Schnittke, Schola, and the Sox

If my hiatus from blogging is any indication of how busy "real life" has been, then the last month has been intense!

I continue to be inspired and challenged by my surroundings - inspired by the music of Russian-born composer Alfred Schnittke, whose "Requiem" (1977) is, like much of the music of Arvo Pärt: compositionally sophisticated and yet aurally striking in its simplicity. I’m studying that piece for my lesson this week. I hope I’m able to conjure up the appropriate details to impress my teacher...

As a side-note, you should all listen to two pieces that have had a great impact on me this week. First is James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words. Check out Polyphony’s recording of it, if you can. Their director, Stephen Layton, is coming to Yale this winter for a series of masterclasses. The second piece is Arvo Pärt’s Te Deum for men’s choir, women’s choir, mixed choir, chamber orchestra, wind harp, and prepared piano. I sang this piece last year with the Brown Chorus, and listening to the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir’s performance makes me think that D major is the key of my soul at peace. There's really nothing like listening to his music very late at night. It's transcendent.

In other, somewhat dated news, Schola’s first concert went interestingly. The program was a challenge for the group:

Gibbons – Cries of London
Berio – Cries of London
Zelenka – Magnificat
Gubaidulina – Sonnengesang

Simon is all about Schola being interesting to watch. We gave it our all in the Gibbons and Zelenka; We tried not to look terrified in the Berio, and we almost remembered to turn our cellphones off in the Gubaidulina. More like Gubai-don’t-lina. If all of the singers had shown up on time for the performance, it would have been even better! :o\ We’re now working on Ardo, Ardo, a semi-staged production of Monteverdi madrigals and recitative from his various settings of Lamento d’Arianna. Think all-black outfits, minimalist modern dance, flashlights, and lots of rolled “r”s. It should be fun, if we can memorize two madrigals.

The Sox. What’s a man to say? If Thursday is the new Friday, then the Sox are definitely the new Yankees - that is, if the Patriots haven't beaten them to it. I hope you, like any parity-loving sports fan, were rooting for the Colts against the Pats this weekend. If you weren’t, here’s some information that might tip the scales:

Bill Belichik’s son plays lacrosse for the Brooks School, which is in the same athletic conference as the Middlesex School, where I taught last year. You might think that Bill wouldn’t deign to show up at his son’s games, having bigger games to think about. You’d be wrong. Not only does he show up, but he’s wearing the same raggedy sweatshirt and instead of pacing and looking smug/glum, he’s yelling at the officials. Check the dictionary; next to “lame-o” you’ll find a picture of Belichick, and the text: “One of greatest professional football coaches of all time who goes to his son’s sports competitions and yells at the officials”.

So who you gonna root for now? One of those forces of evil from Beantown? Didn’t think so. Go Colts!

BMN