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Volume 28 Issue 3 | December 2022 - January 2023

  • Text
  • Thewholenotecom
  • Faculty
  • Arts
  • Theatre
  • Musical
  • Jazz
  • Orchestra
  • Symphony
  • January
  • December
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Creative Collisions offer land-use hope for community and arts space; "Take Dec 10 for Example" -- Orchestral Explosion; Landmark novel finds music theatre form; Behind the scenes at Salute to Vienna; Collaborative serendipity on the joint-concert front; Amnesia and the alternative: QSYO's take on "Comfort and Joy". A bumber crop of record reviews (and not a Holiday compilation among them)! All this and more...

BEHIND THE SCENES

BEHIND THE SCENES January 1, 2016 “Salute to Vienna” at David Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center: Matthias Fletzberger, conductor; the Strauss Symphony of America; dancers from Austria’s Europaballett. CHRIS LEE “Salute to Vienna” The New Year’s Tradition That Grew GARY CORRIN January 1, 2023 will mark the return of what has become a favourite New Year’s tradition in Toronto and cities across North America – Attila Glatz Productions’ “Salute to Vienna” modelled on the wildly popular “Neujahrstagkonzert” (New Year’s Day Concert) given by the Vienna Philharmonic. The Vienna Philharmonic concert is broadcast throughout the world – operetta excerpts as well as the waltzes and polkas of the Johann Strauss family as the apotheosis of Viennese culture, speaking to a particular pre-World War I innocence, sentimentality and nostalgia that resonate particularly powerfully in troubled times. Marion and Attila Glatz both grew up listening to these New Year’s Day concerts (on the radio, as tickets are impossible to get – Marion in Austria, Attila in Hungary) and together decided to create something similar in their new home of Canada. Beginning with a single concert in 1995, given at the George Weston Recital Hall to an audience of 1,000, it moved the following year to Roy Thomson Hall and then expanded to Vancouver, New York, Marion and Attila Glatz West Palm Beach and Sarasota as well. By the millennium, it was being presented in 33 cities to 70,000 people. I became associated with this venture early on, first as the orchestra librarian for the Toronto concert, then as the librarian for all the concerts, then even as second clarinettist in the Toronto orchestra. Currently I do all of that, plus communicating with the conductors, singers and dancers to develop the actual individual programs. What was Marion and Attila’s New Year’s tradition has become my tradition – but lasting each year from mid-September through late January. As you can imagine, the years have brought a lot of crazy and wonderful experiences. Here are a few of my favourites. 22 | December 2022 - January 2023 thewholenote.com

Pride in the pages As an orchestra librarian, I take pride in preparing printed pages from which musicians can read in such a way that allows rehearsals to proceed as smoothly as possible. Just imagine the time wasted if the conductor has to tell their 54 orchestra members where to start or which repeats to take or not. And the chaos that can ensue if everyone isn’t working from the same map. The finest musicians playing excellent instruments will sound amiss if they’re not all in the same place The player markings that have in the music. All of these artist accumulated in this part for the preferences must be confirmed "Vernügunszug" or "Excursion Train" in advance, and scores and parts polka indicate that the conductor marked accordingly before will be beating in 1 (or maybe in 2) and that the repeat should be being sent to conductors and taken in the da capo (or not). orchestras. Technology has greatly enhanced the ease and accuracy with which I can accomplish this. Sending scans of vocal scores to singers and mp3 recordings to choreographers sure beats the “bad old days” of sending faxes and mailing CDs. But even so, there are countless ways for things to go wrong. For one thing, every one of the pieces on our program is known by at least two, sometimes three different titles. Think Die Fledermaus or The Bat; An der schönen blauen Danau Walzer or Blue Danube Waltzes. Confusing as that can be, it gets worse when “Dein ist mein ganzes Herz” is one of a conductor or singer refers to a our most popular songs. This set has song by the lyrics of the chorus gotten around – at least 16 cities. instead of the verse: like “Mein lieber Schatz” or “Sag ja.” Vocal pieces sometimes exist in different keys; singers may have different preferences for starts, stops and sometimes, cuts. Waltzes and polkas are dance music and as such feature repeated sections to create symmetry in the dance movements. Numerous symbols are used to indicate these repetitions and save space on the page. Taken together, these pencilled-in symbols on a part constitute the “repeat scheme” or “road map” through a piece of music, but as with ordinary maps, they get used by most artists to devise their own route – to achieve their personal interpretation. One piece in particular takes the prize for defying consistency. Frühlingstimmen or Voices of Spring exists in two different versions – one for soprano and orchestra and one for orchestra only (which is sometimes used for dancing). I’ve been able to wrangle dancers into agreeing to a single common repeat scheme, but the sopranos are another matter. Of the 15 or so sopranos who have performed this work with us, no two have done it the same. I have about seven sets of parts with various markings which I continue to modify. Eraser shavings I can always tell if something went wrong or wasn’t clear, by the markings made by players in their parts. “XXXXX” or “YES!” or “NO!!” or long lines drawn from one place in the music to another are testimony to a player’s attempts to keep their place on the page, but these markings are seldom helpful to the next player. Each year our kitchen table gets taken over by eraser shavings as I spend quite a bit of time cleaning up and re-marking. I’ve taken to marking these structural indications in blue pencil (the erasable kind – just in case), which GARY CORRIN GARY CORRIN Jan 27 — Feb 18, 2023 Production underwritten in part by Howard & Sarah D. Solomon Foundation in honour of Alexander Neef Feb 3 — 24, 2023 Generously underwritten, in part, by Ambur Braid is generously sponsored by TICKETS ON SALE NOW coc.ca | 416-363-8231 The COC Orchestra is generously sponsored, in part, by W. Bruce C. Bailey, in honour of Christie Darville, COC Deputy General Director, and Johannes Debus, COC Music Director. thewholenote.com December 2022 - January 2023 | 23

Volumes 26-29 (2020- )

Volumes 21-25 (2015-2020)

Volumes 16-20 (2010-2015)

Volumes 11-15 (2004-2010)

Volumes 6 - 10 (2000 - 2006)

Volumes 1-5 (1994-2000)