Friday, July 30, 2010

The "H" program.....

Hi All!
The "H" Concert is going to be part of the Cinnabar Summer Music Festival
(www.cinnabartheataer.org for tickets)
The program is taking shape nicely...Starting with a Handel Violin Sonata, and an early Haydn Trio for violin, cello and in this case, harpsichord. Then Kathleen Reynolds will bring us into the 20th century with a Honegger solo flute piece, then a cello duet by Hindemith, and then the cello will start acting as a percussion instrument in a duet by Robert Hughes for cello and flute. The final piece is an amazing string quartet by the Aptos composer Lou Harrison.
Other performers will be Maria Caswell and Mari Smiley, violins, Betsy London, viola, Yuko Tanaka, harpsichord, Kathleen and the usual suspects on cello......


Thursday, July 15, 2010

Too many G guys!

So is it Gabrieli or Gabrielli??
We are playing pieces by Domenico Gabrielli, who was actually not related to Andrea or Giovanni Gabrieli. Those other guys were the ones who wrote the antiphonal brass pieces. They were Venetian and our guy (Domenico) lived in Bologna. What confusion!
Now the Grauns.....There were 3 brothers who all wrote music. The oldest, August, was frequently in trouble with the law and didn't publish much. And of the other 2 (Johann Gottlieb and Carl Heinrich) it is sometimes unclear which of them wrote what.
There...did that clear things up?

Friday, July 9, 2010

Gamboling through.....

Graun, Graupner, Giamberti, Guerini, and the great Gabrielli......
We're in rehearsal for our coast baroque concert!
This month's Alphabet Players are: Maria Caswell, violin; David Barnett, recorders and chalumeau; Marion Rubinstein, recorder and harpsichord; and Gwyneth Davis and Judiyaba, cello.
Yes, chalumeau.....any guesses?
A clue...must blow, not bow a chalumeau......

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

"F" photos!

The "F" Concert, at St. Vincents, was a bi-level concert. After opening with the Finzi Bagatelles for clarinet and piano, we continued from the organ loft. The acoustics were so wonderful that people thought the cello was amplified. Plus...the church is gorgeous. The organ pipes are actually hidden behind the screen on the right. Too bad they hid them! After intermission the Frühling Trio; piano, cello and clarinet was played downstairs. Unfortunately, soprano Carol Menke was sick so we were without the Faure songs.......Now an ethical question.....Can we postpone and put them on a later program???? Even though it would be the "wrong" letter???