Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: ARMYTEC Review (long!)


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Posted by Rick Denney on January 30, 2001 at 12:29:24:

In Reply to: Re: Re: Re: Re: ARMYTEC Review (long!) posted by David L. Allen on January 29, 2001 at 23:26:04:

Don't come down too hard on "anon." At least he didn't name names, which is where I have heartburn. There were performances that were incredible, and a few that were not so good. But none were perfect, and none were just awful. I'm glad I heard every one of them, and I'm grateful for the performers' willingness to put themselves out there for second-rate amateurs like me to judge.

"Anon" brings up a good point that suggests a general warning from me, even though it may not apply in his case. He mentioned that he brought someone and turned out to be embarassed, apparently because of the reaction of that person.

My wife also came to a portion of the Saturday proceedings, and I felt no embarassment. But I didn't persuade her to come for an entire day of performances, and I spent a great deal of time with the program picking out that two-hour segment that would appeal to her and not just to me. In then end, I thought the evening performances on both Friday and Saturday were a bit too long-haired for her (that means too "serious" to you young 'uns), and so I invited her to the Roland Szentpali recital on Saturday, having heard his teaser on Thursday. That turned out to be perfect. Patrick Sheridan's rendition of an oboe concerto that night was wonderful, and the musical highlight of the whole conference for me, but not her cup of tea.

We have to be careful when we invite our loved ones to these things. We hear this stuff with tuba ears until our spouses or kids are sitting their, and then we are suddenly blessed with non-tuba-player hearing and realize that all this is a bunch of tuba music by and for tuba players. If someone is not even a fan of classical or modern music, hearing it on a tuba will not convert them.

I picked up two solos to work on at home, neither of which I had in my collection. One was the Rachmaninoff Vocalise, and the other was the Hartley Unaccompanied Sonata. I thought my wife would prefer the more-traditional Vocalise, but in fact it bored her. It was too long-haired. But when she heard me reading the Hartley, she came down to the basement to compliment me.

But don't blame the performances if you bring a non-tuba-player friend to a concert of music that would be heavy stuff on any instrument and they are bored.

Rick "who was never bored, even when he was unimpressed" Denney



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