Submit Content  |  Subscribe  |  Customer Service  |  Place An Ad 
* Weather * Events * Visitor's Guide * Classifieds * Jobs * Cars * Homes * Apartments * Shopping * Dating
*
Cincinnati.Com
Blogs

*
*
*

Cincinnati.Com

NKY.com
Enquirer
CiN Weekly
Community Press & Recorder
cincyMOMS.com
CincinnatiUSA
Data Center
*
*
*
*
*

*
Classical Music
Janelle Gelfand on the classical music scene


Janelle's pen has taken her to Japan, China, Carnegie Hall, Europe (twice), East and West Coasts, and Florida. In fact, Janelle was the first Enquirer reporter to report from Europe via e-mail -- in 1995.

Janelle began writing for the Cincinnati Enquirer as a stringer in 1991 while writing a Ph.D. dissertation in musicology at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. She joined the Enquirer staff in 1993.

Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where she graduated from Stanford University, Janelle has lived in Cincinnati for more than 30 years. In her free time, this pianist plays chamber music with her circle of musical friends in Cincinnati.

She covers the Cincinnati Symphony, May Festival and Cincinnati Opera, the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra, chamber music ensembles, and as many recitals and events at CCM and NKU as possible.

Powered by Blogger

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Thinking outside the 19th-century

So, I was reading my "Fountain Square Bulletin" from our friends at 3CDC about construction on Fountain Square (how many of you have eaten at Palomino lately and stared down at the hole in the ground?) and came across this item: "Video Board Coming Into Focus."

Hmm, it says the square reopening will feature a new, state-of-the-art video board similar to the screens at Paul Brown Stadium and Great American Ballpark. It will sit atop the Macy's building, and will feature "an exciting array of arts, cultural and sporting event screenings."

My first impression was: Finally! Too long has Cincinnati left visitors in the dark about the great arts here. It's about time something BIG -- like a big screen on Fountain Square -- touted what's here.

My second thought was, the possibilities are endless. You could beam the symphony straight from Music Hall, perhaps a daytime concert to catch the lunch crowd. (That is, if the Musicians Union would allow it... would once or twice a year be too much to ask?) And if I were really marketing-savvy, I would station people with symphony brochures on the square, selling subscriptions.

Or, you could air an entire opera, straight from Music Hall or CCM. Houston Grand Opera has been doing it since 1995 (well, remember what Mark Twain said about Cincinnati). They call them Plazacasts, big screen simulcasts on a giant screen hung outside of the opera house, free to the public. It's part of an effort to bring opera closer to the community. (Visit www.houstongrandopera.org for info)

Here's something else Houston does: They have something called Multimedia Modular Stage, to present operas at large outdoor venues. The Rock-n-Roll stage system incorporates MTV-style video and projections with opera. Now if the Pops ever did their Concerts in Parks again...

On to Podcasts and cellphones: A small item in Friday's New York Times mentioned that the Met Museum of Art produced its first podcast in October, with Kevin Bacon reading Van Gogh's letters. It made the list of the 100-most listened to podcasts on iTunes, heard by 16,000 people.

And the Brooklyn Museum says visitors can take an audio tour now using their cellphones. You can dial a number, punch in a code and hear about a specific artwork in a show.

Wonder how Cincinnati's performing arts could use that technology?


Thursday, April 13, 2006

Redesigning Music Hall

Lots has happened in Over-the-Rhine since my March 26 story, "Showdown at Music Hall," which raised the question of whether the symphony will remain there. Besides the crime issue, there is the dilemma of whether -- and how -- to redesign Music Hall.

Last week, during a Mozart concert with Jaime Laredo, the orchestra moved the shell closer to the audience, and had the reduced orchestra outside the proscenium, close to the edge of the stage.

I noted in my review that the sound was surprisingly good. One source believes that in fact, it was close to the original intention of architect Samuel Hannaford, when he renovated Music Hall in 1895 to make it suitable for the symphony. (You recall, it was built for the massive choral extravaganzas of the May Festival.)

The buzz is that several consultants have visited to look at the hall, invited by both symphony and opera, but there's no word yet to the public on what might be done. It's a tricky situation. As I sat there last week looking up into the vast space, I wondered how, in fact, anyone could make it "smaller" for symphony concerts. Sliding panels? Taking out seats? Closing off sections? Reducing the numbers of rows? Adding more boxes (perhaps with cupholders)? Bumping out the stage, like Avery Fisher Hall tried last summer for Mostly Mozart?

And if the hall were permanently reduced to say, 2,800 seats, how would that affect its other tenants?

I've visited a few remakes in our country, notably Severance Hall in Cleveland, which is spectacular, and Orchestra Hall in Chicago, which has had acoustical problems ever since.

What's the solution?


Thursday, April 06, 2006

Jaime Laredo's favorite Mozart

Jaime Laredo, conducting the symphony this weekend, gave us his list of all-time favorite pieces by Mozart. Unfortunately, there was no space in the paper today to include the list with the Q&A. So here's the list, followed by some of my own suggestions of recordings:

1. Mozart's Clarinet Quintet
(Tokyo String Quartet with Richard Stoltzman, RCA)

2. The late piano concertos, K. 488 in A Major and K. 595. "The last one really kills me. Every time I do a Mozart Piano Concerto, I wish I were a pianist," Laredo says.
(Richard Goode, pianist, with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Nonesuch. Also, Murray Perahia for K. 595, with the English Chamber Orchestra)

3. The slow movement of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 9, K. 271 (being performed this weekend). "To me, the slow movement is one of the greatest things that Mozart ever wrote."
(Richard Goode's recording is suggested for this one, too.)

4. The "Sinfonia Concertante" for violin and viola. "That is the greatest work he wrote for strings and orchestra. The violin concertos, as beautiful as they are, are not on this level."
(Jaime Laredo with Cho-Liang Lin for Sony Classical.)

5. The Viola Quintet in G Minor. "There’s something about how he has two slow movements following each other, and each one is so unbelievable, it’s beyond anything you can imagine."
(Juilliard String Quartet with Leslie Parnas, Sony)

6. The "Divertimento" in E-flat Major, K. 563, for violin, viola and cello. "You just go from one glory to another to another to another. Sharon (Robinson, his wife and a cellist) and I have played that many times, and it happens to be one of the most difficult pieces ever written."
(Yo-Yo Ma, Gidon Kremer and Kim Kashkashian, Sony)

7. "Of the symphonies, I have to admit I would have to put Symphony No. 40 in G Minor, as my favorite one. You’re asking the impossible. The "Jupiter" (No. 41) is fantastic, but there’s something about the G Minor; there’s a kind of drama and sadness and melancholy in it that I love."
(Prague Chamber Orchestra, Sir Charles Mackerras, conductor, Telarc)

8. "Of the operas, I’d have to say 'The Marriage of Figaro' is my favorite. The arias are from heaven."
(Sir Charles Mackerras conducting the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Alastair Miles; Nuccia Focile, Carol Vaness, Susanne Mentzer, Telarc)

Got a Mozart favorite? Tell us, below!


Tuesday, April 04, 2006

An Oscar for Treadwell

Oscar Treadwell educated generations of Cincinnatians in the fine art of jazz. His rich voice would come on the radio, and we' d hear the genuine, unembellished stories of jazzmen and jazz women who created the music O.T. loved most. Even though he was from New Jersey -- Haddon Heights, right across from Philadelphia, he told me in an interview in February -- he became a Cincinnati icon, who knew the city well and knew its jazz players, black and white, even better.

His knowledge about jazz was vast and wide-ranging. His manner was gracious and generous.

I called O.T. in February, for what was to be one of his last interviews -- maybe the very last one -- to talk about the black jazz scene in Cincinnati. His views about Cincinnati were candid and not always flattering. He spoke by phone from his Anderson home, where lately he had been taping his show for WVXU.

After my story ran, he called me up to congratulate me. Then, ever gracious, he wrote a letter to the editor, copied to me, with a note: "Dear Janelle, It may never be printed, so I thought I’d send you a copy. Sweet love, Oscar."

Sweet love was the way he signed off all his shows.

Some of his remarks made it into my story. I thought you’d like to see more of O.T.'s elegant prose, below.

O.T. signed off for the final time on Saturday, at age 79. Let us hope that Cincinnati’s jazz history does not die with him. Do you have memories of Oscar Treadwell? Tell us below.

The interview:

"I grew up in New Jersey, Haddon Heights, right across from Philadelphia. I went to all the jazz clubs growing up. I was sure I was going to be a network radio announcer. I’d audition at CBS and NBC, and then go to the various clubs in New York. That was one of the dreams I had.

"Oscar Treadwell was the name I used for jazz. But I thought my real name, Art Pedersen, would be the announcer on news and sports.

"I arrived here in 1960. I had three jobs: representative for a major steel company, then did my radio program and commercials. I’ve been her for a long while.

"Our black brothers and sisters have had a major input into American creative music, or jazz, and this city should be proud of its contribution.

"Some of the greats were great before I even moved here. George Russell, for instance, is one of the most important composers in American creative music and also he is the only one I know of who conceived of a thesis to try to explain to black musicians how, under any circumstances, they can improvise in any key or various scales.

"He was my guest (on "Jazz with O.T." for WGUC) and we spent the whole afternoon talking about his book, "Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization." Is that a name and a half? Many players have told me this is a tough book, but it was instrumental in understanding some of the things Miles Davis was doing, and so many youngsters who were using scales that were popular. There’s a historical perspective that he has. In the second part of 20th century, he ranks with Duke Ellington, as far as composition and arrangement are concerned.

"He had some good bands, but he was a major contributor and a great force in jazz. To talk about George Russell is to talk about one of the major forces in our city. Then he did those remarkable arrangements for Dizzy Gillespie – "Cubano B, Cubano Bop."

"So Russell is a major early part of Cincinnati’s jazz life. But he’s not the earliest. Ragtime was very big in Cincinnati and there were many black practitioners of that art. The Cosmopolitan school, founded by Artie Matthews, produced a great number of outstanding players. Artie had a son, also Artie, a great pianist.

"Jimmy Mundy was a great arranger for the Benny Goodman Orchestra and many others, and a major contributor to good arrangements for the Benny Goodman style. Cy Oliver, who later joined the Tommy Dorsey orchestra as a singer and arranger, was a major force right from Cincinnati.

"There's even a bigger contribution from cities around us, like Covington, Newport and Dayton. But Cincinnati had a coterie of outstanding players. It’s much bigger than most Cincinnatians know anything about. Jazz has always been considered devil music, or the lowest rung on the musical scale, whereas I think it’s one of the most important and impressive contributions.

"It’s a tough situation for whites and blacks because of the situation that’s in our country. If we were all free not to be influenced one way or another, you could take my attitude, which is, I don’t care what his color is. If he’s playing well, and I want people to know about it, I put him on my program. But jazzmen are not getting the gigs they used to get, black and white.

"Our local union was clearly segregated right up until the 1960s, and black and white players couldn’t always play together. Or they had to get a special dispensation. There was a black musicians union, before Local No. 1."

Are jazz clubs segregated?: "Yes they are. Cincinnati of course, being a city right on the border and not knowing which way to go as far back as the Civil War, has not really come out of that. But it’s not just Cincinnati. Almost every city has the same problem.

"Money is the one thing that speaks. But jazz has a powerful drive behind that gives it a survival characteristic that’s rare. Benny Green, an alto saxophonist who lived in England, wrote a book called, "The Reluctant Art." Which is a great name to signify jazz, because most (musicians) are reluctant to get into the business ethics of playing that music.

"They’re also dealing with white entrepreneurs who own the place. So they’ve got this double whammy – (musicians) have to play to satisfy themselves. But if they just play to satisfy the listeners, which the white owners would prefer, then they have to forget all that they know and love, and play it for money.

"In other words, don’t be a creative musician. Be a follower and we can get you jobs. If you’re not, get out of the business.

"When I first moved here, in the 60s, there were several good clubs. At 79, it’s hard to pull the names up. There was the Cotton Club, of course, and there were other clubs all along Walnut Street. Great clubs.

"The first jazz I heard in Cincinnati was at a little club, by a tenor player named John Wright. He’s not too well known. He was a tailor who played every night at Herbie’s Bar and Grill, on Hackberry Street. It lasted up to the early ‘80s. He ran into this race problem more than everybody else, at a place where whites loved to come, but later didn’t.

"When people say they won’t go downtown, then jazz clubs have to re-evaluate. They either move farther out, or there are no clubs.

"Dayton answered this by bringing the black and white community together. It’s a remarkable city. They have jazz concerts all the time. They have a symphonic hall for jazz (Memorial Hall). Dayton survived with jazz and Cincinnati didn’t because there’s a hard feeling about jazz and improvised music generally.

"But Cincinnati was influential as far back as the 20s, and every major jazz player came through Cincinnati. There was a sad development when Cincinnati decided it didn’t want anything to do with the railroad. We turned down people who wanted to come to Cincinnati. That’s another big reason we fell behind. It did not become a major (railroad) hub that it could have been.

"Cincinnati is a beautiful city and more liberal than it wants to admit. My program has been on the air since 1960. People think of jazz as Benny Goodman and big band. But there are great players, and small groups. Look what we’ve produced in music: Jimmy McGary, Frank Vincent and great white players. Both blacks and whites have been ignored in our city.

"We’ve had periods like the 60s, that were exciting for a while, with young musicians playing avant-garde music. The 70s was sort of a lay back. The 80s was devastating. Nothing happened in the 80s. They were still breathing, but that’s about it.

"This has been a beautiful city and yet, it doesn’t have that status in the minds of jazz people. It’s like a hinterland. Dayton has a much higher status, and they bring big names into Dayton. We’ve tried, but we haven’t been all that successful. Dayton and Louisville are more open. And Cleveland certainly is. I don’t know what it is. We’re just like a hog city that hates to move.

"However, CCM has been a remarkable contributor. They’ve trained a great network of players who can’t find work here, and take off. They’re all over the country. The Cincinnati impulse is all over the country."



Blogs
Jim Borgman
Today at the Forum
Paul Daugherty
Politics Extra
N. Ky. Politics
Pop culture review
Cincytainment
Who's News
Television
Roller Derby Diva
Art
CinStages Buzz....
The Foodie Report
cincyMOMS
Classical music
John Fay's Reds Insider
Bengals
High school sports
NCAA
UC Sports
CiN Weekly staff
Soundcheck


Site Map:   Cincinnati.Com |  NKY.com |  Enquirer |  CiN Weekly |  CincinnatiUSA
Customer Service:   Search |  Subscribe Now |  Customer Service |  Place An Ad |  Contact Us
Classified Partners:   Jobs: CareerBuilder.com |  Cars: cars.com |  Homes: HOMEfinder |  Apartments: apartments.com |  Shopping: ShopLocal.com
Copyright © 1996-2005:   Use of this site signifies agreement to terms of service and privacy policy updated 10/05/2005