Showing posts with label Maribor Festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maribor Festival. Show all posts
Saturday, September 24, 2011
A Music Critic on Maribor Festival
Laurence Vittes is a music critic in Los Angeleles. Here his view on the Maribor Festival.
Wednesday, September 07, 2011
4'33"
Tonight I heard John Cage's work 4'33" for the first time since I heard about it in art school in Dunedin. It is odd that all musicians and artists know this work but most of the general public don't (and that included me until I went to art school).
This is from the Wikipedia entry on on John Cage:
Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″, the three movements of which are performed without a single note being played. The content of the composition is meant to be perceived as the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed,[8] rather than merely as four minutes and 33 seconds of silence,[9] and the piece became one of the most controversial compositions of the 20th century .
Well, it is still controversial. A man sitting near me hissed the pianist when he left the stage and some people left soon after. On the other hand, a Slovenian artist told me after the concert that she had come to this particular concert just to hear this work. Her son said there is a cover band who filmed themselves playing 4'33" and put it on YouTube. They played it fast so it only lasted half the time!
This is from the Wikipedia entry on on John Cage:
Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″, the three movements of which are performed without a single note being played. The content of the composition is meant to be perceived as the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed,[8] rather than merely as four minutes and 33 seconds of silence,[9] and the piece became one of the most controversial compositions of the 20th century .
Well, it is still controversial. A man sitting near me hissed the pianist when he left the stage and some people left soon after. On the other hand, a Slovenian artist told me after the concert that she had come to this particular concert just to hear this work. Her son said there is a cover band who filmed themselves playing 4'33" and put it on YouTube. They played it fast so it only lasted half the time!
Friday, September 02, 2011
Musical interiors
I intended to upload another image of Maribor but I discovered that in the four days I have been here I have only taken one. All my photos are taken in the concert hall.
I have just come back from the first concert of the Maribor Festival. A nostalgic piece called Nostalgia (!) by Takemitsu (written originally for Yehudi Menuhin) lead into Beethoven which lead into a piece by Janacek that blew the socks off the audience and must have been heard several miles away. Then a piece by Lutoslavski, a Polish composer that no one had heard of. It turned out to be a perfect follow on from Janacek.
That is the point about this festival I think. The programming is outstanding, as well as the musicians.
That is the point about this festival I think. The programming is outstanding, as well as the musicians.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Post festival blues
Alas the Maribor festival is over. This evening's concert in the packed Maribor Cathedral was Rachmaninov then Mozart's Requeim.
The Orchestra and Choir of London singers got a standing ovation and now the players and singers are celebrating the end of festival in the KGB Club down by the river from whence I have just come.
I came home early as the club is in a basement down a very steep flight of stairs and I decided it would be too easy to drink a glass too much and have difficulty getting to street level again.
The Slovenian Philharmonic leave after the party for Ljubliana and everyone else seems to be catching early trains out tomorrow. There is no commercial airport in Maribor so people train to Graz, Vienna or Ljubliana. I head off to Graz tomorrow then 12 hours on to Hamburg the next day. Twelves hours, but I'll have music in my ears and a head full of paintings.
PS The sketch is of cellist Jan-Erik Gustafsson.
The Orchestra and Choir of London singers got a standing ovation and now the players and singers are celebrating the end of festival in the KGB Club down by the river from whence I have just come.
I came home early as the club is in a basement down a very steep flight of stairs and I decided it would be too easy to drink a glass too much and have difficulty getting to street level again. The Slovenian Philharmonic leave after the party for Ljubliana and everyone else seems to be catching early trains out tomorrow. There is no commercial airport in Maribor so people train to Graz, Vienna or Ljubliana. I head off to Graz tomorrow then 12 hours on to Hamburg the next day. Twelves hours, but I'll have music in my ears and a head full of paintings.
PS The sketch is of cellist Jan-Erik Gustafsson.
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