Author Archives: geunjung lee

Conductor – Tania Miller, Guitar – Pablo Sainz Villegas

Mozart – Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K.385, Haffner

Rodrigo – Concierto de Aranjuez

Schumann – Symphony No.2 in C Major, Op.61

VSO night opened with Mozart “Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K. 385, Haffner”. This symphony is named after Sigismund Haffner, a son of the Salzburg’s former Burgomaster. Mozart created this piece for a celebration, held in Salzburg, for Haffner’s advancement to the nobility. As soon the first movement started, the whole tone of the orchestra played passionately was resonated in the concert hall. One interesting thing I felt was all the instruments seemed to play with same tone in earlier part of this movement; homophonic texture. The first movement seemed to overwhelm the audience with its powerful them. Second movement was felt rather elegant, delicate, and comfortable compared to the first movement. In this movement, I also drew an image as if people are gathering in a beautiful hall and chatting lightly. The atmosphere of the third movement was quite similar to the second movement as third movement “Menuetto” was being played with a minuet-specific bright feeling. It was like people enjoying a party in the court without any worries. The fourth movement, overall, was as powerful as the first but the whole part, mainly string instruments, played much faster.

Next piece was Rodrigo’s “Concierto de Aranjuez”, the guitar concerto, which I fell in love after hearing this today. The guest performer Pablo Sainz Villegas from La Rioja, Spain came up to the stage to explain the background of the piece with the conductor Tania Miller. Since this concert was “musically speaking” Villegas also shared his musical experience and background such as how he first came across the guitar as a child in Spanish culture, what kind of music he loves, et cetera. It was very meaningful and interesting time because I was able to hear his thoughts about music and guitar, and the detailed background explanation of the Concierto de Ajanjuez. The composer, Rodrigo had become a blind from the age of three and composed this piece when he was 38. Villegas explained that Rodrigo’s idea when he created this piece was the inspiration from the majestic views of the palace of Aranjues, a summer holiday residence for a Spanish king of eighteenth century. It was incredible how someone who couldn’t even see music or musical instruments could create such a beautiful piece. In the first movement, there was full of vitality created from arpeggio of guitar. As Rodrigo’s expression, “the flowers and birds’ song and fountain in the palace garden”, was drawn in this movement, and indeed I was so fulfilled with the vividness of the beautiful garden. The second movement, personally, was such a great masterpiece. In contrast to the brightness and vividness of the first, the second had full of sadness and faintness. Unexpectedly, I imagined an old man recalled his happy past, and at the same time the final scene of the movie Godfather with a famous piece “Cavalleria Rusticana” was pictured in my mind. Mainly the wind instruments in orchestra and guitar solo were alternately played in the second, and the composer described this part as “the conversation with English horn, oboe, horn and guitar”. The intense warmth and lyricism in the second movement were still deeply entrenched in my mind. This atmosphere suddenly changed into brightness the third movement which surprised me again. Within a relatively short movement, it was like an image of people dancing in a cheerful and upbeat manner, as if it would blow away all the sad vibes of the past.

After this wonderful piece was over, Villegas, who appeared for the encore again with enthusiastic applause from the audience, spoke of his feelings, gratitude, and explanation of two guitar solo pieces for encore. Both were composed by Fransisco Tarrega, and the first one was “Gran Jota de Concierto”. Villegas explained that it is often played during the wine harvest season in his hometown, La Rioja where a well-known region for grapes and wineries. It was passionate, cheerful and comfortable melody. The marching-like dull sound in the latter half, when plucking the strings in arpeggione manner while holding them with another hand, was an amazing technique. The last encore piece was “Recuerdos de la Alhambra”, one of the most famous pieces of guitar music. Within tremolo style of guitar, the mystique and the sorrow lyrical melodies was such a gorgeous gem of this night.

The ending of night was Schumann’s “Symphony No. 2”. Prior the performance, the conductor added a brief explanation of this piece as “an emotional arc from conflict to victory” since Schumann had a very difficult time, both physically and mentally as his health deteriorated. Therefore, each movement, especially the first and the second started with a calm and melancholic melody then it turned out to racing-like intense and fast rhythm to create a different atmosphere. The third movement exceptionally made melancholic mood as Schumann shows his despair, anguish and deep sorrow. In the fourth movement, all the notes started intense and majestic, as if to shake every sorrow off. It was like a lied that sang hope. The last part, filled with magnificent timpani and rich chords of orchestra, seemed to shout that Schumann had finally overcome everything and won.

Since I have started this concert journey for the music appreciation journal, I have been looking something interesting and unfamiliar program to broaden my musical experiences. In the meantime, the information of this concert, which I saw on the VSO website, stood at a glance. I really love to play guitar and have looked for many guitar pieces online, but it was very unfamiliar for me that guitar is collaborating with orchestra as the form of concerto. The concert of this night with VSO and conductor Tania Miller, and guitarist Pablo Villegas was memorable, stunning and fabulous.

Friends in Low Places – Mar. 27^th. 2019 at Barnett Hall

This mini concert was performed by trombonist Jeremy Berkman and double bassist David Brown. These two instruments are quite often performed in large group of brass or jazz band, but it is not usual to hear them as duet. Most pieces of this day were relatively newly composed. Only two of eight works performed at this concert were composed before 19^th century. Because of these facts, I excited even more about the concert.

The concert began with wit as David, alone on the stage, started playing bass in a low tone, Jeremy suddenly appeared next to the audience and played the trombone with improvisational melodies.

Then they alternately had brief speech about jazz and today’s program. Soon after, the first piece began, “Duet for Trombone and Double Bass” by Edward Elgar in 1887. Elgar composed this piece for celebration of his friend’s wedding. It was quite short, so it ended quickly but there was the excitement for the celebration and solemnity for the wedding together.

Three other pieces were world premiere, composed by current UBC composition students; “The Encounter” by Carmyn Slater, “The Ground Beneath Us” by Robert Humber, and “Night Tides” by Taylor Hall. All three were in the audience together, so after each performance, the performers and the audience applauded the three. All three pieces had more contemporary musical colors than the atmosphere of jazz. All these works were esoteric pieces that were difficult to define the genre, but it was quite interesting to listen to those works with trombone and bass-specific low tone.

The next piece, “Lawns” by Carla Bley, had a typical jazz frame, unlike the previous three. A jazzy, slow lagging rhythm and blue melody was so fascinated. This piece seemed to lyrically draw a quiet bar in one old movie. As the rhythm was being drooped, it was an attractive piece that I could listen to without worrying throughout the performance.

There was one unique piece, “Selections from Arie Musicali, Book 1” (1630) by Girolamo Frescobaldi, that had one special guest performer Christina Hutten for harpsichord. The harpsichord is an old instrument that is the predecessor of modern piano, so I never expected to be able to hear it. I was very excited about the fact that I could hear the harpsichord, which I could only hear indirectly in recordings and videos. Indeed, the sound of plucking the strings from the harpsichord, different from the notes of the piano, was very attractive. Also, as it was composed in 1630, the unique mystique of the music of the period has been reveal. I was glad to hear the melody that applies to the musical terms that I have learned from the music appreciation such as imitative polyphonic, and homophonic texture. The sound of the three instruments mixed together, but soon one instrument’s clear sound came out. It reminded me of those musical terms. Throughout all the short three movements, the charming and beautiful accompanying harpsichord came all the way, making this piece richer and more fun.

The last piece was “Six Vignettes” by Frederick A. Schipizky. This was composed in 2015, therefore it also had fairly contemporary atmosphere. It was esoteric but not unpleasant so that I could listen comfortably but carefully.

In this concert, I was amazed about the facts that there were variety of genres that two jazzy instruments could express and lots of modern music works are actually being made and studied so steadily. I am not a fan of contemporary music because of its complexity but still it is much worthwhile to listen and study since it is another different and modified way to express multiple messages and feelings today.

Mark Takeshi McGregor flute & Adrian Verdejo guitar­ – Mar. 20^th. 2019 at Barnett Hall.

Toward the Sea for alto flute and guitar (1981) – Toru Takemitsu

1. The Night, ii. Moby Dick, iii. Cape Cod

Duo I (1992-93) – Ignacio Baca-Lobera

Verdigris for flute and guitar – Jocelyn Morlock

Histoire du Tango (1986) – Astor Piazzolla

1. Bordel 1990, ii. Café 1930, iii Nightclub 1960, iv. Concert d’dujord’hui

This is probably one of the weirdest musical experiences that I ever had. The reason I became interested in this small concert was because of the unique composition of the instruments. A flute and a guitar. It is a peculiar pair that I have never heard of before, but that’s why I became more interested in the concert.

Two performers, Mark McGregor with flute and Adrian Verdejo with guitar briefly introduced of themselves and the program briefly beforehand. Four pieces of music were basically composed by four different composers from different countries, therefore they all had the distinct to contemporary music’s complexity and confusion as the colors of each country were smeared in the music.

First piece was “Toward the Sea for alto flute and guitar (1981)” composed by Toru Takemitsu from Japan. As soon as the music began, a very intense sound started to be played from the flute as if playing traditional Japanese music. I didn’t expect it would sound as that intense and peculiar from the flute, which always sounded mild and delicate. The accompanying guitar also made interesting sound as listening to Japanese music. The medium range from an alto flute was as if I were hypnotizing. The calm yet intense tone was like watching the cold sea. The guitar also produced a sense of water flowing down, with its calm melody playing in a fast rhythm.

The second piece “Duo I” which is composed by a Mexican musician, also featured a strong and sharp performance by the flute. It sounded like an old wooden wind instrument, not a brass instrument throughout the whole piece. The flute’s high tone of sound like fluttering a metal was unbelievable that it was from a flute. The accompanying guitar also plucked the strings fast and intense, so I couldn’t imagine it was a sound from a guitar at all if I was not watching it. The combination of the guitar and the flute were well blended together, and it was amazing that those sounded unpleasant.

Third piece “Verdigris for flue and guitar” was composed by a Canadian composer, Jocelyn Morlock. Overall atmosphere of this work was quite odd rather than sense of unpleasant or confused that I had felt in previous pieces. The performance of the flute and the accompanied guitar, which began in a calm manner, was like the overnight air when everything sank. Like a little chilly wind, the medium range of flute melody repeated its rise and fall, and the slow, neat sound of the guitar made the atmosphere even more mysterious. I wonder if it was this kind of feeling if I took a walk in the forest where moonlight is coming in at night.

The last fourth one was “Histoire du Tango” which means history of tango, composed by an Argentinian composer Piazzola. He is also very well known as a composer of Libertango, the most famous tango music. The first movement “Bordel 1900” began with light melody of flute and guitar had clearer beat and tempo compared to all the previous pieces. A guitar and a flute together created exciting melodies and rhythms. The guitar did not just stay in the role as the accompanist, but also led the melody with active performances. The second movement was “café 1930”, and this was my favorite part of this whole concert because of its lyrical and vague atmosphere. The elegant notes of flute and the low and deep notes of guitar were like reminiscent of twilight. In the third movement, “Nightclub 1960”, the mood changed slightly, starting with a quick play of a flute and a guitar. Then the tempo repeatedly became very slow for a while and then it accelerated again. The final movement “Concert d’aujourd’hui” had interesting atmosphere. It felt peculiar and odd like watching an animation Pink Panther. It seemed to be the most recent piece of the four movements, and it certainly felt like the most contemporary music. However, the last movement was so short enough to finish as soon as I got the feeling that it was a bit strange.

What I had expected of the combination of the flute and the guitar was elegant, lyrical, and calm as I have been listening in other classical works. It totally betrayed my expectation. Some of contemporary pieces had unpleasant atmosphere. But I think this was awesome musical experience that have broken my bias in music and its unlimited expression.

When I enter the VSO building, I always feel like I am in a fit of excitement. Especially I was more excited because this was my first visit in four months. Moreover, I like Beethoven, but I have never heard Beethoven’s piano concerto before, so I was looking forward to it. Today’s program was performed by VSO with conductor Dietrich Paredes.

The first piece to be played on this day was “The Hebrides (Fingal’s Cave), op. 26” of Felix Mendelssohn. It was a very unfamiliar piece that I have never heard of, so I read the introductory text in the brochure, but it was not easy to fully understand it just by reading it. When Mendelssohn visited to the Hebrides, the islands located at the northwest coast of Scotland, he got colossal and extraordinary impressions after he saw a grotto known as Fingal’s cave. Fingal is a name of a hero in old Scottish mythology. Like the strong impression he received, I also had a unique impression in this work. It started with a gentle, lovely melody and soon it turned out a mystique like watching fantasy movies. The magnificent melody was repeatedly played, it seemed as if huge waves and winds were coming in and out. In the meantime, I also felt a very colorful atmosphere in the ever-changing melody.

The second piece was Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37 which I was impressed the most. A young French pianist David Kadouch performed as a companion. In 1800, when Beethoven wrote this piece, he was already losing his hearing. Perhaps that is why the overall atmosphere of this concerto had dark ambience, but at the same time I thought it had a romantic melody and passionate feeling in the piece. In the first movement, it gave off a feeling of gloom as if something were pressed own in the shadow, but this atmosphere kept interchanging with another bright atmosphere of soft melody that seemed to seek hope. The unique melody performance that seems to keep moving between major and minor modes is still memorable. The atmosphere with the first movement was definitely contrasted in the second movement, which began with a quiet and calm piano performance. It was like a watercolor paint depicting a peaceful pastoral scene. The third movement seemed to have the most outstanding performance of the piano in this piece. Orchestra instruments seemed to accompany the piano while piano gave out the general theme. Especially the piano performance in the end was so beautiful that it was overwhelming.

After this piano concerto, Kadouch played a single piano solo as an encore to the audience. Chopin’s Waltz Op. 64 no.2. It is one of Chopin’s most famous waltz and famous for its lyrical and elegant style. Kadouch wrapped up his stage with all the elegance and exquisite beauty of this waltz.

The next piece after the intermission was Beethoven’s the Creatures of Prometheus, Op. 43: Overture, which was quite short. I read an introduction that was one of the only two ballet music composed by Beethoven and said it is very rare for the entire piece to be played for ballet nowadays but only the overture. Indeed, I have never heard of Beethoven writing a music for ballet. Probably because it was an overture, it seemed to have compressed a grand-scale symphony into a short passage rather than the feeling of a ballet.

The last piece of this day was Beethoven, Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op. 36. This was another piece that I was not familiar with, but the feeling I got from this piece was stunning. The first movement was grand, vibrant, and colorful. It was also said that this work was composed around the time he lost his hearing, and it indeed seemed to me that all the clangs and emotions that Beethoven had experienced at that time were bursting out. The mood at the second movement was calmer and softer and the singing-like melody was impressive. In the third movement, there was a contrast with the cross between a loud explosion-like melody and a small murmuring-like melody gave me strong impressions. The final movement was rough and passionate, but I also had an impression like a sense of humor as if a person was smiling and hopping here and there.

Overall, my appreciation for those pieces of Beethoven on this day was that he was a such a monstrous figure. All of those works were beyond my expectations, even though there was a sense of Beethoven that I had previously though of. The fact that theses works were made at the time when he was mentally and physically suffering was absolutely understandable why he is being praised as the great composer in this era.

On Friday night in rainy day of the first day of February, I went to the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts in UBC. I have seen other opera pieces on YouTube in parts, but this was my first ever experience of watching whole opera in person, so I had colossal expectation of how music would be played along with the stage performance.

“Die Zauberflote” or “Magic Flute” in English form is one of the last pieces done by Mozart. And it is also known as the complete version of his comprehensive music in those days. In the writings of the brochure in the hall corridor, the work was introduced as a typical Singspiel opera. Later, I found out it is often misidentified as Singspiel, but it is rather a unique form of opera that combines various musical styles such as opera buffa, opera seria, German lied, Bach’s coral, and Austrian folk music.

I was waiting in the dark for the opera to begin, watching the set on stage for a while. The set of opera was very engrossing. Unlike other orchestral stage such as VSO, there was a wide range of stage for actors and the hollowed-out space for orchestral players called ‘orchestra pit’. After the short amount of time had passed, the lights were on the stage and the music began. It turned out from here that my experience of watching opera is so humble. I didn’t know there was an overture to the opera, so I was quite embarrassed when the songs and actors didn’t show up for a long time after the gentle music with slow tempo being played from the orchestra pit.

The atmosphere of the stage changed instantly after the overture. Prince Tamino appeared on the stage with giant serpent. It was a scene where a prince was chased by a serpent and three ladies appeared to save the prince. While the opera was being conducted in German, English subtitles appeared on the screen located on the ceiling of the stage. It was a little cumbersome to look at both the stage and the screen alternately, but I also thought it was a way to enjoy opera.

And then there was a scene where a character called bird catcher Papageno came out and sang merrily with a bird cage, it was one of the most impressive performances to me. I had thought that every piece of classical music from the era of Mozart was serious and formal, but I realized it was a big bias. Papageno’s aria “Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja” was a fun and joyful melody like dancing in the beautiful forest, and the lyrics were also humorous. The scenes that followed also had humorous codes in between and I felt like Mozart intended to make the audience laugh at ease while watching his piece. Especially in most of the scenes where Papageno appeared, there were many factors that the audience laughed, so I really wondered about the intention of Mozart to create this character.

In the latter half of the first act, aria of Prince Tamino and aria of the Queen of the Night were also memorable scenes. Tamino’s aria was full of lyricism. It was elegant and beautiful, even though it was a tenor singing. The Queen’s aria was also magnificent. There was a queenly elegance in the melody with a dark, sad vibe in the beginning. The very high-toned coloratura that followed was even more spectacular. It was an incredible technique to believe that the soprano was a college student. The witty and joyful melody of the song in which the princess Pamina and Papageno drove out the villain of this piece, Monostatos and his men with silver bell was also indelible.

As the opera progressed, several reversals arose. It was since the appearance of Sarastro, the evil man as the Queen of the Night called. Sarastro’s grand and massive bass along with the hymn-like melody was such that I could feel that he was a deified character in the work. In contrast, the appearance of the Queen re-emerging at the end of the play was also in opposite as she started her aria. An aria of the Queen of the Night “Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen” is probably the most famous aria that even people who do not know much about opera and classical music would recognize. The elegance that was seen in her before was like the wind that vanished without trace, and what lay in place was an eerie rage of sharpness and malice. Especially, the ascension in the arid was a good tool to reveal the true image of the Queen.

There are many operas in the world. It was quite an interesting experience that this work, which is reputed to be the most unique opera, became my first opera experience. After I saw this piece of work made by combining different colors of style rather than one genre and style, I felt like I watched several works at once.