Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society

Week two, here we come!

2011-06-13T09:08:00.000-07:00

It's the moment of calm before the storm. I am sitting here in Tom Terry's posh condo downtown enjoying a leisurely cup of coffee and one of Debbie Morton's cupcakes. Planes are flying in and out of Madison, BDDS artists are arriving and departing, Edenwebb is getting cleaned, but for me this Monday morning is a rare moment of quiet. The only thing I have to prepare for is a massage from our friend the fabulous Kris Knight.

And then it's back to the races. A few moments of practicing on my own, then Kit Taylor and get together to tackle An American in Paris and Messiaen's Visions de l'amen, the the Wilkinsons and Wendels cook us dinner, then more rehearsing...

These weeks feel like a kind of hyper-reality. It's a very intense time—I couldn't sustain this for much more than three weeks, but man I do love it when it's here.

Off to a great start!

2011-06-13T09:01:00.000-07:00

Our twentieth season is off to a great start. What a fun week we've had!

My spring was exceptionally busy this year—the last day of classes at my school was Friday, June 3, I hopped on a plane to Madison June 4, we started rehearsals June 5—so I started out the week with all the fatigues of the year piled high. But the energy of the music, the artists, the great food—it has all completely revived me.

I was particularly proud of last night's concert at Taliesin. The Coffee Cantata was the funniest yet, the Franck and the Rorem went great... Maybe it was because of the great food we had at Hill St B&B in Spring Green between shows. Or else the FABULOUS cupcakes and espresso from the Driftless Depot in Spring Green. They opened just for us! Thank you Debbie!

Nancy S. hangs up boots

2011-06-12T20:58:00.000-07:00

Our first week of BDDS is through...Nancy S. will again hang up her boots until another seven years or so...

We had a fun and fantastic week one: the harpsichord schleps, Jeffrey's translation of the Coffee Cantata, Gregory's soul patch and tatoos, Anna's amazing voice, Carmit...CarMIT!, Stephanie's radio interviews and joie de vivre on stage. Timothy and that whipped cream, Bruce's Coffeee sign, Stephanie Sant' Ambrogio's acting debut in Madison, and Dan's wry stories and Parry and Suzanne our violin and cello backbones.

The cake was delicious (La Brioche True Food and Herbs, Spice and More), the cupcakes out of this WORLD (Driftless Depot), the tamales at Hill Str. B&B, the quiche, the Caesar salad at Daphne's. Just a few fabulous memories from the week. For now, I will drift off, music filling my head... Let's start it all over on Monday!

First Concert

2010-06-11T23:44:00.000-07:00

Our first concert was tonight: The End of the Affair, with the Imbrie Serenade, Schumann 2nd violin sonata, CPE Bach D major quartet (for flute, viola, and piano, yes, a quartet for three instruments), and Mendelssohn 3rd piano quartet. A great program! And I loved the reading from the novel that Colleen Burns gave—fabulous. I had it relatively easy tonight—only one piece to play, the Schumann—but no-one could ever call that piece easy. Honestly, it's one of the most challenging pieces I have ever played. But so beautiful. Eli Kalman had the lion's share of piano playing tonight. That Imbrie is no walk in the park (though a great piece), and that Mendelssohn is KILLER. I think there are maybe 10 measure in the whole half-hour piece when he's not playing fast 16th notes. Sounded great, though—a tour de force.

Saturday morning we have our dress rehearsal at the Playhouse in Overture, then the concert at 7:30 pm: Dangerous Liaisons, with one of the Telemann Paris Quartets, Ravel duo sonata, Chopin Introduction and Polonaise brillante, Vieuxtemps Elegy, and Fauré 1st piano quartet. I'm playing all but the Telemann and Ravel, so that's MY big night. Should be fun!

week one

2010-06-09T17:06:00.000-07:00

It was a whirlwind getting here, but now we're all settled in at Edenfred and working away at our first week's music. We have our first Fan the Flames event tonight and our first outreach concert tomorrow, so things are rolling along.

The last couple of months have been really, really busy, with little opportunity to let down my energy. Last night I slept for more than 12 hours! So today I'm feeling re-energized and ready to go. That's a good thing, because it's a hard week! That Chopin Polonaise is a catalog of pianistic things I don't do all that well—makes it a good challenge, I suppose! And the Fauré piano quartet is not exactly a walk in the park either. But it's all going well so far.

Schumann quintet, first performance

2010-06-04T22:43:00.000-07:00

Tonight I performed the Schumann piano quintet at the Metropolitan Club in San Francisco together with Axel Strauss, violin (he's also coming to BDDS and we play in the San Francisco Piano Trio together), Karsten Windt, violin (who organized it all), Elizabeth Prior (beautiful violist), and Angela Lee (fantastic cellist). This is my first time working with Karsten, Elizabeth, and Angela, and they are all so easy to work with. The Metropolitan Club is a San Francisco's women's club, sort of the counterpart to the Olympic Club (which was originally all men). It's a huge, lovely place just oozing with old world charm. The piano left a bit to be desired, but overall it went very well and the audience seemed to enjoy it a lot. It's a great piece to play with a good group like this. I continue to be amazed at Axel—he can get the most beautiful colors and textures out of that violin, and his musical ideas are so clear that he just pulls you along in his wake. We're in for a treat having him in Madison!

Tomorrow we play again at a mansion down in Portola Valley. We're also playing the Shostakovich quintet on that program. Tonight in San Francisco we played the Scherzo as an encore.

Schumann's piano quintet

2010-05-31T23:57:00.000-07:00

I managed to arrange a performance of the Schumann piano quintet here in California just before I fly to Madison. It's great when this kind of thing works out—it means that the BDDS rehearsal process can start at a higher level and the resulting performance can have even greater conviction. I first played this piece my first year of grad school, and I didn't entirely get it. (I had a troubled relationship with Schumann's music for a long time. Look at the article I wrote in our most recent newsletter.) Now, however, I think it's pretty fantastic—the gold standard of piano quintets. It really doesn't get any better than this. And what I'm noticing now is that many of the distinctive features of this quintet show up in all the other major quintets. If not always a model for later quintets, it certainly was inspiration for them.

We're playing it on Friday in San Francisco and Saturday in Portola Valley together with the Shostakovich quintet, another great piece. (And one we need to bring back to BDDS sometime soon...)

Piano Trios

2010-05-30T22:10:00.000-07:00

Axel Strauss, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, and I have decided to work together as a piano trio: the San Francisco Piano Trio. I'm REALLY excited about this development—I've always wanted to have a piano trio I could play in regularly. Axel and Jean-Michel, besides being fantastic players and insightful musicians, are also the nicest two guys in the world. We have so much fun playing music together. It's not only musically satisfying, but also personally satisfying.

We've played a couple of programs together already, but we're excited to have a week of trio immersion at BDDS! And I'm thrilled to be learning the 3rd Brahms piano trio (the one in C minor) for the first time with these guys. What a great piece—but really challenging on every level. I don't think Brahms wrote ANY music that's easy, but this one is even harder than most others. It's the last of the "official" Brahms chamber music I have to learn. I've played all the other "official" trios, the instrumental sonatas, the piano quartets, and the piano quintet. All that's left for me—after our first performance of this C minor trio—are the "unofficial" pieces: the 1st version of the B Major trio, the two string sextets that were arranged for piano trio by Brahms' friend Theodor Kirchner, and the posthumously published Trio in A major that is presumed to be by Brahms.

Getting ready for the season

2010-05-29T13:45:00.000-07:00

I can't believe our season is almost upon us. I've been crazy busy finishing up the academic year at both of the schools where I teach, UC Berkeley and Cal State East Bay. Berkeley finished about 2 weeks ago, CSU-East Bay doesn't end until the day I fly to Madison! In between all the "closing gestures" for both schools, I've been practicing like a fiend.

It's wonderful to get to play so much Schumann and Chopin. I've always loved playing their solo piano music, and this year was a great excuse to play a lot of their chamber music. It is SO satisfying—both composers know the piano so well, they write so idiomatically for the instrument. That said, they also can write passages that are so hard they just kick your butt. I guess that's what practice is for!

21st Century and Bach

2010-01-28T12:11:00.001-08:00

Look out 21st century, here comes Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society's downloadable cd from a couple of years ago, "15." Go here to listen/purchase: http://cdbaby.com/cd/bdandd2

Here's a related sneak peak of our upcoming summer festival "Novel Obsessions":

Week two:

Stephanie and Jeffrey with guest artists Axel Strauss, violin; and Jean-Michel Fonteneau, cello

Concerts June 18-20 in Mineral Point, Madison, and Spring Green

THE SOUND AND THE FURY

Piazzolla: The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires arranged for flute, violin, cello, and piano

Good things come in small packages

2009-11-25T10:01:00.000-08:00

Just got this great item in the mail from a fan!

Whoa babe, take 2009

2009-06-28T22:00:00.000-07:00

Stephanie, Ellen, Ara, Samantha, Stephanie Wild, Sheldon, Marcello and I are all sitting around the kitchen table at Edenfred, post-Taliesin, enjoying leftovers and pisco sours. Pisco sours are fierce. We owe mega-thanks to Carla Alvarado for teaching us her unbelievably yummy and super-easy recipe. This is the new drink of choice for BDDS!

Ara had 40 cherries tonight. Check back tomorrow for the consequences thereof.

Stephanie Wild has a quizzical look on her face—she just returned from her first visit to the Alice in Wonderland bathroom.

Here we all are, exhausted and happy after two great concerts. Even Marcello (our dog) is tired. What a great season this has been, and what a great day today was! We definitely pinned the tail on that donkey.

Effi Casey whacked the s$%& out of that piñata. Go Effi!

One of the many highlights of the evening was our dinner drawing. Our dear friend Emily Earley won the dinner drawing! Emily has been coming to our concerts since the very, very beginning, and she's introduced zillions of people to BDDS.

Kris Knight won the second prize, the dinner for 6 from Fromagination. Kris is another dear friend—she donates massage therapy to BDDS artists.

Jack "we love that loud tie" Holzueter won the third prize—lunch and golfing for four at the Blackhawk Country Club.

OK, party's breaking up—it's been a great season, thanks to everyone who has helped make it happen!

2009-06-27T10:45:00.000-07:00

Tonight is our last Saturday night. It is always sad parting with everyone after the final week of the festival. Last night's concert was another great one...you have got to see Ara on that viola! The Rebecca Clarke piece is especially amazing.

Another one of my favorite things about the festival is seeing all of our regular audience members returning year after year. It is so nice to connect with people who appreciate the same things: music that moves us and talented and interesting musicians who make it.

Join us at Osteria Papavero on E. Wilson Street after the performance tonight. It is always a celebration!

Rib dinner tonight!

2009-06-09T10:51:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful Tuesday afternoon and I am busily tying up loose ends, looking over notes from last year for tips to making this season even better. Ticket sales are better than last year at this time (thank you!).

I just returned from Carolyn Kallenborn's house. She's the textile artist who's doing an installation for The Playhouse stage. Lots of pots on burners at her house, but nothing good to eat inside of them...dying fabric instead. She and I looked at what she's preparing for Saturday. Dramatic and stunning! We also looked through some of the dresses she's made. I get to wear some of them! Look for me in her Kelp dress!

I am looking forward to tonight. Rib dinner at Edenfred with the artists made by the Wendels and the Wilkinson's. We'll see how they compare to Tom Terry's famous ribs! At a dinner early in the week is usually when I get to see everyone. I always get butterfiles in my stomach before I walk in...I am so excited to see everyone and get the festival started. Back to work...

Like, whoa

2008-07-02T20:56:00.000-07:00

Like, whoa, man, like, it's over, like, whoa.

I can hardly believe it. Our last week just flew by, and now it's over until next summer. But what a great season it has been! Stephanie and I really set ourselves some challenges this year—a lot of really hard new music that's hard to put together under festival conditions—but it all worked out in the end. I will admit that I had a few doubts along the way... that I wish we could have had another day or two of rehearsal on some pieces... and that I wish we could have performed some works a couple more times. But you know, unless you set yourself challenges like this, you just don't know what the limits of your abilities actually are.

Our third week was a special challenge because we had a larger number of guest artists to take care of than in any other week. And all of those guest artists were from out of town, which makes it even a bit more complicated. I had to move out of Edenfred to make room for the others, so I had to factor in at least one forty-minute round trip every day. (I was staying downtown with Tom Terry this last week—admittedly not a hardship!) But we had a really wonderful and interesting group of musicians, so the whole week was quite fun. John de Main was so great to work with as the narrator for The Four Seasons of Futurist Cuisine. What a ham! Such a natural! And so rare to work with a narrator whose acting chops are so terrific AND who completely understands the music. Kernis notates precise complex rhythms for the narration at many points in the piece, and John was always right on top of them.

Anyway, when we finished up Sunday night, we were all happy but completely exhausted. We drove back to Edenfred, had a celebratory party, compared notes about the rest of the summer (I'll see a number of our guest artists at other festivals this summer), said our farewells, and turned in for the night.

It was the first night of untroubled sleep I've had all season.

Stephanie and I have already decided on the theme for next year. 2009 is the 200th anniversary of the death of Haydn. Haydn was probably the best-humored composer EVER. He is the epitome of "serious fun"—music that is beautifully written, challenging, profound, and yet shows a real enjoyment for life. We thought we'd honor him by naming our season "Haydn Seek"—the idea being that we're seeking the spirit of serious fun that Haydn exemplifies in chamber music of all eras. Our programs will be named after games—titles like "Twister," "Pin the Tail on the Donkey," "Truth or Dare," "Follow the Leader," "Go Fish," "Crazy 8's," etc. If any of you have great ideas, be sure to let us know!

Where does BDDS find you?

2008-06-23T14:40:00.000-07:00

second weekend

2008-06-21T14:10:00.000-07:00

It astonishes me that our second weekend is already here. Festival time is so different from regular time. It gets compressed AND expanded, it flows faster AND slower—at the same time. Weird. And to think—next week's musicians start arriving TOMORROW. In a little more than a week, it will all be OVER for the season.

Last night we opened our second weekend out in Stoughton. What a beautiful place to play! We had piano issues, though... I think the air-conditioning just did a number on the Opera House's piano, so even though it was tuned at 2 pm yesterday afternoon, by concert time it had headed south. VERY frustrating... and we weren't able to find a tuner to get out to Stoughton quick enough. Pianos are a pain. We have to think of a solution for this problem. Ideally one that's not too costly.

That said, the concert went great and I think the audience really enjoyed it. A cool group of pieces, and a cool group of musicians. We all went to the Greenbush Bar in Madison afterward for their world-class pizza.

Had our dress rehearsal in the Overture Playhouse this morning. Kit Taylor and I played through our two-piano pieces (Milhaud's Scaramouche and Rachmaninoff's 2nd Suite). That guy—playing with him is like driving a Ferrari, he is amazing. Jason's video for the McKinley Romances is fabulous, and the three string players sound so beautiful together in the Mozart Divertimento. Should be a terrific concert tonight!

2008-06-19T12:47:00.000-07:00

Thursday afternoon - We're in the middle of our second week of concerts and having a BLAST getting to know Irina Muresanu, our new violinist. Irina is Romanian and lives in Boston - she is coming to us through the auspices of Pro Musicis Foundation of New York. Irina and I were both chosen to be artists on their roster, and now they're trying something new - placing their artists in festivals around the country to help further their career. On our end, that's fantastic! It's brought us an incredible new artist who we are thrilled to know and work with, and it helps further the Pro Musicis mission of helping young artists advance their career. It's a win-win situation and we're very grateful to Pro Musicis Foundation for making this happen.

I've been trying to starve myself today to save up for the once-a-year, incredible rib dinner at Tom Terry's tonight. Somehow I think Ara Gregorian, our violist this week, is going to give me a run for my money with those ribs. I think the all-time record was 34 ribs, by Minnesota Orchestra principal cellist, Tony Ross. Yeah, it's true, we DO eat a lot, but that makes everyone love to cook for us, so it all works out!

More soon, hey - this is fun!
Stephanie

A new week

2008-06-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

Well, one weekend down, two to go. This past weekend's concerts went great. What excellent audiences we had! And I think that people really enjoyed the new pieces we played. Myself, I thought it was a really good balance of new and old. It was a challenging week for all of us, and Steph and I are definitely feeling it. It's hard to put together new music that doesn't have an extensive performance tradition. You have to figure out the style as you go. With Mozart, you KNOW the style. It may be hard to play, but the style is something you can feel. It's hard to rely on your musical instincts when you're faced with an unfamiliar style!

Kevin Puts, our featured composer, arrived Saturday afternoon. What a great guy! And, more importantly, as a composer he's the real deal. We're hoping to get him back here next season to play his piano quintet "Red Snapper"—written for the same instruments as Schubert's "Trout" quintet.

Today, Monday, our week 1 artists departed (Doris, Randy, Timothy, Dane), and our week 2 artists arrived (Ara, Jean-Michel, Irina). Kit Taylor and I started on our two-piano pieces—what a thrill to play with him!—and he, Steph, and the string players started on the David Diamond flute quintet and the David Baker piano trio. They already sound good! David Wells and I made a big pot of chili (a strategic choice, as we were able to largely empty the fridge), and I make a poppyseed-almond torte that's really yummy. We're all salivating at the prospect of Tom Terry's BBQ ribs on Thursday night.

We really should change our name to the Bach Dancing and Dining Society. Or Bach Dancing and Dine-o-mite. 'Cause it's about the music AND the food.

High Arts

2008-06-15T06:18:00.000-07:00

The wonder folks here at BDDS have worked hard all week to create art. The process includes so much more than the musical performances. We research and practice our parts at home, gather at Edenfred (I have not only rehearsed here this past week but also lived upstairs), put it all together (rehearse and discuss) and present live performances during the weekend. Each of those four (4) steps could expand into a huge document. Jeffrey's "Revelation" about the key of the final song of The Songs of Travel is an example of 'put it all together'.
In addition to A) the chamber music many other arts abound -- B) story telling (Stephanie Jutt and Randall Hodgkinson have landed honors), C) culinary arts (David Wells' version of Chicken Marbella and Katrin Talbot's spice cake with prunes) and D) visual art (Andy Gulati's photos and the BDDS program) TO NAME A FEW.
I hope that you will ask questions and make comments about these and any of the many other arts that make up the Bach Dancing and Dynamite Society. It is amazing to be a part of Chamber Music with a Bang!

A breakthrough moment

2008-06-13T08:13:00.001-07:00

Timothy and I have been rehearsing Vaughan Williams' "Songs of Travel" all week. I've been perplexed by the tonal arrangement of the cycle. The first song, "The Vagabond," is in C minor, and all the big, famous songs in the cycle return to C. ("Whither must I wander" and "Bright is the ring of words.") Then the final song, "I have trod the upward and the downward slope," is in D minor/major. Yet this last song includes motives from "Whither," "Bright," and ends with the opening figures of "The Vagabond." This last song was not published with the rest of the cycle, but was written later and added to the cycle posthumously. I felt very strongly that the cycle should end in the same key it started in—in other words, that we needed to transpose "I have trod" down to C minor. It doesn't make a difference for the singing; in fact, in C minor, the song is more in the center of Timothy's voice. I was thinking that maybe Vaughan Williams wrote this epilogue without actually looking at the cycle and remembered its key structure incorrectly. Ending in C minor brings the Traveller full circle—it wraps things up in a nice, neat package.

Well, yesterday we sang through the whole cycle without stopping for the first time, and Timothy asked me to play the final song in D just as an experiment. And now I get it—now I feel the move to D minor/major as being "right." Heard in its entirety, yes, C minor and major stick out in this cycle. But they are often colored by a lot of D. In the first song, the bass alternates between C and D, even if it ends in C minor. The fourth song, "Youth and Love," is in G major, but ends with D in the bass. And the sixth song, "The Infinite Shining Heavens," is actually written in D minor and pulls us through some strange harmonies to D major at the end. "Whither" is a continual push and pull between C minor and E-flat major, both on either side of D, and so leaves one feeling uncertain about its home. And "Bright," though it begins very clearly in C major, skirts very far afield before returning there. This "D influence" is very audible when you listen to the whole cycle. So the cycle gets set up for a different sort of resolution.

In "I have trod," there's a strong cadence halfway thought the song in C major on the words "I have bid farewell to hope." I think I really heard that for the first time yesterday, and that more than anything convinced me of Vaughan Williams's key choices. The Traveller moves beyond a C major hope into D major, the key of "The Infinite Shining Heavens." It's the beginning of a different phase, a different journey. I get it now—it all makes sense.

A breakthrough!

Of course, now I have to re-learn the last song in D.

A perfect evening

2008-06-11T21:19:00.000-07:00

Our open rehearsal this evening was a big success and lots of fun. Doris, Suzanne, and Dane started with part of the Kevin Puts piece they are doing, "And Legions Will Rise." What a cool piece—but WICKED hard. The piece is sort of a "catch me if you can" kind of work, where they imitate one another an eighth note (or a sixteenth note) apart. One small brain spasm and you're doomed. But so cool when it works. Then Stephanie, Suzanne, Katrin, Parry, and Randy played Kevin's "Traveler." It's a slightly more opaque piece—but full of beautiful harmonies. They were all amazed they were able to get through it in one try. Apparently the first (and only) performance of this work was conducted. I can see why. But already you can tell that these guys are listening to one another, that each one of them is trying to play the WHOLE piece rather than just their part. They'll get there—and I think the piece is worth the effort. Timothy sang part 2 of "Einstein on Mercer Street"—that's going to be hot. He sounds amazing as always. And we finished up with a run-through of the "Breakdown Tango" which everyone seemed to enjoy. Cool piece, really well written.

It's great to play all of this challenging music—I really feel it helps me grow as a player and a musician—and it's gratifying when audiences seem to get into it like they did tonight. And it's so satisfying to combine it all with really gorgeous standard rep like the Mozart, Debussy, Vaughan Williams, and Duparc pieces we're doing. Best of both worlds.

After all our patrons left, David's cooking was the new order of business. It lived up to David's high standards. Tom Terry joined us for drinks, and we capped off the evening with Katrin's amazing prune cake.

I've been doing really well on my diet... but I fear I'm doomed over these next several weeks. No time to exercise, plus tons of great food served on nice plates. Not a good combo if you're trying to slim down a bit.

Tomorrow is kind of a restful day. We've been at it so hard, it'll be good to have a little down time before the onslaught of all the concerts.

Our 2008 season is about to begin!

2008-06-11T15:25:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the BDDS blog! And I hope to welcome many of you to one of our concerts this summer!

Musicians from all over the country arrived in Madison on Sunday, June 8th. We're all staying at this incredible artists' retreat, Edenfred, in the Highlands neighborhood. (Check it out at www.edenfred.org.) Edenfred is a gorgeous mansion owned by the Terry Family Foundation and run by our friend David Wells. Here we eat, drink, practice, eat, rehearse, drink, chat, eat, swim, hang out, and eat. Last night our friends Tom & Susie Wilkinson and Harvey & Bonnie Wendel came over and cooked us an amazing dinner—a very high-end surf and turf sort of dinner. They kindly made enough so that we had leftovers for lunch. It was just as yummy at lunch today as at dinner last night.

Today we played our first concert at the Meriter Retirement Center—so the season has officially started. Tonight we have an open rehearsal for our Fan the Flames donors, then David Wells has prepped yet another fabulous dinner for tonight. On the menu: Chicken Marbella, edamame succotash, broccoli slaw, and a yummy-looking cake made by our violist Katrin Talbot.

We take our food seriously.

And we take our music seriously—but still manage to have fun. As I'm writing this, I hear the strains of Kevin Puts' "Einstein on Mercer Street" floating through the house. Hard piece to do without a conductor—but these guys sound TIGHT. It's an EXTREMELY cool piece.

Next on my agenda: proofreading song texts and translations that we'll insert in the programs. A mundane but necessary task.

Welcome!

2008-06-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the BDDS blog! Here you will find postings by various guest artist throughout our three-week chamber music festival. Always wanted to know something about BDDS? Now's your chance to ask.

Timothy Jones, baritone, who comes from the University of Houston, will be our first blogger. He is currently in residence at Edenfred along with the other guest artists from out of town. They are rehearsing, eating, and talking all things music.