Klarinet Archive - Posting 000228.txt from 2008/11

From: kurtheisig@-----.net
Subj: RE: [kl] Bear Woodson - Surely the world's Greatest Composer?
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2008 23:17:51 -0500

Twice I have seen a near riot after a performance. Both, I believe were in the spring of "72. The first was at the San Francisco Symphony in the old War Memorial Opera House. The conductor was---well---but the 1st trumpet was Don Reinberg. The piece was the "Poem of Ecstasy" by Scriabin.

As the last notes of this Ecstasy faded the audience went mad. I was in the conductor's seats which we students got at hugely reduced prices in the back of the balcony. I was studying conducting at the time, so paying attention to every detail. The audience LEAPT to their feet so suddenly that I was afraid the balcony would rip loose! people wee running up and down the balcony, but not in the aisles--OVER the seats! People were screaming and crying hysterically and hugging strangers in the aisles. Absolute pandemonium!

The other was later that spring at the Flint Center in Cupertino. It was the last concert conducted by Bill Trimble with the Saratoga High School Band and Orchestra. He was leaving and going to SJSU as sax instructor. Sigurd Rascher was the soloist doing among his pieces the Karel Husa. Trimble was awesome with his groups and had been deeply loved in Saratoga.

The audience did the exact same things. A HIGH SCHOOL concert!

Trimble himself got so carried aw2ay he was marching around the stage with a chair---by the leg--in each hand, then put them down and picked up 2 students and marched around the stage with them held up in the air.

Music CAN get emotional.

Kurt

-----Original Message-----
>From: Karl Krelove <karlkrelove@-----.net>
>Sent: Nov 16, 2008 7:37 PM
>To: klarinet@-----.org
>Subject: RE: [kl] Bear Woodson - Surely the world's Greatest Composer?
>
>I wasn't there, of course, but reading about this recently in Alex Ross's
>book The Rest Is Noise, I found that the reaction in the audience at the
>premier may have been more a matter of clique dynamics than a collective
>statement of opinion about the music, which was, as Ross describes the event
>(though he wasn't there either) barely heard that night through the din. And
>the critical reaction in Paris was evidently surprisingly positive,
>considering this tradition we've been passed regarding Rite's riotous public
>initiation. At any rate, Stravinsky's recognition as a positive force in the
>development of 20th century music didn't need to wait long after the
>appearance of those early ballets.
>
>Karl
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Gary/Jan Truesdail [mailto:gir@-----.net]
>Sent: Sunday, November 16, 2008 9:54 PM
>To: klarinet@-----.org
>Subject: RE: [kl] Bear Woodson - Surely the world's Greatest Composer?
>
>Bear,
>
>Remember, Rite of Spring was trashed by the audience before the
>intermission, not just because of the choreography, and went on to become
>enormously influential to the compositional "bag of tricks" that many
>composers use today.
>
>Keep writing!
>
>Gary Truesdail
>
>odwind.org
>
>
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