Klarinet Archive - Posting 000249.txt from 2008/11

From: "David Lamb" <dlamb@-----.com>
Subj: Re: [kl] Bear Woodson - Surely the world's Greatest Composer?
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2008 15:42:57 -0500

Kurt Heisig writes about two concerts that had tremendous emotional impact
on the audience.

> As the last notes of this Ecstasy [Scriabin] faded the audience went mad.
> (snip) The audience LEAPT to their feet so suddenly that I was afraid the
> balcony would rip loose! people were 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 event was a high school band concert conducted by Bill Trimble.

> Trimble himself got so carried away 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.

I have not seen much of this spontaneous explosion of audience emotion in
response to brand new music, but it does happen occasionally. Two years ago
I attended the premiere of Ofer Ben-Amots's "Klezmer Concerto" -- a work
commissioned by David Krakauer. It is an exicting and highly emotional
work, and of course Krakauer's playing set fire to everything. We were on
our feet before the end of the last note, cheering, stamping, hugging our
neighbors -- in short, going nuts. This carried on for some time until
Krakauer came back and played an encore with the orchestra. Our emotions
were not yet drained, and as we went out into the lobby, there were already
people singing and dancing the hora. Soon an impromptu klezmer band (from
the orchestra) appeared, and we continued dancing. It was glorious! About
six months later, I had the pleasure of hearing the work a second time --
again with David Krakauer and an orchestra conducted by Yaki Bergman. Again
there was the immediate joyful uproar at the conclusion of the piece. This
time we didn't get the hora out in the lobby, but it was a great and
uplifting experience all the same.

Music does have emotional power, and in my opinion this is the kind of music
that can save classical music in our time. I must remind you that
Ben-Amots, besides being creatively gifted, is also a thoroughly educated
theoretical scholar and teaches theory and composition at Colorado College.
Theoretical skill need not and should not put a damper on genuine emotional
expression.

David Lamb in Seattle

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