Joel's Classical Relocating

Music-loving friends in Houston will want to know this bit of recent news: Joel's Classical Shop is relocating to 3514B S. Shepherd @ Richmond, as of next weekend. The old shop on Bissonnet is already closed. His phone number and email remain the same.

Houston is lucky to have such a wonderful classical CD store. Here's hoping the new location brings him lots of business and many good years. A toast to Joel and his new shop!

Bach next Tuesday at UH

On Tuesday, Aug 26 at the University of Houston my colleague Robert Bates will play Bach's Clavier-Übung Pt. III. Yours truly gets things started at 7:30 pm in Dudley Hall with a lecture on same; the concert follows directly in the Organ Hall next door. For those who've never been: both halls are located in the Fine Arts Building, which is directly across the wooded grove (to the east) from the Moores School of Music, campus entrance no. 16 off Cullen Blvd.

The pic is the newly reconstructed organ at the Frauenkirche in Dresden, where Bach may well have played these pieces for the first time in 1736. The church, though destroyed in WWII, has recently been restored to its original Baroque splendor.

Vibrato strikes again!

Those of us who study and teach historical performance practice are forever confronting the vibrato bugaboo. Getting beyond the fear is usually the first (and often the only) order of business: yes, you too can sing or play with less (or more!) vibrato, and it sounds just fine when you do it -- that is, as long as you're doing everything else correctly. It's the "everything else" that's usually the problem: intonation, breath support, a flexible bow arm, etc.

Over the last decade or so, the leading lights of period-instrument performance have been working to expand the reach of this kind of musical practice, both for themselves and the ensembles they conduct. Period-instrument Mozart or Beethoven is now far less controversial than it was in 1990. But vibrato-less Elgar? That's what the London Proms promises this year, as reported in yesterday's NYTimes

I'm particularly struck with Norrington's comment about his love of the pure, vibrato-less string sound, despite his admission that Elgar probably put up with "a fair bit" of it. Once again, taste trumps history. A chacun son goût!

Opera in Santa Fe

Just back from Santa Fe, where opera is the main attraction in the summertime. Here's what the stage of this magical indoor/outdoor theater looked like this past Saturday night, just before the curtain of Mozart's "Marriage of Figaro." Anyone who saw Rameau's "Les Boreades" a few years back at BAM will remember the sea of flowers stuck into the stage, which were maniacally pulled out during the prologue. Similar plastic posies were put to great use in the Santa Fe Figaro, especially during the final "garden" scene, and during the overture the stage was plucked in a very genteel manner. Luxurious casting, including Mariusz Kwiecien and Luca Pisaroni as the Count and Figaro, respectively.

In addition to the Mozart, some Houston friends and I saw Handel's "Radamisto" and Kaija Saariaho's latest, "Adriana Mater," in its American première. I went expecting to like the Handel, and who can resist David Daniels, Laura Claycomb, and Heidi Stober, who all sang up a storm. The real surprise for me was the Saariaho work, which was riveting. The libretto (by Amin Maalouf) is both timely and poignant, and the music sensational. Highly recommended!

And it's a good thing the weather and hiking are so good in Santa Fe this time of year, because we did more than our fair share of eating! Are there any bad restaurants there?

Starlets of the coming season

If you didn't catch the interview about our upcoming season on KUHF 88.7 FM this afternoon, you can still listen to it by clicking on The Front Row

And I'm delighted to share some other news. Both Ava Pine and Jamie Barton, our two soloists for the Sept 19 Ars Lyrica season opener, have been getting rave reviews for their summer opera work around the country. Ava is currently appearing in the Wolf Trap Opera production of Handel's "Alcina," which you can read about in the Washington Post and the
Ionarts Blogspot.

Jamie's Susuki in "Madame Butterfly" in St Louis got some great press as well. Read all about it in the Dallas Morning News and
the St Louis Post-Dispatch.

And here's a marvelous picture of Ava, as the Angel in "Angels in America" in Fort Worth earlier this summer.

A Turkish Holiday

Just back from a couple of weeks in Turkey, which Sixto and I highly recommend for anyone who has never been. We were on the Mediterranean coast for the better part of a week with some good friends from Houston: Robin Angly and Miles Smith, plus her sister Phoebe and son Hart, and their step-sister Allison. We all spent several days in Istanbul as well, and Sixto and I stopped for a few days in Amsterdam on the return.

The pic is of me, Robin and Allison at Saklikent Gorge, which offers a spectacular hike through some icy cold (and fast-moving!) water amid great rock formations.

The scenery on the coast reminded me of the Amalfi coast in Italy, though Turkey has Hellenistic and Roman ruins virtually everywhere you turn. The beaches are wonderful, as is the water and the food. Istanbul is a paradise for historical tourism and shopping; the mosques and the Grand Bazaar have to be seen to be believed! (Yes, we bought rugs and leather jackets...great prices for wonderful things!)

For the complete tour, go to Sixto's gallery of the trip: www.picasaweb.google.com/sixwag

A New Organ for St Philip

As promised below (see earlier post), here's a drawing of the new Paul Fritts organ currently under construction in Tacoma, WA, and due to be installed at St Philip Presbyterian here in Houston in Fall 2009. I'll have more details and pics as things progress, but wanted to give Houstonians especially a little peek at our new instrument.

The casework will include pipeshade carvings (not shown) and will likely combine some natural-finished wood with painted and/or gilded surfaces. This is just an initial rendering of the shape, using the wood color found in the church. With three manual divisions and pedal and 48 stops, this will be a major addition to the local scene.