#Charlotte Symphony Orchestra

[datshitrandom]

𖦹 New Year ft. Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (Atlanta, GA) | Download 𖦹 Don't You/Stutter (Charlotte, NC) | Download 𖦹 Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Charlotte, NC) | Download 𖦹 Sami/Even Though (Clearwater, FL) | Download 𖦹 I Still Think (Fort Lauderdale, FL) | Download 𖦹 I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (Fort Lauderdale, FL) | Download 𖦹 Christmas Medley (Fort Lauderdale, FL) | Download 𖦹 When You Wish Upon A Star (Orlando, FL) | Download 𖦹 A Very Potter Musical Medley (Durham, NC) | Download 𖦹 I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (Vienna, VA) | Download 𖦹 Christmas Dance & Medley | Download 𖦹 I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (Toronto, ON) | Download 𖦹 Teenage Dream (Detroit, MI) | Download 𖦹 Winter Wonderland (Detroit, MI) | Download 𖦹 I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas (Madison, WI) | Download 𖦹 Teenage Dream/Have Yourself A Merry Christmas (Madison, WI) | Download 𖦹 To Have a Home (Northfield, OH) | Download 𖦹 Teenage Dream (Northfield, OH) | Download 𖦹 Somewhere In My Memory (Nashville, TN) | Download 𖦹 Medley (Nashville, TN) | Download

AVDC 2023 Masterpost | AVCD 2022 Masterpost | More Audios | ♡

[lesser-known-composers]

Gösta Nystroem (1890-1966) - Sinfonia del mare "Symphony No. 3": III. Lento ·

Charlotte Hellekant, soprano (?)

Conductor: Evgeny Svetlanov

Orchestra: Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

[artfulusername]

Hail the Nightmare | Bloodborne | WMGSO's Fall 2023 Concert

Need a little spooky this holiday season? The Washington Metropolitan Gamer Symphony Orchestra can help! Check out our latest video release on YouTube. Enjoy!

[endofherwildsideau]

♬彡🎼~𝙼𝚒𝚛𝚊~🎼彡♬

Reference Sheet: | Her Soul:

Her Voice by Brandy & her singing

| lullaby | Animal Mode | Old-Self | Teacher | Bioluminescence | Causal | Arrival | Aria | Pirouette |

Deadname: Mirabel Dancer

Name: Princess Mira the Heron Alpha

Name Meaning: Admirable; peace; female ruler; ocean. Abundance. Bitter. A mythical princess. Worthy of admiration; wonderful; marvelous. Merry, filled with mirth. Light. Wonder. Behold. Extraordinary; to be admired; beautiful.

Nicknames: Mimi, Mia, or melody.

Birthday: June 21

Age: 177 (Die at the age of 16)

Species: Great Blue Heron Harpy

Race: Mexican-American

Gender: Female ♀

Relationship status: Married

Sexuality: Straight Ally

Anniversary Date: August 5

Role or Jobs: Minor Alpha, Orchestra Teacher, ballet teacher, Goddess of Darkness, and music.

Home World: Earth (Formerly) Miracle Region (Currently)

Home: Nightfall Palace

Facts: Mira was a talented teenager when she was alive, but she had a devastating heart attack while performing. Her parents abused her, and they tried to make her "famous". She never had the chance to be like other normal girls, unlike her sister who ran away from their strict parents and never heard again. She enjoys music such as classical orchestra, music of Medieval, and symphony, but her aversion to and hatred Techno, electro, and remix music a lot. Now, in the region of miracles, she is a famous ballet and music, and singing instructor. She's unable to control the dark because of the loss of control.

Partner:

Prince Zios the God of Light & Sounds (Husband)

Parents:

Unnamed parents

Sibling:

Unnamed sister

Relative:

Charlotte the Ragamuffin Kitten (Niece-In-law)

Abilities:

Avian Physiology

Harpy Physiology

Human Physiology

Pelican Physiology

360-Degree Vision

Aerial Adaptation

Animal Mode

Atmospheric Adaptation

Bioluminescence

Ceiling Walk

Cloud Walking

Declaration Aging

Digitigrade Legs

Enhanced Agility

Enhanced Balance

Enhanced Endurance

Enhanced Flexibility

Enhanced Footwork

Enhanced Lung Capacity

Enhanced Reflexes

Enhanced Senses

Feather Manifestation

Feather Projection

Glowing Eyes - only when the power is active or glows in the dark.

Hair Growth

Hollow Skeleton

Infinite Digestive System

Omnilingualism

Magical Feathers

Magnetic Vision

Pointed Ears

Prehensile Feet

Prehensile Wings

Regeneration Healer Factor

Talon Protrusion

Ultraviolet Perception

Unique Eye Coloration

Unique Hair Coloration

Wing Manifestation 

Zoolingualism

Zoological Mastery

Powers:

Ballet Mastery

Contaminant Immunity

Dance Embodiment

Dance Empowerment

Dance Manipulation

Darkness Defense

Darkness Imprisonment

Disease Immunity

Hypnotic Music

Magical Telekinesis

Music Aura

Music Empowerment

Music Generation

Music Manipulation

Musical Animation

Musical Attacks

Musical Empathic Projection

Musical Empathy

Musical Healing

Musical Inducement

Musical Instrument Manipulation

Musical Projection

Musical Regeneration

Musical Visualization

Mystical Dancing

Rhythm Intuition

Singing Mastery

Song Augmentation

Song Magic

Shadow Camouflage

Shadow Pinning

Shadow Stealth

Umbrakinetic Immunity

[non-binary-laurie-strode]

11 & 12!

Something you want to do again next year?

I think it was in like May? We went to the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra for their symphonic Broadway music show. It was really neat! We got front row seats for like $15 each because I guess they have like, accessibility/affordability dynamic pricing? Our schedule hasn't ever lined up again with something I'd like to see, but I would like to do that again.

A new friend you've made this year.

Everyone say hello to Penny, Chip, and Used Napkin :)

[samusique-concrete]

My fav albums of 2022!

I’m trying to at least squeeze in this post in January 2023, hehe :p 

I’ll go from last to first. Let’s go!

10: Dawn FM - The Weeknd

I’ll be honest, i’m not in love with the entirety of this record. I think it has some of the best pop songs that’ve dropped recently (back to back even!), but after track 7 it’s not quite the same (am i alone in this?? let me know!!). It’s a shame too, because at 16 tracks total, the “great” part ends up being less than half of the album. Sooo why is it on my top 10 at all? Well, because i did still play it and replay it tons of times. Those first songs on it... man. Immaculate vibes. Though after Out of Time ends i almost always turn it off 😅

Side tangent regarding Out of Time, btw: I’ve always liked OPN, and getting the chance to listen to his production on big artists like this is kind of a treat. When i heard OoT though i was like “Damn! They arranged this?! This is really precise and detailed and far beyond the scope of what i thought they were capable of...” So then when i learned that the backing track was actually sampled from Tomoko Aran’s 1983 song Midnight Pretenders i was really disappointed (i’d even listened to that album AND song before, i just didn’t remember it). We’ll leave the discussion of how i feel about covers/sampling in general for another day though!

Fav song on it: Gasoline

09: The Ruby Cord - Richard Dawson

I’m telling you man, that Hermit song? Those 41 minutes go by reeeal quick. Don’t be scared of pure beauty! On top of it there are also some other banging tracks as well. The Fool’s soundscape is another highlight for me, for example.

Fav song on it: The Hermit

08: Fawn - Foxtails

I like heavy shit, although i’m not usually into screamo stuff... but i’m kinda slowly changing that. This record was great for me in that regard cuz it’s not all entirely sung in that style. Great entry point if you wanna get attuned with that general sound, probably. I didn’t know this band prior to hearing this, and now i can say i’m a fan! These tunes rule. They sound younger than me though, and i’m still trying to cope with that LOL

Fav song on it: Space orphan

07: Tropical Dancer - Charlotte Adigéry & Bolis Pupul

Brilliant dance/club/techno/house from these two. I would say “biting social commentary” if 1) it wasn’t the most clichéd phrase ever and 2) if it wasn’t at least the baseline """wokeness""" society should just operate at nowadays, honestly. It’s also charming and funny. And danceable AF. Great great great record; not many like it.

Fav song on it: Reappropiate

06: Super Champon - Otoboke Beaver

Punk! Heavy! Fast! Fun!

Fav song on it: First-class side-guy

05: Ants From Up There - Black Country, New Road

Lmao, speaking of musicians that’re younger than me. This album’s a certified instant classic, and you probably know that already. You don’t need to hear it from me again. You can listen to it again, though!

Fav song on it: Haldern

04: Renaissance - Beyoncé

Not much i can add to the discussion of this album, or Beyoncé in general... Well, actually, one thing that comes to mind is how this record comes off as extremely pro-capitalist and individualistic on her part. Idk i admit i don’t usually listen to her, so idk if that’s her usual spiel. It makes sense tho, with her being a gajillionare and having a completely different lifestyle than any of the people who listen to her. This album’s whole aesthetic is money. Even in the sound! It sounds like it was very expensive to make and like every single little beep and/or boop on it was analyzed and tested by a large team of specialists in order to fit perfectly in a song. I will say, though, it sounds fucking amazing. Really pristine production. Bop after bop. I’ve danced to this album a lot.

Fav song on it: Virgo’s Groove

03: Pigments - Dawn Richard & Spencer Zahn

I loooove the concept of this album. It reminds me of 2021′s Promises by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders & The London Symphony Orchestra in how a musical motif is introduced at the start and how it gets developed across the whole runtime of the record. I don’t wanna compare these two albums though; they’re very different. This one’s also really groovy at times! Love the composing, arranging, instrumentation, singing and everything else in this. And also, little details like the naming of the songs after... well, pigments, and having those pigments in order of appearance on the cover go a long way to making an album feel like a holistic, thought out experience for me. Love it!

Fav song on it: Crimson

02: Hellfire - Black Midi

Insane. Go listen to it if you haven’t already listened to it like 500 times like me. Or! Better yet, if you’ve heard it 500 times go and listen to it again. Insane! These kids really are pushing the whole jazz rock/prog rock/alt&art rock in general scene forward. I also love how each story (i.e. song) on this feels like a very different but still very tangible depiction of a hellish experience.

Fav song on it: Dangerous Liaisons

01: Motomami - Rosalía

Motomami’s an excellent record. That’s just how it is. It’s also special to me specifically because it dropped right around the time when i moved away from home, and i had it constantly on repeat on my new place. However, the real reason it’s on my #1 spot is because it kinda changed things, culturally speaking. It was a force of nature to be reckoned with, upon release. You see, i live in a natively Spanish speaking region, and over here this album was some sort of a cultural reset. I think that’s bigger than me or anyone else’s preferences, and it’s more than enough to warrant the top spot. I also just happen to love it!

Fav song on it: Diablo

Anyway. Have some honorable mentions as well, in no particular order:

Until next year!

[droughtofapathy]

"Welcome to the Theatre": Diary of a Broadway Baby

A Little Night Music in Concert

June 29, 2024 | Lincoln Center | David Geffen Hall | Evening | Concert | Limited Engagement | 2H 20M

All else aside, Jonathan Tunick's new orchestrations played by the 53-piece Orchestra of St. Luke’s were enchanting to listen to. There is a sublimeness to such a full symphony of instruments that we'll sadly never get on a Broadway stage again, owing to the sheer expense. But the tempo dragged, and the liberal cuts to the book muddied the story. And of course, rehearsal time is so limited for these special events. For what they had, it was a nice night.

And now it's time for me to be a bitch.

The casting for this concert was baffling from day one. The first mistake was casting an opera Diva and not an actress capable of musical theatre. Sondheim is meant for actresses who can sing, and vocal quality is far lower on the list than acting. While Susan Graham sounded lovely, her lush operettic voice is less suited to lyrics that require specific diction rather than soaring high notes. And she is just not up to acting this role. She is also 63, and while you all know I adore old broads, especially with greying hair, she would have made a better Mme. Armfeldt, at least in age, though again...not acting. She's fifteen years too old for Desiree. And Ron Raines as Frederick is about twenty too old for that. At least Raines did an admirable job of committing himself to the role and the acting. It mattered less that his strongest vocal days are past him. But their advanced ages unbalanced the whole narrative. The actress playing Anne was similarly too old, being in her late twenties, at least, though she did a fine job portraying youthful naivety. The girl cast as Fredericka was also a few too many years old, and her similar stature to Henrick made their interactions more charged than they should have been.

Marsha Mason did a better job than I think many expected, though not spectacular. Shuler Hensley as the Count was another odd casting choice, but he managed well enough. Cynthia Erivo as Petra on this final night did not live up to the hype. Perhaps because she fucked up the lyrics at the matinee and made the whole orchestra stop and start over, she seemed to be overcompensating tonight by relying too heavily on her script. She spent most of the song with her eyes trained on the pages, and did little to make it really pop. "The Miller's Son" is one of Sondheim's best, and I have seen it done many, many times. There's about 70/30 odds on whether it'll go well or not. This had to have been one of the least exciting renditions. It sounded beautiful, sure, but there was no euphoria for me. No delight at an actress nailing those tongue-twister lyrics. No joy and pride. Nothing memorable at all, not even a mistake.

What does fill me with some degree of pride is the fact that the strongest showings came from the two Asians in the cast. In a thankless role, Jin Ha was able to bring back "Silly People" (though it's clear why that song is cut because narratively it does the story no favors). Off-book, he performed the hell out of it. And Ruthie Ann Miles stole the show as Countess Charlotte. This is the role that you can really run away with, and boy did she ever. This dry rancor is her at her best. I adore her once again. (I had some...quibbles with her in Light in the Piazza, but that's neither here nor there anymore.)

In all, many mistakes and poor judgments from the producers deadened what could have been a night for the ages. Still, it was a night I don't regret. Though I wish I'd paid less.

Verdict: Well...I'm Glad I Saw It

A Note on Ratings

[happymeishappylife]

A Ride on Oumuamua, by Jeremy Lamb

'Oumuamua is Hawaiian for "first reach out" and it was the name given to the unusual, pancake-shaped object that floated through our Solar System in late 2017. It caught the public's attention partly due to being the first interstellar object ever observed, but it also became famous because of its strange shape and the mysterious acceleration it made after passing by the sun. Many scientists, including the notable Harvard professor Avi Loeb, began serious discussions about its nature. Perhaps it wasn't a rock at all; perhaps it was an object of alien manufacture?

As interested as I was in the swirling debate, what really inspired me for this piece was a little fact I came across one evening: 'Oumuamua had come from an area of sky that contained almost nothing, which meant it had been traveling for billions of years in absolute silence and then — suddenly — it appeared within a stone's throw of our beautiful planet Earth. In less than a month, 'Oumuamua was already gone, hurtling into another vast emptiness perhaps even larger than the one it had come from. To me, that sounded almost as magical as it did tragic.

A Ride on 'Oumuamua is a fantastical journey I composed with the hopes of conveying some of the awe I felt from imagining its long and lonely voyage. I wrote a few lines to better give you an idea of the narrative I had in mind:

In the beginning, the motion of the stars...

...and 'Oumuamua is born; a song is sung...

...'Oumuamua is hurled away; the journey begins...

...bursting stars, spectacular sights...

...icy worlds appear...

...a lonely voyage; calling out...

...but alone, the journey continues...

...entering deep space; no star in sight...

...approaching the Solar System, at last...

...through powerful magnetic storms...

...Earth appears...

...Earth fades into the distance...

...into the glorious unknown...

...infinite vistas; time loses meaning...

The piece was originally for two cellos and a double bass, specifically to play as a trio with my two closest friends in Charlotte, Sarah Markle and Taddes Korris. Sarah is a full-time member of the orchestra, and Taddes plays with us quite regularly, so you've probably seen them both on stage numerous times. Truthfully, I owe my inspiration for this piece as much to them as to 'Oumuamua itself. Friends like those two only come around once in a lifetime.

After some successful trio performances and a lot of encouragement from my girlfriend Jessica Swirat, I expanded the piece from trio to string orchestra, and that's the version you'll hear at this concert. I'm a very slow composer, though — it took me almost two years to finish this piece — so you can imagine how proud I'll be to hear it brought to life by my incredible colleagues in the Charlotte Symphony.

I also had the honor of speaking with Professor Avi Loeb earlier this month, so if you'd like to see someone speak about 'Oumuamua who really understands the science behind it, check out the video on charlottesymphony.org!

[chorusfm]

Ben Folds Announces New Tour

Ben Folds has announced some new tour dates. Emmy-nominated, multi-platinum selling music artist Ben Folds announces the return of his popular “Paper Airplane Request Tour,” performing solo shows across the US starting May 30, 2024. What initially began years ago as a request for songs as encores will once again be a central element in Folds’ shows when he engages audiences to make their song requests via paper airplanes. “The last time I did this on tour the response was overwhelming, with literally hundreds of paper airplanes with song requests being launched on cue from fans at the start of the second half of each of my concerts,” said Folds. “It’s the purest, most low-tech form of engagement that creates a special bond with my audiences.” Folds, who released his most recent album “What Matters Most” to critical acclaim, has been in studio in recent months working on his first holiday album targeted for release later this year. He’ll also be featured in a special PBS broadcast this spring that spotlights his ongoing “Declassified: Ben Folds Presents” concert series he curates as Artistic Advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. MAY 30 – CHARLESTON, SC – CHARLESTON MUSIC HALL 31 – AUGUSTA, GA – BELL AUDITORIUM JUNE 1 – PEACHTREE CITY, GA – THE FRED 2 – PELHAM, TN – THE CAVERNS 4 – CHARLOTTE, NC – BELK THEATER 6 – SAVANNAH, GA – DISTRICT LIVE 7 – VIRGINIA BEACH, VA – SANDLER CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS 8 – ROCKY MOUNT, VA – HARVESTER PERFORMANCE CENTER 9 – PITTSBURGH, PA – 3 RIVERS ARTS FESTIVAL 11 – RICHMOND, VA – LEWIS GINTER BOTANICAL GARDEN 21 – LOWELL, MA – LOWELL SUMER MUSIC SERIES 22 – GREAT BARRINGTON, MA – THE MAHAIWE PERFORMING ARTS CENTER 23 – HAMMONDSPORT, NY – POINT OF THE BLUFF CONCERT PAVILION 25 – KENT, OH – THE KENT STAGE 27 – TOLEDO, OH – PERISTYLE THEATER 28 – POTESKEY, MI – BAY VIEW JOHN M. HALL AUDITORIUM 29 – KALAMAZOO, MI – KALAMAZOO STATE THEATRE JULY 30 – BOISE, ID – MORRISON CENTER AUGUST 2 – STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, CO – STRINGS MUSIC PAVILION 5 – BOULDER, CO – CHAUTAUQUA AUDITORIUM 6 – BEAVER CREEK, CO – VILAR PERFORMING ARTS CENTER --- Please consider becoming a member so we can keep bringing you stories like this one. ◎ https://chorus.fm/news/ben-folds-announces-new-tour-2/

[william-t-sickofyourshit]

„Oh you don’t have to worry. Our horses are very gentle and well-trained. And Teddy is a good rider, so you’re in good hands, he will teach you everything.” Charlotte reassured. “James, please make sure we have riding shoes and helmet for Sebastian though. And let the stable boy know to prepare a horse for tomorrow, one that will be good for a beginner. Calm and gentle.” She gave an order right away, so that everything would be ready and Sebastian could ride horses. James nodded, reassuring that he will take care of everything. Sebastian, as a guest, was so pampered.

“How fun, I can’t wait to teach you, Sebastian. We will ride all over the estate, and I will show you around.” William promised, patting Sebastian’s hand happily. He was really looking forward to this. He always loved to spend time here at grandma’s, and now… now he will get to share all that with his beloved! What could be better?

“Excellent. So let’s make the promised tour around the estate tomorrow before lunch, and then in the afternoon you two can go horseback riding. Ah, that will be a very fun day for you.” Charlotte smiled. “And in the evening… well, I do hope to hear a little private concert maybe? Piano and violin duet. I am really excited to hear you two play together. Especially since you, Sebastian, were a member of Symphony Orchestra, so it will be an honour to hear such talented musician play just for me.”

For I have sinned...

The principal cleared his throat, eyes scanning the notes that he had wrote down before this meeting. It already lasted an hour, and the teachers gathered in the faculty room were becoming restless and bored. But indeed there were some things to discuss, with the concert that the senior class was supposed to perform at the end of the semester, and with recent staff changes. 

William glanced down at his watch, sighing softly. His class was starting in 15 minutes, so at least, whether the meeting will be done soon or not, he will get to excuse himself. He looked out of the window, his mind wandering. Principal’s voice turned into white noise in the background. It was a pleasant day, late summer. But William was looking forward to a slightly cooler weather. Wearing all black could really be bothersome at times. 

“And lastly, I am pleased to announce that we have finally found replacement for the violin teacher. Dear Mr Tanaka, may he rest in peace, was with us for so many years that I’ve been concerned we won’t be able to find someone as good as to fill this position.” the principal spoke. “But Mr… Michaelis, was highly recommended to me, and he indeed has impressive references. He will be starting this week, so please welcome him warmly once he will arrive. Ah yes… about that. He will arrive today at noon, I need someone to pick him up from the train station and bring over for the tour around the school. Any volunteers?” 

William was barely listening, and definitely not paying much attention. He glanced at his watch again, and saw that it was time to leave, as his class was about to start. He raised his hand to excuse himself, and little did he know, he just volunteered.

“Father William! Excellent!” the principal exclaimed. “Just don’t be late, the train arrives at noon.”

“Train…?” William questioned, raising his brow. He had a feeling he was missing something…

***

Right after the meeting, William had to run for the class, so he had little time to clarify what exactly he had volunteered for. He was a piano teacher in this Music Academy, but also he served as a priest in local church. Well respected, and rather liked. So when he later found out it was about the new violin teacher, he didn’t refuse. Who, other than himself, would be a better choice to introduce a newcome to their community?

So even though he raised his hand by accident, he accepted this fate.

After classes, at noon, William took a taxi and drove to the train station, to pick up their new teacher. Wearing black trousers, and a black shirt with a thin tie, was absolutely dreadful in this weather, so William quickly found shelter under the roof of the station platform, that provided some shade.

The train had just arrived. William had no idea how Mr Michaelis looked like, but he figured he will just look for someone carrying a violin case with them. 

He was in for a bit surprise.

@crazyvik97

[musicarenagh]

Toronto-Based Vocalist Puma June Evokes A Hopeful Sadness Through 'Holy' Shanti Abbott is a Canadian musician and singer who now lives in Toronto. Her stage name is "Puma June." June has a dreamy, lush, experimental chamber-pop sound, laced with R&B, that evokes a hopeful sorrow via her contemplative songwriting. Puma June's sound is hard to categorize because of her wide range of musical inspirations, which include Feist, Frank Ocean, and Stevie Wonder. She might be like if Lana Del Rey and Charlotte Day Wilson got together and had a child. [embed]https://soundcloud.com/pumajune/holy-puma-june[/embed] June spent her formative years in Barrie, Ontario, where she wrote songs and participated in musical initiatives in which she would later develop her skills on her own. June is a singer, pianist, guitarist, and violinist who was schooled in the Suzuki method. June is best known for forming the folk duet "Shanti and Vale," afterwards renamed "Concordia," with her twin sister. Both a live album from 2012 and a 2019 single titled "Love Is Blind" were published on Bandcamp. After releasing a single in 2019, the members of Concordia opted to concentrate on separate endeavours rather than pursuing a comeback with the band. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyVMZ4UinFY[/embed] Throughout her formative years, June was a member of the Huronia Symphony Orchestra as well as other orchestras and indie-rock/folk bands, such as the House of Art in Barrie, the Hungry Lake in Toronto, and the Huronia Symphony Orchestra. In 2020, June's project "Puma June" was formed, a mashup of all the musical styles she had enjoyed as a young adult. This allowed June to finally establish her own, unique voice. June wants to keep changing the topics of pop music by talking about the hard truths and traumatic experiences that help shape who we are. June writes songs and listens to music to help her deal with her own pain and the pain of others. June has a strong political stance, with an emphasis on women's rights and family trauma. She has experienced the pain and growth that result from these experiences. June has an alluring way of transforming sorrow into inspiring victories. [embed]https://open.spotify.com/track/0N1ml05pJUksYn6oLd0eXU[/embed]    

[reveriesofawriter]

@clumsyclifford tagged me to name my top 9 albums of 2022 and I'm interpreting that as albums that were released in 2022 so. in mostly release order (? from memory)

harry's house

the joy of music - ben rector

muna

kids of the new age - state champs

blossom part 1 - the summer set

5sos5

faith in the future - louis

here goes nothing - adam melchor

midnights - taylor

honorable mention eps: love and other lies by charlotte sands, hot mess by dodie, and symphony sessions by cody fry bc I'm a slut for a live orchestra

[lesser-known-composers]

Gösta Nystroem (1890-1966) - Sånger vid havet: No. 2, Nocturne

Artist: Charlotte Hellekant

Conductor: Evgeny Svetlanov

Orchestra: Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

[perry-tannenbaum]

Charlotte Symphony’s Missa Solemnis Thrills With Power and Sublimity

Review:  Missa Solemnis By Perry Tannenbaum

Beethoven’s original intent, when he conceived his Missa Solemnis, was to honor one of his foremost patrons, Rudolf, the Archduke of Austria, who was to be installed as an archbishop on March 9, 1820, in what is now the Czech Republic. Unfortunately, Beethoven missed his self-imposed deadline, so we are not on the brink of celebrating the bicentennial…

[mariacallous]

At the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv recently, I watched a performance of an opera by the Ukrainian composer Mykola Lysenko. The work, charming and comic and an escape from the grimness of Russian missile attacks, is called Natalka Poltavka, based on a play by Ivan Kotliarevsky, who pioneered Ukrainian-language literature in the late-18th and early-19th centuries. Operas by Verdi, Puccini and Mozart, and ballets such as Giselle and La Sylphide, are on the playbill, despite the almost daily air raid sirens. But there is no Eugene Onegin in sight, nor a Queen of Spades, and not a whisper of those Tchaikovsky staples of ballet, Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake. Russian literature and music, Russian culture of all kinds, is off the menu in wartime Ukraine. It is almost a shock to return to the UK and hear Russian music blithely played on Radio 3.

This absence, some would say erasure, can be hard to comprehend outside Ukraine. When a symphony orchestra in Cardiff removed the 1812 Overture from a programme this spring, there was bafflement verging on an outcry: excising Tchaikovsky was allowing Vladimir Putin and his chums the satisfaction of “owning” Russian culture – it was censorship, it was playing into Russia’s hands. Tchaikovsky himself was not only long dead, but had been an outsider and an internationalist – so the various arguments went. It took some careful explanation to convey that a piece of music glorifying Russian military achievements, and involving actual cannons, might be somewhere beyond poor taste when Russia was at that moment shelling Ukrainian cities – particularly when the families of orchestra members were directly affected.

In fact, such moments have been rare in western Europe. Chekhov and Lermontov continue to be read and Mussorgsky to be performed. Russian culture has not been “cancelled” as Putin claims, and Russian-born musicians and dancers with international careers continue to perform in the west – assuming they have offered a minimum of public deprecation of the killing and destruction being visited on Ukraine. Only the most naive would decry the removal of Valery Gergiev from international concert programmes. The conductor, who is seen as close to Putin, backed the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 (unrecognised by most UN countries), has declined to condemn the current full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and has a history of using his artistic profile in the service of the Russian state, such as conducting concerts in Russian-backed South Ossetia in 2008 in the wake of the Russo-Georgian war.

Inside Ukraine, though, things look very different. For many, the current war with Russia is being seen as a “war of decolonisation”, as Ukrainian poet Lyuba Yakimchuk has put it – a moment in which Ukraine has the chance to free itself, at last, from being an object of Russian imperialism. This decolonisation involves a “total rejection of Russian content and Russian culture”, as the writer Oleksandr Mykhed told the Lviv BookForum recently. These are not words that are comfortable to hear – not if, like me, you spent your late teens immersed in Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina and Chekhov stories; not if you have recently rekindled your love of Russian short fiction via George Saunders’ luminous book, A Swim in the Pond in the Rain; not if you adore Stravinsky and would certainly be taking a disc of The Rite of Spring to your desert island.

The context for this rejection has to be understood, though: Ukrainians are emerging from a history in which the Russian empire, and then the Soviet Union, actively and often violently suppressed Ukrainian art. This has worked in a number of different ways. It has included the absorption of numerous Ukrainian artists and writers into the Russian centre (such as Nikolai Gogol, or Mykola Hohol in Ukrainian), and the misclassifying of hundreds of artists as Russian when they could arguably be better described as Ukrainian (such as the painter Kazimir Malevich, who was Kyiv-born but Russian, according to the Tate). It has meant that writing in Ukrainian has at times been proscribed – Ukraine’s national poet, Taras Shevchenko, was banned from writing at all for a decade by Tsar Nicholas I. This silencing has encompassed the extermination of Ukrainian artists, like the killing, under Stalin, of hundreds of writers in 1937, known as “the executed renaissance”. Behind all of this stands horrific events such as the Holodomor, the starvation of about 4.5 million Ukrainians in 1932-33 in their forced effort to produce grain on Stalin’s orders.

This history places Ukraine in a very different position in relation to Russian culture than, say, Britain found itself in relation to German and Austrian art during the second world war, when Myra Hess programmed Mozart, Bach and Beethoven in her National Gallery concerts during the Blitz. “We have had cultural occupation, language occupation, art occupation and occupation with weapons. There’s not much difference between them,” the composer Igor Zavgorodniy tells me. In the Soviet period, Ukrainian culture was allowed to be harmlessly folksy – and Ukrainians, caricatured as drunken yokels dressed in Cossack trousers, were often the butt of belittling jokes. But Ukraine was not expected or allowed to carry a high culture of its own. At the same time, Russian artistic achievement was lauded as the very apex of human greatness. “We were raised in a certain piety towards the Russian literature,” explains the playwright Natalya Vorozhbit, who was educated in the Soviet period. “There wasn’t such piety towards any other literature.”

Putin himself has effectively doubled down on all this through his constant insistence, in his essays and often rambling speeches, that Ukraine has no separate existence from Russia – no identity, no culture at all, except as an adjunct of its neighbour. Indeed, his claim of Russia’s cultural inseparability from Ukraine is one of his key justifications for invasion. At the same time the Russian instrumentalisation of its artistic history is breathtakingly blatant. In occupied Kherson, billboards proclaiming it as a “city with Russian history”, show an image of Pushkin, who visited the city in 1820. Ukrainian artists also object to how, in a more general way, the projection of Russia as a great nation of artistic brilliance operates as a tool of soft power, a kind of ambient hum of positivity that, they would argue, softens the true brutality of today’s invasion. In Ukraine, there is a generalised cry of “bullshit” in relation to the myth of the “Russian soul”.

Some Ukrainians I speak to hope that one day, beyond the end of the war, there will be a way of consuming Russian literature and music – but first the work of decolonisation must be done, including the rereading and rethinking of classic authors, unravelling how they reflected and, at times, projected the values of the Russian empire. In the meantime, “My child will be perfectly all right growing up without Pushkin or Dostoevsky,” says Vorozhbit. “I don’t feel sorry.”

For many Ukrainians I encounter, the time for Russian literature will come again – when it can be critically understood as simply another branch of world culture, and as neither an unduly oppressive, nor overwhelming, force. At the National Opera House, I ask the choreographer Viktor Lytvynov when he thinks Tchaikovsky – a composer he loves – will be back on the programme. “When Russian stops being an aggressor,” he says. “When Russia stops being an evil empire.”

[jwillgoose]

This New Noise - programme notes

Dear Listeners,

I thought it might be useful for those of you listening again (or watching again, once it goes live on Friday 2 September) to our BBC Prom, This New Noise, to make the programme notes accessible. These were printed in the programmes on the night so those in the room would’ve got them, but for everyone else perhaps they’ll provide a bit of helpful context. Here we go...

THIS NEW NOISE

It is both a tremendous honour, and tremendously daunting, to have been asked to write a special piece in recognition of the centenary of the BBC; not only to write it, but to perform it with a group of musicians as talented as the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the guidance of conductor Jules Buckley, performed at the Royal Albert Hall. As a group, we’ve often tackled big subjects before, but there’s something uniquely intimidating about trying to reflect, in musical form, all of the BBC’s history and influence on our own country and the wider world. The question of knowing where to start is often the hardest obstacle to overcome.

In the case of This New Noise, that question also became the answer, in its own way. It sounds obvious, but: start at the beginning. How did the BBC start? Why? What did its creators and original managers, directors and creative thinkers think it was, and what was it going to become? How did its many technological and practical innovations change the course of the country’s history? How did it become, in the words of Charlotte Higgins’ book, whose title we have very appreciatively borrowed, ‘the greatest cultural institution our nation has known’?

To my mind, the biggest answer to the first of those questions (and one which may disappoint any Proms-goers hoping for a kind of ‘greatest hits of the BBC’s TV theme tunes’ compendium this evening) is that most wondrous of inventions: the radio. It’s easy to forget now how truly otherworldly these devices must have seemed to ordinary people. For the cost of a radio set and a modest annual sum, a new machine would enter your world; switch it on, and human voices, music, the miracle of sound would suddenly manifest themselves in your home, transported via the ether. That is how our concert tonight starts, an attempt to remind us all of the apparently simple but world-changing magic trick of transmitting and receiving radio waves, and featuring a recreation of the first transmission made in the name of the BBC, then 2LO in London.

From there we launch into the bombast of the title piece, a musical attempt to recreate the chaos, confusion and opportunity of the early days of broadcasting and featuring some of the musings of first director general Lord Reith and, then, former chairman of the Board of Governors of the BBC J. H. Whitley on the purpose and duty of broadcasting as an idea and an ideology.

Reith is a towering figure in the history of the BBC (and therefore this nation), and the third piece (‘An Unusual Man’) seeks to portray the kind of man he was, and the skills which he possessed and brought to bear on the nascent Company (later Corporation). The BBC still has, to this day, an air of ideological, quasi-religious fervour to its mission and purpose, and Reith’s childhood as the son of a Presbyterian minister in Glasgow, coupled with his unique qualities described in the piece, helped shape the BBC more than any other person in its history. He was only there for sixteen years but his influence and thinking have echoed down the corridors of Broadcasting House for decades since.

Reith’s BBC arguably did more to unite the country (and later, the Empire) than any other twentieth century institution. The opening of the transmitter at Daventry in 1927 enabled listeners across the whole nation to listen to the same broadcast simultaneously, for the first time. It also, depending on the atmospheric conditions, drew in listeners from further afield. Seth Lakeman guests on the fourth piece, A Cello Sings in Daventry, featuring the translated poetry of German poet Robert Seitz, who tuned into the first broadcasts from Berlin and found himself moved enough to write these beautiful words.

We are also taken on a guided tour of the venerable ‘temple of the arts and muses’, Broadcasting House, courtesy of the GPO film ‘BBC: The Voice of Britain’. The inner workings of this most innovative and august of buildings, the beating heart of the company even to this day, are revealed via Stuart Legg’s film, as well as a radio documentary from the early 1930s. 

The Corporation had significant time and resources with which to attempt to overcome many of the technical and technological hurdles it faced. Expensively imported ribbon microphones were one such hurdle; such was the BBC’s scale, it simply designed, manufactured and subsequently sold its own Type A microphone, as well as countless other innovations. George Bernard Shaw’s amusing observations about the power of the microphone are a nod to the BBC’s influence in this quarter; and, having been forewarned about the dangers of taking a drink and then taking to the airwaves, it felt only right to revisit one of our earliest tracks (Lit Up) and the gloriously, and occasionally profoundly, drunken commentary of Thomas Woodrooffe.

Penultimate piece A Candle Which Will Not Be Put Out seeks to address the unique lines along which the Corporation was instituted, with a heavy emphasis on public service and a disavowal of capitalist influence on the almost sacred rights and duties for which the BBC assumed responsibility. Its mission statement, as reported here by such luminaries as Sir Ian Jacob, Basil Binyon, William Haley and Lord Reith himself, could not be further from James Murdoch’s infamous Edinburgh Television Festival address over 70 years later (‘the only reliable, durable, and perpetual guarantor of independence is profit’, he informed us in 2009).

Attention in the final piece of the evening turns to the events to come. ‘What of the Future? (In Touch with the Infinite)’ are the titles of, respectively, the final chapters in Arthur Burrows’ book ‘The Story of Broadcasting’ and Reith’s ‘Broadcasting over Britain’. It is, in my view, a simple and inarguable fact that if the BBC continues to be whittled away at by governments on either side of the political divide, and even - potentially - expires, there will be many areas which it covers, and functions which it provides, which will simply cease to be. No private organisation, motivated by profit alone, would fund the BBC Proms season; nor Radio 3, nor 4, nor 6Music (without whose patronage our band wouldn’t exist), nor the various BBC orchestras (including the one performing so skilfully tonight), nor any of the multiple commercially unappealing but culturally vital services it provides to us on a daily basis for what - when compared with other, much-lauded delivery systems - amounts to a pittance. It will leave a vacuum, a void; there will be no more ripples in the ether, no more public-minded attempts to improve the education and experience (and cohesion) of this country. No organisation will truly take the BBC’s place; there will simply be an empty stage, and perhaps its influence and importance will only be truly felt if - and it sometimes feels like when - the BBC disappears.

I’d like to dedicate this piece to the memory of my friend Rebecca Teulet, and her family, some of whom I hope will be in attendance this evening. Rebecca worked for the BBC and believed passionately in its mission and purpose, even if, like many, she was occasionally frustrated by the way in which it functioned. I hope our concert is a fitting tribute to her life. She is much missed.

J. Willgoose, Esq.

London, August 2022