FROM SCOTTSDALE, ARIZONA

At the Concerts

"Everything was beautiful at the ballet.
Graceful men lift lovely girls in white.
Yes,
Everything was beautiful at ballet.
Hey!
I was happy... at the ballet."

                                                  (Lyrics from "Chorus Line")
 

Introduction

SCOTTSDALE, Sep 26, 2007 - Back in August, I happen to see three Broadway shows in one week.  That just happened.  Only one of those shows was planned well in advance, maybe two if I stretched the definition of "in advance."  Normally, that would have been about my average for the year. 

Now the same thing is the case with concerts.  Only this time, both performances I saw in the last four days were totally unplanned.  They just happened... each triggered by an unsolicited e-mail.  (So much for "spam" being all bad!) J

Trpceski's Tchaikovsky: Magnificent!

SCOTTSDALE, Sep 23, 2007 - Remember the bitter-sweet tune "At the Ballet" from the now immortal musical the "Chorus Line?" (see above).  Well, I wasn't "at the ballet" last night.  But the experience was similarly exhilarating.  I went to a concert at the Phoenix Symphony  Hall.  A brilliant young pianist from Macedonia, Simon Trpceski, 28, played Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1.  Stunning.  After that, as always, I've also enjoyed Brahms' Hungarian Dances.  The other two pieces, I am sad to say by two American composers, were forgettable.  So I won't embarrass them by mentioning their names.  Fillers I could have done without.  Who says good concerts have to be necessarily... SO LONG?  Quality over quantity would be my preference.

Anyway, don't get alarmed by the above shots.  The concert was not as poorly attended as it appears, especially by what seem to be missing orchestra members.  There weren't as many "no shows." :-)  I took these pictures during the intermission.  I just thought you'd like to see what the newly renovated Symphony Hall looks like.  For me, the best improvement (beside better acoustics) is more leg room.  Kind of like "economy plus" seats that some airlines offer.  Great for six-footers or bigger.

This young pianist has been heralded by critics as “a musician who looks set to dominate the 'pianistic' world for a long time to come.” The Seattle Times declared Trpceski “a genuine wunderkind.  Trpceski is really a marvel: heart-stopping technique, and a sense of exhilaration and zest that keeps listeners near the edge of their seats all evening.”

I remember the Tchaikovsky Concerto No. 1 very well.  It was the first piece I studied as a 14-year old in a music appreciation class.  Or at least the first piece to which I really paid attention.  I had a crush on the music teacher.  She was married.  But that never stops 14-year old boys from dreaming.

Tonight, though, I learned something new about this piece.  It was originally a bust.  At least as far as the famous pianist Anton Rubenstein was concerned, the man whom the young Tchaikovsky greatly admired, and to whom the composer had dedicated the concerto.  Rubenstein was brutal in his criticism and demanded changes before he would perform it.  But Tchaikovsky refused.  He tore up the dedication and gave the piece to Hans von Buelow.  Which is how the concerto got to be first performed in the United States, in Boston, to be exact in 1875.  Eventually, Rubenstein also came around.  Ever since, it has been one of the most popular concert pieces in all of classical music.

After his concert engagement with the Phoenix Symphony, the young Trpceski will appear next week in the Big Apple with the New York Philharmonic, again performing Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto as part of the orchestra’s four-week-long Tchaikovsky Festival.  Trpceski has already become a "regular" with the London Symphony and the London Philharmonic orchestras, with which he has recorded a number of CDs. 

Before the concert, I had a good workout - bike ride to the club and back, gym and swimming laps in between.  But when I came back home, I looked like a losing jockey on a muddy track.  I had mud blotches all over me as a storm had just passed through.  So it felt good to "clean up" a bit.  The formal vest I am wearing above is something I got last year when I also bought an evening dress for Karen.  Thought we'd dress up together for a formal event which now escapes me.  She "loved it" and then put the dress in a closet.  So I never got to wear my vest, either, lest I (God forbid!) were to outshine my date.  Men are never to do that, right guys? 

Well, I went to the concert last night alone.  So I was free to do as I pleased.  What was unexpected were some reactions.  Even some men stared, a few smiled at me, too.  No, they weren't gay.  At least not overtly.  They had women on their arms.  Maybe for cover?  J  [just kidding].

As for women, yes, many also stared, and some smiled, too.  One or two even said something complimentary.  Downright embarrassing, for a guy.  Women are not supposed to care about men's clothes, right guys?  It's supposed to be all about our "inner beauty."  Or some such crap.  Well, at least now I know how women feel when a stranger approaches them.  But the two that came onto me were, shall we say to be kind, "middle aged?"  Younger women couldn't have cared less.  Didn't even give me a first glance, let alone a second one.  Guess dressing formally is not their style.  Now, if I'd had some tattoos or an earring... J

I also ran into a friend during the intermission with whom I used to play tennis years ago.  "Are you also in the Symphony?" he asked me appearing quite serious.  I smiled and assured him my piano skills were way too rusty for a concert like this.  "Well, you look like you could be," he added.  Meanwhile, his wife, quite a pretty blonde actually - had never seen her before, was sitting down looking stone-faced and holding a glass of white wine.  Made no effort to join the conversation.

I noticed they left the concert hall right after our conversation.  Hope it wasn't anything I said.  Maybe they'd had a fight (the reason for the stony face?).  Or perhaps she just said, "I'm hungry" (for "blinies with Beluga caviar" or  "chicken Kiev," after all this hard-to-pronounce Tchaikovsky-Trpceski business?)  J

Anyway, it was a fun being "at the concert."  I was especially delighted to see there quite a few younger people.  Too many silver hairs at classical music events can be a turn off, especially if some of them look worse than the dead composers.

"Over the Rhine:" First Class Act!

                                                  (Lyrics from "I Don't Wanna Waste Your Time")

SCOTTSDALE, Sep 26 - Prior to yesterday, I had never heard of the jazz/pop/country/alternative music group "Over the Rhine."  But someone sent me an e-mail Tuesday morning with a link to their latest album.  I clicked on it, and immediately got hooked, like a bass on bait, on the opening cords of the "I Don't Wanna Waste Your Time" song.  This has never happened to me before.  Their music was like a magnet, drawing me to them. 

The next thing I did was was also unprecedented.  Last night, I jumped in my car and drove 20 miles to downtown Phoenix to attend a live concert of the "Over the Rhine" group at the "Rhythm Room," a jazz club of which I had heard of, but never visited before last night. 

The Rhythm Room concert was a total contrast to my Symphony Hall experience on Saturday night.  First, the room is an appropriate name for it.  The place is no bigger than about 50' x 50'.  Still they packed a couple of hundred people it in.  Second, the crowd was VERY different from that at the Tchaikovsky concert.  Most were younger people.  Everybody was casually dressed (including yours truly... blue jeans, black shirt).  Third, the place is in sort of a divey neighborhood.  Fourth, everything was late.  The warm-up act was 15 minutes late; the main event 20 minutes.  But nobody seem to mind.  Drinks were flowing freely from the bar.

All that notwithstanding, the bottom line is that the "Over the Rhine" show was a first class act in all respects.  It's a fabulous band, with Karin Bergquist, a blonde Sandra Bullock look-alike as the lead singer and its body and soul.  Which is not to take one bit of credit away from Linford Detweiler, (her husband? and) co-composer whom Karin called her "partner in crime," Jake Bradley (Nashville, TN) on upright bass and guitars, and Mickey Grimm (New Harmony, IN), a standout on drums and percussion.  It's just that Karin's voice creates the final rapture, like an icing on a cake.

On stage, she appears like a reluctant singer, almost blasé, nonchalant, as if she just happens to be passing by and noticing, "oh, look at what we have here... people, lots of people.  Guess I'd better sing something for them."  But then, suddenly her voice rises from a sultry, velvet alto to a volcanic, crescendo soprano, and you know she has come to play... to play for keeps.  She was not just passing by.

Karin spent the first six years of her life in Phoenix, "in a neighborhood not far from this Rhythm Room," she said.  Then her parents moved to Barnesville, a small coal mining town in Ohio, off the I-70. about equidistant from Columbus, Canton and Pittsburgh.  Karin stayed there till she graduated from high school at 17, and then hightailed out of there to college. 

"There was nothing to do in Barnesville," she said.  "I couldn't wait to leave and never looked back until years later, when I figured out that what I was running away from was - me.  And that I would have run away from in Phoenix or any other place." 

So now she is at peace with Barnesville.  In fact, she and her "partner in crime" write a lot songs with Ohio themes.  One is even called "Ohio."  Another is about the "Rubber Tree."  It's not what you think - those of you with dirty minds J.  It's apparently a tree on which there were some tires hanging for kids to play (left thumbnail shows Karin performing the "Rubber Tree" song).

Well, this excellent singer has come a long way since Barnesville.  "Over the Rhine" are on a world tour, that included New Zealand, among other overseas places.  And they have also performed at the White House.

"Apparently the White House people figured that artists can influence public opinion, so they invited us, Bono (U2 star who is now a "Sir" in Britain), and Peter Gabriel," she said.  "Imagine... us at the White house," she added, sounding incredulous.

She said they were asked by the White House people what it was that they were trying to accomplish with their music. 

"We are trying to give the people permission not to live in fear," she replied.

There was a hush in the Rhythm Room audience at such an audacious political statement by a singer.

"See..." she said.  "Same thing happened there.  There was hush after I'd said that."

The comment drew nervous laughter and some applause from the crowd.  Guess "Over the Rhine" are still not over the hill handing out their permission slips to the fainthearted American public.

Most of "Over the Rhine" songs are about love, moods, places... but some have political overtones.  Like "If a Song Could Be President," for example.

Overall, the band's sound is very hard to classify.  Which is the mark of an original group.  Most of the numbers they performed were written by either Karin or Linford or both.  I could hear some "ragtime" themes in them, as well as blues, country and "alternative" music.  All at once they are sweet, melancholic, plaintive, enticing, embracing, passionate, haunting tunes... and ultimately a captivatingly magnetic songs, just like that initial melody that got me hooked with only its opening cords.

Another mark of a great musical performance is if it touches my soul and makes my eyes moist.  Both Tchaikovsky and "Over the Rhine" concerts did that.  I had tears rolling down my cheeks during some of the numbers Karin performed at the Rhythm Room as I did at the Symphony Hall three nights earlier.

I bought "Over the Rhine's" latest album ("The Trumpet Child") right at the concert, so I could play it on the drive home, and downloaded two others ("Discount Fireworks" and "Drunkard's Prayer") to my iPod this morning.  And I can tell you, Karin sounds a lot better "live" than on the CDs.  Still, if you can't take her home... :-)

And now, if you're like me, you must have been wondering where the band's name came from?  Well, here's an explanation from the band's web site:

"Over-the-Rhine" is the name of a downtown neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio, where the band got its start. The neighborhood was founded roughly 150 years ago mostly by German immigrants. Central Parkway, a street that separates Over-the-Rhine from the rest of downtown Cincinnati, was once upon a time a part of the Erie Canal. Cincinnatians who crossed the Erie Canal to get into the German part of town began referring to the trip as going “Over-the-Rhine.” Linford Detweiler lived on Main Street (across from Kaldi’s Coffeehouse and Bookstore) in the heart of Over-the-Rhine for almost ten years. Much of the band’s early music was written and recorded in those third story rooms overlooking the activity of Main Street (for more, click here).

In case you want to know what crossing the real German river Rhein is like, including the Lore of Loreley (cliff), click here to see the last chapter of this writer's 'round the world trip in June 2006.

Finally, if you want to learn more about the band's history, click here.  Interestingly, the shot Karin and Linford chose as their portrait also features a full moon (like the story that follows).  If you click on the picture, you can watch a 27-second MPEG video clip I filmed unwittingly (thinking I was taking still pictures) of the very song than enchanted me so much ("Don't Wanna Waste Your Time").  Just keep in mind it's a fairly large (9.7MB) file, so it may take a while to load.  The sound is very good, though, and best of all, you can experience the concert "live," as I did last night, at least for 27 seconds.

Arizona Republic Review: "Over the Rhine" Dazzles Rhythm Room

SCOTTSDALE, Sep 29 - I just read the Arizona Republic music critic's review of the "Over the Rhine" concert.  And it was equally, if not more, flattering than my own (see above).  Here's an excerpt:

Well, to have what I wrote straight from my gut and heart, without any prior knowledge of either this band or Karin, backed up by a professional music critic, does feel gratifying.  I must admit that I was getting a little worried that my ebullient review might mislead some of you into investing your time and money into this group. But now you don't have to take my word for it.

To read the rest of the Arizona Republic review, CLICK HERE.

P.S. I just got a note from Tracy Collins, the Arizona Republic music critic, after he had perused my reviews (above): "You've got great taste in music!", his note read. 

I replied that, "if it weren't for my father, who many years ago talked me into 'being practical' and getting an engineering degree (which I never used to make a living!), I would have become a pianist.  So being a writer with love of music and arts in general is sort of a compromise."

Lovely Full Moon Rising over McDowell's

SCOTTSDALE, Sep 26 - On my way back from Starbucks this evening, I saw a most beautiful full moon rising over the McDowell Mountains that flank Scottsdale's eastern boundary. 

No camera shot can do justice to such a magnificent nature's show, but I stopped my car and took a few pictures just as mementos.  The rightmost thumbnail is a zoomed image.  (Cameras always make objects so much smaller than they appear to the eye, don't they?  So you're always disappointed when you see the picture it took vs. the one you remember).

My New Hawaiian Hibiscus

SCOTTSDALE, Sep 25 - I had just finished getting some mundane supplies at a store yesterday, when I walked by a pretty looking potted flower.  I looked closely, and lo and behold, it was a yellow hibiscus, the kind that are so abundant in the islands (right photo) and so rare on mainland.  Naturally, I took it home.

And voila!  A piece of Hawaii is now in Arizona.  In fact, even the name of this hind of flower is Hawaiian, and from the Big Island no less - the Kona hibiscus.  How much more Hawaiian can you get? J

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