Posts tagged ordway

Before the show I must admit I was not particularly excited to hear a vocal recital, even a recital from the one and only Susan Graham. I may have been thinking like one of those purists who believe that music should be performed in its intended manner, and when you pull a piece out of an opera, the singer out of character and costume, and the stage out of the set, it’s just different and weird.

I take back all those thoughts after last night’s performance. Oh man, was I blown away!

In particular, during the second encore Graham’s performance of À Chloris by Reynaldo Hahn literally left me breathless. I don’t think I inhaled for the final 30 seconds of the piece. I had never head that piece before last night, and now I’ll always remember her performance when I listen to it. 

The above video is not from last night. It is, however, the same piece performed by Susan Graham and Malcolm Martineau at a different recital a few years ago. I found this recording – an illicit one I’m sure – and debated whether I should re-post it here. On one hand, it’s against the rules to record at the performance, so I don’t want to help promote bad behavior.

On the other hand, I want as many people as possible to get a glimpse into the beauty of Susan Graham’s art, which hopefully can inspire others to make an effort to see her in concert, or see another vocalist in concert, or to see any musical performance for that matter. Our post-performance discussion included the topic of whether the audience for this type of music is aging out, and sadly I think it is. I don’t know why. I don’t understand why young people don’t make the effort to enjoy vocal performance, opera, or classical music in general. There’s a demographic gap that needs to be filled, and, for better or worse, I think social media channels like Youtube can be a powerful tool to reach that younger audience.

Tonight’s performance of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony took me back several years. Ever since I took a class in college dedicated to Beethoven’s nine symphonies, I rarely pass up an opportunity to hear a performance. Luckily, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has a pretty regular selection of Beethoven. During the class back in 1998, I made my first visit to an SPCO concert to hear Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony as part of my final project. I learned quite a bit about the historical context in which music was performed, and, believe it or not, back in 1806 the music was not intended to be listened to from a compact disc in a college lecture room with frequent pauses for instructor commentary.

The music is so much richer when you can see the performers, hear the reverberations of the room, and feel the vibrations. Also, musical performances are not perfect in the same way that recordings are mastered. The little imperfections make it real, like the orchestra members shuffling around, turning pages, making mistakes (Rarely) and the animation of the conductor. All of these effects are lost when you listen to recorded music. That’s not to say recorded music is bad, but a LIVE performance by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra is really, really hard to beat!

If you haven’t heard of Vox Lumiere, check them out. You may find them absolutely amazing, you may not get it. I fell a little more on the latter side of the measure as somebody who was simply confused and maybe even a bit turned off by the sensory overload of a silent movie mixed with steam punk costumes mixed with Broadway musical mixed with operetta vocals mixed with Paula Abdul dance choreography, mixed with rock and roll.

And then, intermission happened. I’m not sure if it was just that I needed to catch a breather and think about the performance, or whether it was the two glasses of wine I threw back in 10 minutes, but the artistry of the performance really grew on me in the second half.

In high school our art class spent a number of class sessions at the Allen Memorial Art Museum at Oberlin College studying with a studio art major. The museum is widely considered the best art museum of any liberal arts college in the nation, so the selection of works was pretty diverse. We did an exercise one day where we sat in front of a Renaissance painting of an old man wearing black in a dark room at night. At first glance, the painting was just a dim shadow of a man’s face in the upper left corner. But, our teacher instructed us to concentrate on the painting for 15 minutes straight, which initially seemed to be a long time to look at a boring painting. However, after the 15 minutes, we started to see physical objects, lines, and textures that only adjusted eyes would pick out. Some students even told the story of that old man and why he was sitting in the dark room. We got to know the art.

I can’t say Vox Lumiere’s performance is on my all-time top ten list of performances, but I can say that, as a spectator of art, once you let your mind go just a little bit and allow yourself to become immersed in an art form, it’s possible to begin to understand the art, the artist, and the performers. This understanding does not necessarily lead to enjoyment, but it does lead to appreciation of the form and a respect for the creators.