Mandolin Concerts of Note

[Jim Garber]

A few more details of Carlo Aonzo and Rene Izquierdo's New York Concert:

Carlo will be making a rare public appearance in Manhattan on Thursday, March 22 at Bargemusic, the prestigious venue for classical music on the waterfront between Brooklyn and Manhattan. Carlo will be accompanied by Rene Izquierdo, an outstanding guitarist from Cuba currently living in Milwaukee. Carlo and Rene have performed together previously in Milwaukee and New Jersey and will be on tour together before this performance. I have heard them and I can tell you from my own experience that the sparks fly when they play!

Tickets are $35 and can be ordered directly from Bargemusic using a credit card. Their phone number is (718) 624-2083. You can visit their website: http://www.bargemusic.org/index.htm.

This is conveniently scheduled the night before the New York Workshop takes place.

Jim

[John Goodin]

There will be a world premiere of Steve Smith's "Three Murder Ballads" for tenor and mandolin here at Luther College in the northeast corner of Iowa next Tuesday, March 6. Here's a link to more info:
http://publicinformation.luther.edu/2006_07....ar.html

I have the honor of playing the mandolin part, which is very fun, for these three short songs. Steve is considering sharing the scores through the Cafe and I'll keep us posted about that possibility.

It's interesting that the Jeff Midkiff piece is being performed by an ensemble from another Lutheran college. Two premieres of serious mandolin music connected to Lutheran colleges in March 2007! What's wrong with all the other denominations?

Seriously, if you find yourself at this concert please say hello at the end. I'll be happy to show you the score and you can see how many notes I missed.

John G.

[Mandolius]

Hi everyone,
I agree with Neil from another thread - I'd promote myself more here, if I had more of myself to promote!

That said:

I will be joining Orchestra Seattle this Sunday, March 18, at 3:00PM for their performance of Stravinsky’s Ballet, Agon. #This work not only includes mandolin, but harp and piano as well.

Also on the program is Dvorak’s New World Symphony and Accordion virtuoso Murl Allen Sanders in the world premiere of his Accordion Concerto No. 2 (I heard some of this piece in rehearsal and it is fantastic!).

Hope some of you can make it! #Here are the particulars:#

Orchestral Inspiration
Sunday, March 18 - 3:00PM
First Free Methodist Church
3200 Third Avenue W
Seattle, WA 98119

Advance tickets for this performance may be ordered through Brown Paper Tickets online, by calling 1-800-838-3006 or in person at any Seattle-area Silver Platters location.

More information available at http://www.osscs.org/

[Jonathan]

Wow - mandolin and accordion in an orchestra concert? My hat is way, way off to Orchestra Seattle! Although I must admit - I recently got to play banjo on an orchestral version of the "Charleston" with the Baltimore Symphony (normally I play bass). I was seated next to an accordionist who was featured on the following number, a tango. It struck me that this was probably the first and last time that these two instruments were included in the same BSO concert.

[Neil Gladd]

I have four concerts (and a wedding gig) coming up, but so far only the first one has a date and venue set:

Avionics: Six Composers Who Are Not Afraid to Fly
Friday March 23, 2007, 8:00 PM, $10
At The Patricia M. Sitar Center for the Arts,
1700 Kalorama Road, NW Suite 101
Washington DC

This is a "New Music Salon" presented by the American Composers Forum, and I will be one of six local composers performing their own music.


The program:
Andrew Simpson: The Dead Are Dancing, for flute and piano
Carrie Rose: Thrush, for solo flute
Kevin Clark: The Seafarer
Neil Gladd: Sonata for Solo Mandolin
Sidney Bailin: Reeds on the Shore (electronic)
Matthew Sargent: Soft Song, for solo cello

The New Music Salon series creates a space for composers, performers, and audiences to meet, share new work, and build connections. Meet the composers in our midst and find out where music is heading tomorrow. Stay for post-show refreshments and meet the movers and shakers in DC's new music scene.

The Patricia M. Sitar Center for the Arts provides after-school arts education in music, dance, drama, creative writing, and visual arts to low-income youth in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, D.C.

For more information, contact ACF-DC:
301.715.3779
http://www.composersforum.org/dc
dc@composersforum.org

Also in the works:

I will be performing at Artomatic in Crystal City, VA sometime in April or May (dates not set yet), and two recitals are being planned, one in Maryland and one in DC. The DC concert will be my first ever all-romantic recital of music for mandolin and piano. I'm planning it for July, and calling it my "Summer Romance" concert!

Stay tuned for details, and if you can make it to my concert next Friday, please say hello!

[Linda Binder]

I wish I could be at your concert Friday Neil! I won't be able to make it to D.C. I'll be occupied in NY that weekend, but I'll be thinking about you! Your Sonatas are magnificent pieces. I hope to perform one someday. Have a superb time.
--Linda

[Eugene]

I played a small amount of mandolin at Franklin Park Conservatory's annual bridal show last week and Calace's op. 146 for quertetto romantico at a Columbus Guitar Society members' concert last night. Sorry for the late word, but I've been kinda busy.

I'd love to have the time to hit DC and NYC for all the groovy mandostuff pending, but am stranded in Ohio by day-job duties. Ah well...

[Plamen Ivanov]

Hello

I`ll attend the concert of "Solisti Venetti" on Wednesday. No mandolin pieces included in the program unfortunately. A little disapointed about this, but the visit is worth anyway.

Plamen

[vkioulaphides]

What!?!? NO mandolin? Outrageous! Is Sr. Claudio Scimone still the director of I Solisti Veneti? I played with him some years ago, at Aspen. I must give him a stern call... #

#If only conductors listened to me!

A couple of days ago, I had a friendly conversation with Carlo Aonzo on this very subject. His argument --perfectly logical, of course-- is that we mandolinists ought to aspire to the same recognition that has been bestowed (belatedly, and after much struggle) to guitarists: mandolin concertos ought to be appear on orchestral programs, etc. "We even have bigger-name composers of our literature", argued Carlo further. Who doesn't know Vivaldi, after all?

Alas, alas... # the analogy falls short.

For one, guitar concertos are as rare as the proverbial hen's teeth on the programs of our orchestras. Aspiring to parity with our guitar-brethren is like wanting to rise from gnat to fly status. (I speak, of course, exclusively on the subject of engagement as soloist with orchestra; in all other fields, e.g. education, recitals, chamber music, our guitarist colleagues are indeed FAR ahead of us.)

Second --and most discouraging-- is the abject ignorance that reigns supreme among our finest conductors. Finally --the "kiss of death"-- the truly ENORMOUS cost of (professional) orchestral programming, and the consequent (and dreadful) built-in conservatism, give-the-people-what-they-already-know mentality.

I don't know, Plamen... the cause is a worthy one, but MUCH "further behind" than we, warm-hearted aficionados of the mandolin may believe, or want to believe.

[Plamen Ivanov]

Right, Victor! You are absolutely right as usual! Yes, Claudio Scimone will be the conductor. Please, give him the stern call! I`m afraid it`s too late for the mandolin players to take part in the concert on Wednesday, but it`s not late for him to feel ashamed!

My expectations to hear a mandolin piece were great, because for the poster they used this picture.
(Look at it and you will see what i mean.) And the disapointment was as great when i found out that the piece by Vivaldi will be "The four seasons", instead of... you know what. #The "The Four Seasons" are great, but pretty well known, and even performed by "Solisti Veneti" they are still "The four seasons". As you pointed they stake on the "give-the-people-what-they-already-know mentality". Although the Bulgarian audience is pretty pretentious and i`m sure that most of the people expected another pieces by Vivaldi.

The reality as regards the recognition of the mandolin is "as is", but at least no one can take away our believe, right?!

Good luck!
Plamen

[Plamen Ivanov]

Nevertheless, we have to be honest and to acknowledge Claudio Scimone and his orchestra`s merit for some of the most great mandolin pieces recordings. I think their CD with pieces by Vivaldi, Paisiello and Caudioso is amongst the most popular mandolin music CDs and a "must have" for any mandolin lover and why not for every lover of the classical music...

Thus, the ignorance in respect of the mandolin shall not be a constant characteristic of Mr. Scimone personality in contrast to the majority of the conductors.

[margora]

"For one, guitar concertos are as rare as the proverbial hen's teeth on the programs of our orchestras. Aspiring to parity with our guitar-brethren is like wanting to rise from gnat to fly status. (I speak, of course, exclusively on the subject of engagement as soloist with orchestra; in all other fields, e.g. education, recitals, chamber music, our guitarist colleagues are indeed FAR ahead of us.)"

Actually, Victor, I think guitar concertos are pretty common, all things considered. Eg. if my last name were Rodrigo, and my first initial were J., I could easily retire now on the annual performance royalties from the Arunjuez. Indeed, the great majority of high level guitarists in the US make their living playing the Arunjuez + a few other concertos (solo recitals are much less common than they used to be). Last fall the Boston Symphony Orchestra featured the Arunjuez on a regular concert program.

[vkioulaphides]

Yes, relatively, i.e. correspondingly. It is, of course, ever-so-slightly ridiculous of me to say this to a Professor of Economics # #but, as there are far fewer world-class mandolin virtuosos than there are guitar-playing "equivalents", orchestral concerto programming could/should find some sort of equilibrium between the availability of adept soloists and performance opportunities. As it stands,yes, we are "under-represented".

On that level, Carlo's argument is valid. If the singular Concierto de Aranjuez would surely procure one a comfortable living as an income-stream of royalties (as Robert correctly suggests), Vivaldi's mandolin music certainly could do so, and far more-- I bypass, of course, the preposterous element of this analogy, namely that Vivaldi's music is all in the public domain, there ARE no royalties to be paid, etc. as self-evident.

It still rings incredible, that the programming of guitar concertos could be called "pretty common", Robert-- with all due respect. By what standard? Compared, say, to piano concertos, are we to divide the sum total number of piano soloists (working, under professional, year-round management, not imaginary, "stars in their own minds" # ) by the number of actual bookings of piano concertos, so as to derive some sort of a "ratio"-- or inversely, "multiplier"?

I can only hazard a hazy guess... if such a "piano standard" (call it what you may) is taken to be 1.0, the one of the guitar would be faaaaaaaaaaaar less than that; the one of the mandolin would be, alas, next to zero. Needless to say, I wholeheartedly support the raising of this minuscule figure.

Food for thought, for sure. And, Plamen, I never meant to malign Maestro Scimone in particular; he is, however, also an "exception to the rule". The Age is a much Darker one, I'm afraid... #

Skeptically yours,

Victor

[JimD]

Indeed, the great majority of high level guitarists in the US make their living playing the Arunjuez

Both of them? #

Seriously though --What do you mean "make their living"?

It would be nice, also, if someone would play something other than the Aranjuez or Vivaldi. Some of us have had our fill of those -- let's just say 40 years worth

I'd rather go back to a concert schedule that featured more solo recitals than having the obligatory chestnut offered up every couple of years at a symphony concert.

Sorry to be so negative. I'd just like a bit more variety in general... # #

[margora]

"It still rings incredible, that the programming of guitar concertos could be called "pretty common", Robert-- with all due respect. By what standard? Compared, say, to piano concertos, are we to divide the sum total number of piano soloists (working, under professional, year-round management, not imaginary, "stars in their own minds" ) by the number of actual bookings of piano concertos, so as to derive some sort of a "ratio"-- or inversely, "multiplier"?"

Well, it is a good question. I'm not sure what the standard should be. But I do believe that if I had the data for a random sample of orchestras in the US I would find an increase over time (say, over the past 20-30 years) in the frequency of guitar concertos, and most of these would be the Arunjuez. I might also add that it is only recently in the US that the standard of professional guitar performance has reached a sufficiently high enough level that it is a reasonable thing for a symphony orchestra to program the Arunjuez (which is quite a difficult piece).

"'Indeed, the great majority of high level guitarists in the US make their living playing the Arunjuez


Both of them?

Seriously though --What do you mean "make their living"?"

Well, Jim, as you know, there are many, many more than two "high level" guitarists in the US, by which I mean guitarists with international reputations. We could ask, for example, Isbin, Barrueco, Tanenbaum, Fisk, and many others etc. etc. what fraction of the annual performance income comes from guitar concertos; I believe it would be quite high. By "make their living" -- which, from my personal observation, I would describe as upper middle class in US terms -- I am referring to such individuals, not the average classical guitarist. The advice commonly given to aspiring guitar virtuosos is to learn the Arunjuez and learn it well, if they wish to play concertos.

"I'd rather go back to a concert schedule that featured more solo recitals than having the obligatory chestnut offered up every couple of years at a symphony concert."

I'm certainly not advocating more performances of the Arunjuez; I've heard more than enough myself to last a lifetime. But I also would say that I would not want to go back to a world of solo guitar concerts. Most are these are pretty boring.

As far as Carlo's point is concerned, it is curious that we don't see more Vivaldi mandolin concerti. One reason might be that Vivaldi is now largely the province of early music ensembles, at least; major, or even minor symphony orchestras don't program it (they don't program Bach very frequently either).

[JimD]

Robert --I guess my frustration with the situation clouds my ability to clearly state my complaints. It is also spring break now and, evidently, my communication skills have taken a holiday. I apologize for
that.

I certainly agree that there are more than two high level guitarists in the country. I still wonder how they could make a decent living primarily from performances of THE concerto.

You are probably correct about the Vivaldi being absorbed into the realm of early music ensembles. Other mandolin concerti? How often do you think orchestras will even program something like the Hummel?

[margora]

"You are probably correct about the Vivaldi being absorbed into the realm of early music ensembles. Other mandolin concerti? How often do you think orchestras will even program something like the Hummel?"

Yes, the mandolin situation is a puzzle. The only times I have ever heard a mandolin concerto was when I was playing in the orchestra, i.e., in a performance of a soloist with a mandolin orchestra. I have never heard a performance of the Vivaldi or the Hummell by a professional orchestra in the US.

[vkioulaphides]

Hence my professional --i.e. as per wearing my "arts management hat"-- advice to Carlo that, if I were hypothetically an agent representing a classical mandolinist, I would "split the pie" of my resources thus: 70% in pursuit of college/university engagements, 20% "commercial venues", such as ticketed/subscribed concert/recital series, and ONLY 10% engagements as concerto soloist. I am afraid that he might have expected the last slice to have been larger. I could not lie to him, pleasant as that might have sounded at the moment. While a cautious optimist as a person, I am a curmudgeonly skeptic as a manager-- and, all modesty aside, I count that as a strength, not a weakness. #

[Jim Garber]

I just noticed an error in the listing for Carlo Aonzo and Rene Izquierdo's concert tonight at Barge Music in Brooklyn tonight. The concert is at 8:00 pm. The time on the calendar listing on Carlo's site said 7:30pm which is incorrect.

Jim

[Eugene]

Frankly, I think plucked strings find a more appropriate voice in chamber settings. #Concerti really are a novelty to our preferred instruments and, I believe, for good reason.

[Neil Gladd]

Frankly, I think plucked strings find a more appropriate voice in chamber settings. Concerti really are a novelty to our preferred instruments and, I believe, for good reason.

I love playing concertos (perfectly acceptable English spelling!) when I get the rare opportunity to do it, but they are rare. I've done the Vivaldi single and double concertos more than once, but when I'm given a choice, I'll choose something different every time, just for the experience. Other than Vivaldi, I've done the Hummel, William Bardwell and Morris Surdin Concertos with orchestra. (These last 2 were U.S. premieres of 20th century concertos).

My unfinished 2nd Mandolin Concerto (I've withdrawn the first) is just for mandolin and string quartet, which will make it will be easier for the mandolin to be heard, and, more importantly, easier to program.

[Embergher]

I've been invited to the EGMYO happening in Ferrara next week for a concert and a lecture about Embergher mandolins with my co-author Barry Pratt.

The all Italian concert program for Friday 6 April:
(with Elisa Franco at the piano)

- Valzer Fantastico ( Enrico Marucelli)
- Preludio I°, opus 45 (Raffaele Calace)
- Danza dei Nani, opus 43 (Raffaele Calace)
- Capriccio Spagnuolo, opus 276 (Carlo Munier)
- Souvenir de Varsovie (Silvio Ranieri)
# * Canzona triste
# * Kracowiak con variazioni
# * Danza polonese
- Piccola Gavotta, opus 73 (Raffaele Calace)
- Primo Concerto, opus 113 (Raffaele Calace)
# * Marziale
# * Largo tranquillo
# * Rondò

[Plamen Ivanov]

Great and favourite pieces included in the program! I wish, i could attend! Next time may be...

Good luck, Ralf!
Plamen

[Eugene]

Not quite a mandolin concert, but Duo Fresco will be in concert here in Columbus, OH, 8 pm, Saturday, 7 April 2007 at Capital University's Huntington Recital Hall. A fine suite by Cafe denizen Victor Kioulaphides is on the program. See Columbusguitarsociety.org for detail...or drop me a line.

[vkioulaphides]

Indeed, Brett Deubner and Chris Kenniff of Duo Fresco have performed my "Spanish" Suite for Viola and Guitar far and wide— as far as the Juneau Festival in Alaska!

For the requisite mando-content: I do have a version of this work for mandola and guitar, to which all are welcome; the score is free and available for the asking. The earliest version (1995) of this Suite was for B-flat clarinet and guitar.

Incidentally, this instrumental suite was created (as is customary) out of a would-have-been ballet, on Luigi Pirandello's classic short story La Giara. But, as my career has been mostly on the OPERA stage, and I therefore have no connections in the World of Ballet, this original idea was soon —and rather practically— dropped.

At Duo Fresco's request, however, I am currently "developing back" the work with the original idea in mind. The "new" final product will involve (of course) the solo viola and guitar, accompanied by strings (either a quartet, one-to-a-part, or small string orchestra), a modest dance trouppe, and narrator. What fun!

I see no reason why, some day, this ballet cannot be done with mandola and guitar as soloists, plucked quartet (or orchestra), plus the requisite narrator and dancers. #

Get out your point-shoes, friends! #