But my life has been filled with so much music lately, it's ridiculous. All of it is good, all of it makes me happy, all of it is epic and wonderful. Last weekend I went to DC to play some video game quartet music for The Art of Video Games exhibit in at the Smithsonian. It was so much fun! I have very limited video game experience, but as soon as I became aware of the music a few years ago, I absolutely admire and enjoy the soundtracks. So good, so well written, and so very well adapted for string quartet by my good friend Chad! We were much more popular than we expected (even signing some autographs), and it looks like we'll get a few more gigs out of it!
My trip to DC happened to coincide with one of my favorite currently touring bands ever. The Infamous Stringdusters played at the 930 club, and wow. If you don't know about them, go listen to everything they've ever done. If you do, then you know. I already knew they put on a good show, because I've seen them plenty of times before - but this was honestly the best I've ever seen them. And good company enjoying it with me made it even better!
Then, as soon as I got back, the Cleveland Orchestra was performing a guest concert here in Nashville at the Schermerhorn. They played Beethoven Symphony #6 (which I always find fitting for this time of year) ( --Beethoven 7 is for rainy days, 6 is for warm spring days. 9 is for summer. 5 is for doomful situations.) The Grieg Piano Concert0, played magnificently by Gabriela Montero (who dazzled us with an encore, improvised the Dr. Zhivago theme in the style of a tango), and then Pines of Rome (Respighi). It was. Fantastic. Pines of Rome is just one of those pieces that, by the end, the world could end and no one would mind. I was impressed with the Cleveland Orchestra, too - not that the Nashville Symphony isn't as good, they are just a slightly different (if slightly rougher) flavor experience. Like, if the Cleveland Orchestra is Maker's Mark, the Nashville Symphony is perhaps Jack Daniels. (which makes the Baltimore Symphony Jameson; the Minnesota Orchestra would be Glenfiddich)
My own little orchestra, the Nashville Philharmonic, is a six-pack of something delicious. Maybe Fat Tire. This upcoming concert series is a really, really great program. We are playing the Sibelius Symphony No.2, that I didn't know at all until we started rehearsing, but I have fallen completely in love with it! I love playing music that I can recognize things that modern composers mooch off of, for movie soundtracks. Dvorak, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Sibelius. They were there before John Williams, before Hans Zimmer, and they used techniques and textures to convey things on a broader scale than just the pictures and plots we are forced to associate with modern classical soundtracks. Don't get me wrong - those are great now. Just recognize the great people that came first.
ALSO in the last week, I've been to two graduate recitals at Belmont. One violin and one cello, two grad students that I'm friends with. Both were terrific! Highlights were the 1st movement of the Tchaikovsky violin concerto (that I'm already very familiar with, but his performance was just stellar), and the Boccherini Cello Concerto No. 9 (I had heard her practicing it, but I had never heard it with accompaniment, it was delightful!)
So what's next? This weekend I'm going to the Nashville Symphony. Here's the program:
Kodály - Dances of Galanta
Rachmaninoff - Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, OP. 43
Franck - Symphony in D minor
I'm most excited for the Rachmaninoff - but stay tuned for a review, and also more about the Spring Duet Recital in the works!
rebecca
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