But that's neither here nor there. The bottom line is that I'm done with that French set! I've been writing about my recent attempts at trying to wrestle the Rilke poetry into my music for some time now and I finally finished the thing last week. It feels so good to get it out of the way so I can sit and wait for Jessica to sing the bejeezus out of it. I ended up calling the thing Trois Méditations ("Three Meditations") because the poetry has that kind of vibe to it: thoughtful, introspective and peaceful.
Jessica is incredibly excited to perform the set next April (I think that's the right date...I'll have to check on that) and I'm excited to hear her sing it. She came to town a few weeks ago for a thing with the Minnesota Opera and we had a chance to pal around downtown Minneapolis and visit the Twin Cities' fabled Mall of America (which isn't really a big deal...it's just a big mall). Here she is on the Guthrie's endless bridge mugging for the most attractive picture ever taken of her. She'd never seen the Mississippi River before so that was a stop on our abbreviated tournée des Villes Jumelles.
And since that piece is done, I've moved on to my next commission: a new choral work for Brownsburg High School in Indiana. They made a blog appearance way back in April of 2007 when I flew out to conduct them through an intense performance of Autumn. In discussions with their amazing director, Debi Prather, we decided to stick with the theme and have them premiere the next season piece I was ready to write. It's been six years since I wrote one of those pieces (there will obviously be a total of four) and, since that was how I first encountered this amazing choral program, it seemed like it was the right thing to do. I'm way ahead on it and, although I set a December 15 deadline for myself, I imagine it will be completely done a month ahead of schedule. This doesn't happen very often so I'm running with it and will try to get to work on the next commission in line.
As far as listening goes, I've been to a ton of performances in the Twin Cities area recently. The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the SPCO Chorale gave an insanely beautiful rendering of Arvo Pärt's Te Deum and Duruflé's Requiem a few weeks back. It was really good to hear both of those works live and, since the Te Deum is one of my favorite choral/orchestral works ever, I had a blast. (Side note: I've only laid out to get a tan once in my life and that's what I listened to...I burned but that was hardly Arvo's fault.) The penultimate chord of the Requiem is this incredibly chunky thing that Dale Warland (who oversaw the proceedings) stopped on for just a second longer than he needed to. It's one of those sonorities that makes your eyelids flutter a little and your eyes roll back in your head. It's not really highlighted in the old, standard Shaw recording so I may be on the search for another one some time in the near future. It was just some really, really good stuff sung by a world-class ensemble.
And I would be remiss if I didn't mention The Singers' mammoth performance of the Rachmaninoff All-Night Vigil this past weekend. This choir took this thing and made it there own...just incredible musicianship combined with ownership of the material. I'm so glad I had the opportunity to get to know this piece so thoroughly and the fact that it was with that inspiring group of people makes it that much better. The Pioneer Press gave a great review of the concerts in which the writer went so far as to say that "you owe it to yourself" to attend. And he wasn't joking. It was a serious 60 minutes of music-making.
On Halloween I made it out to see Ben Folds play a show with the Minnesota Orchestra. It was mainly the same set as his Live with the Western Australian Symphony Orchestra DVD but there were some new ones thrown in from his last two albums. It was nowhere near as fun as the last Folds show I went to but wasn't a chore to sit through at all. Last time I saw him I was crammed in a club with earsplitting volume and a stripped-down trio accompanying. Taking the volume way down and adding an orchestra was more of a curiosity than anything else but the fact that it was on Halloween definitely allowed all the people I was with to dress up and cavort around Orchestra Hall in costume. I went as Triathlon Moses and my sister, Emma, was a spot-on Lady Gaga. Even Folds and conductor Sarah Hicks got in on the fun when they came out after intermission dressed as Sonny and Cher.
Last night I went out to the Cedar Cultural Center to see a triple bill of indie folk-rock artists. The headliner was local singer/songwriter Chris Koza. Good stuff. Not my style but obviously a lot of integrity in it.
The middle act was local quartet the Wars of 1812 in their final performance as a group. It's too bad, really, because they were quite good.
JoAnna James started the show off with an amazing set of tunes and was my personal favorite by far. It was just her acoustic guitar alongside another player on electric adding some spice here and there. I always enjoy it when I can hear a singer/songwriter strip everything away but the very basic elements of their music. She did an incredible job.
So that's that. I think I'm caught up on blog stuff now. I'm off to Sham Rock's tonight to meet with some friends and hopefully hear some kickass Irish traditional music. I just finished a three song French set for soprano, piano and harp and am 85% done with a new choral work. I think I deserve it, damn it!
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