions of each movement in...

...of?

...in the symphony.

*deep breath*

It gives the listener something to look [listen?] for and hold on to,

Er...

...and reminds the audience that classical composers had more interesting inspiration to...

To? Uh...for, maybe? Or maybe not. What-

...to their music than we might remember.

I don't know what that means. I'm not sure if that sentence means anything.

What is it assumed that we "might" "remember" "classical composers" "had interesting inspiration" "to"?

Gaah!

With each concert, the Steamboat Springs Orchestra shows its ability to tap into more and more of that inspiration.

Whew.

Normally, I'd probably leave out the "for more information, go to..." tag, but this one contains a hidden gem!

The group has three more concerts with $20-per-person advance ticket prices and two fancier soirees scheduled for the season,

Must...not...point out...missing accent...italicize...foreign words...gnnnnh...

...with classical repertoire standpoint pieces such as Dvorak’s “New World Symphony” and Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 on the program lists. For more information about the 2009-10 season, go to www.steamboatorchestra.org.

"Classical repertoire standpoint pieces" is totally the name on my new punk band ensemble that I just imagined in to my head.

It's late, so here is a picture that is fun to look at:

Figure 0: Robert Fulton's Claremont, ?ca 1807