Sunday night -- 1st Unitarian Church, ShadysideShadyside Concerts features small combos from the Pittsburgh Symphony orchestra and Duquesne Music School playing classical chamber music. On Sunday, Jan. 16, they presented Stravinsky's Histoire d'un Soldat, with three actors and a dancer from Duquesne. This piece is a favorite, we know it well and we've heard it once before at Shadyside and once before as part of music in the parks. The actors, who took the parts of narrator, soldier and devil, were excellent. The dancer was talented but her comedic interpretation detracted from the work as a whole.
1st Unitarian Church is a smaller space than most, accoustically very fine, and one can (if sitting in a front pew) almost touch the musicians.
Tuesday night - two nights later, we were at the new theater at the Jewish Center in Squirrel Hill to hear Nuance, another concert series which showcases members of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Katz Memorial Hall is new and beautifully designed, so new that the ushers had a hard time seating ticketholders and there was a great crowd at the door waiting to be seated
We were in the second row, I think I have never sat so close to Ann Martindale-Williams, the first cellist of the Pittsburgh Symphony. Comfortable seats, pushed closely together, so close there was a problem applauding.
The program started with the Beethoven Septet in E. Major, Opus 20, with a 7 piece group led by Andres Cardenes, who is the first chair violin of the Pittsburgh Symphony
After intermission a larger group returned to the stage for Mozart's Musical Joke (a very early Hoffnung!) and finally, Aaron Copland's Suite from Appalachian Spring.
The following night - Wednesday - Larry was back at the Katz Memorial Hall to hear a recital by Andrey Ponochevny, a young painist presented by the Y music society. Mr. Ponochevny played the Sonata No. 3 in F minor, Op. 5 by Brahms, and 24 Preludes, Op. 28 by Chopin. He excelled in both.
The Y Music Society usually holds their recitals in the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland, but this was a special event for which they handed out 400 free tickets to regular subscribers.
On Thursday, Tippi and her friend Pat jumped on a downtown bus for an open rehearsal of the Symphony Pops conducted and moderated by Marvin Hamlisch. He is very sharp and witty, and kept the audience amused. The show, entitled "New York, New York" featured show music of the '40s and '50s; music about New York, or by New York composers - Richard Rogers, Leonard Bernstein, Jerome Kern, Duke Ellington. Guest star was Barbara Cook. What a fantastic voice! The newspaper review the next day said that she was 73, but she didn't look a day over 56!. I remember her from the original Candide, and she starred in the original Music Man, too. I'm glad that she is still around to share her talent with us.
Mr. Hamlisch was later joined by a Barbra Streisand impersonator (she was the only one in formal gown for this open rehearsal) who, it turned out, was a male Streisand impersonator and finished her act singing a male voice/female voice duet with herself. Himself. Whatever. It was delightful.
The whole show was delightful, and we walked out of Heinz Hall with light steps heading for a lunch down the block and a bus ride home.
The Chamber Music Society also uses the Carnegie Music Hall in Oakland for their concerts. This month they presented the Eroica Trio, three beautiful young women in velvet gowns, playing Gershwin, Ravel and Dvorak. CMS has a reputation of "tucking" new, atonal works in the center slot of their programs, when patrons are stuck in their seats and must sit through the whole ordeal. This is one reason why we have aisle seats! But Ravel is a composer we both like, so we thought this would be a concert we could comfortably sit through.
The Gershwin preludes were fun - all incorporating Gershwin tunes we knew. The Ravel: 3 art songs using poetry by a Creole poet of the late 18th century, with Pittsburgh Mezzo Soprano Mimi Lerner, was not our cup of tea. The musicians did a fine job with the music, but it was still not our cup of tea! After intermission, they gained our forgiveness with the Dumky Trio by Dvorak. An absolute favorite.
And two encores - Albenoni's adagio, which absolutely soared, and (take your choice) Brahm's Hungarian Dances or Dvorak's Slavonic Dances. There is a difference of opinion between your reviewers on that one.
And now . . . . for something completely different . . . . .
We come to the following Sunday on a very different note, a SuperBowl party at the Sunnyhill.
One of the members brought in a large screen high definition digital TV which was set up in our meeting room. Everyone else brought food - chili, bread, salads, appetizers, deserts.
Chairs were arranged around the TV set, with tables in the back of the room for those who didn't care to hold plates on their laps.
And at half-time - our own show!
