Our next show

[Big RR]

Thanks Sue.

[Sue U]

Well we've gotten the 2023-24 schedule for the Philharmonic and our new music director has chosen to go heavy on the classics for his first season, which is probably fine for really getting to know the orchestra and vice versa. We open Oct. 15 with Elgar's Enigma Variations and Brahms's Symphony #4; no concerto on the program. We'll do holiday pops in December with our former director and then come back in March with Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, Tchaikovsky's Symphony #2 and a piece (Ukrainian Dances) from a composer I never heard of, Levko Kolodub. In May we'll do Bernstein's Symphonic Dances, a piece by modern composer Robert Moran (Points of Departure) and the Barber Violin Concerto (soloist has yet to be announced). Robert Moran lives in Philadelphia these days so I would not be at all surprised to see him at the concert, and perhaps at rehearsals. I'm very much looking forward to this season.

[Big RR]

Looks like a good series--we are doing Carmina Burana in November and a concert with music by women composers in March; June is still a little up in the air, but is being planned with a good portion of music by English composers. This year is also our 60th anniversary as a chorale (no one currently a member has been there for that long) and we want to invite some of our more illustrious conductors back to participate in the last concert (at our 50th John Nelson was a guest conductor).

[Sue U]

Looks like a good series--we are doing Carmina Burana in November and a concert with music by women composers in March;

Where's the performance? How big a chorale do you have? What are you doing for an orchestra?

[Big RR]

I will let you know, but it will be in Bergen county; we are doing a score I have never seen before, one for two pianos and percussion (I have not seen the music yet). We are trying to get some additional singers to sing with us, so I am unsure of the chorale size yet--last time we did it (with an orchestra) we had about 60 singers, but I doubt we'll have that many now.

[Sue U]

PSNJ HOLIDAY POPS CONCERT, FEATURING AGT’S JIMMIE HERROD
DECEMBER 3 @ 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM EST
$15 – $30

Bring the whole family for a holiday pops concert presented by South Jersey’s largest all-volunteer classical ensemble. Conductor Matthew Oberstein leads the 85+ member Philharmonic of Southern New Jersey’s annual tradition of holiday cheer. The concert features guest vocalist Jimmie Herrod, 2021 America’s Got Talent finalist. Enjoy hearing some of your favorite holiday carols and join in for the audience sing-along!


Okay, this show is going to feature a jazz trio (piano/bass/drums) in the middle of the stage, but that means they're positioning the harp next to the violas, so we're good!

In addition to the standards (Sleigh Ride!), we're doing a bunch of more, um, unusual pieces, including a tropical island-beat number, the Barbra Streisand version of Jingle Bells, Steve Allen's Cool Yule and an absolutely swinging arrangement of No Place Like Home for the Holidays. It's gonna be festive. And yeah, that's our goofball conductor emeritus up there, who's coming back every year to do the holiday show.

ETA:

I've just been informed that we are now at 1,000 tickets sold, which means that there are only about 300 seats left. By the time door sales are done, it will be a standing-room only show, the first sell-out since The Before Times.

[Sue U]

Well we've finally gotten the concert dates for the 2024-25 season but all I know about the programming so far is that we're doing Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition and Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin at the first concert--although I'm sure there will be more on the bill (these two were a surprise in my email inbox today; there's still nothing on the website). In the meantime, we have a new promotional video out with our new(-ish) music director:

[Big RR]

Sounds like a good concert Sue; I love the Mussorgsky piece. We are working on our season right not--starting with a joint concert with the Ridgewood Symphony in November, a tribute to Copland in March, and a mosaic mass (combining movements from a variety of composers) in June.

[Sue U]

Traditionally we do one concert a year in collaboration with the Greater South Jersey Chorus (although the last two seasons we did not because of our conductor auditions and then some previously scheduled commitments of the winner). I hope we have the Chorus back with us again in the spring, they have some really exceptional singers. How is the Ridgewood Symphony? From their website and a few videos I've perused, the seem pretty good and rather ambitious.

[Big RR]

I did a concert with Ridgewood symphony probably 8-10 years ago and thought they were pretty good as well. Usually, we only get small groups together assembled by the conductor (or just use piano or organ accompaniment (I think this is usually easier for him as he is based in NY and can rehearse with the groups there in advance of the concert), but we are considering expanding our collaborations, and are using this as a test. I hope it works out well, as it may get more attendance at the concerts. We are also trying to beef up our ranks so we can take on bigger works, and this may get us some more exposure. It would be nice to sing with a larger group.

FWIW, I sang in a concert at Carnegie this summer; one of those that took serious high school and college groups and charged them a lot to sing there--I served as one of the ringers among the bases (It was the Dururfle Requiem). The conductor did great work getting everyone together (although there were a number of very good singers among them), but I did enjoy singing with a group of well over 100 singers. I didn't have to change voice parts all that much.

[Sue U]

We opened our season Sunday with what turned out to be an all-Ravel-sorta program: Debussy's Danse (Tarantelle Styrienne), orchestrated by Ravel; Ravel's Pavane for a Dead Princess followed by his Tombeau de Couperin; and closing out the show was Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, orchestrated by Ravel. Once again, I got to sit right in front of the harp.

People call Ravel an "impressionist" composer, I guess because his music has a dreamy quality to it, but when I think of relating it to visual art it always puts me in mind of Maxfield Parrish. When I worked downtown in Philly, I frequently went over to the Curtis Center at lunch and sat in front of a huge Parrish mural called Dream Garden, a mosaic made of iridescent Tiffany glass, and this is how I feel listening to Ravel:



Anyway, here's the Pavane as recorded by someone lurking behind the percussion; I had played it before in arrangements for small ensembles but never in its fully orchestrated form; I wish the balance were better to bring out the harp and the lushness of the strings, but this is what we've got: Pavane for a Dead Princess

Holiday Pops concert is up next (Dec. 8) and then our winter show in February will feature works by Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (The Bamboula: Rhapsodic Dance No. 1), Florence Price (Piano Concerto) and Antonin Dvorak (8th Symphony). I am really looking forward to that one. I love Price and Dvorak (their styles complement each other nicely) but don't really know Coleridge-Taylor at all, so that will be a new experience.

[Joe Guy]

Bravissimo!

Although I heard a viola hit a couple sour notes...

[Sue U]

Bravissimo!

Although I heard a viola hit a couple sour notes...

My teacher tells me that if I play a wrong note I should glare at my stand partner.

I can't do it.

My beautiful stand partner:

(We both study with the same teacher, so I'm sure she's gotten the same advice! )

[Joe Guy]

....My teacher tells me that if I play a wrong note I should glare at my stand partner. ...

... The thought of the two of you glaring at each other at times during a performance made me laugh....

[Big RR]

Hey Sue--know the difference between a violin and a viola? Violas burn longer in the fireplace.

Kidding. Actually, I love the viola, although as a baritone, I have more affection for the cellos and love to be seated near them.

Your "galring" coaching is often given to singers as well.

[Sue U]

Hey Sue--know the difference between a violin and a viola? Violas burn longer in the fireplace.

So I had to drive into Philly and when I parked I forgot that I had left my viola sitting on the back seat in plain view. I came back a couple hours later and sure enough, someone had smashed my car window and thrown another viola in there.

[BoSoxGal]

[Sue U]

It could have been worse -- it could have been an accordion.

[Big RR]

Or--perish the thought, bagpipes.

[Sue U]

Or--perish the thought, bagpipes.

You know, bagpipes were used in war as a way of striking terror in the enemy -- particularly those with a fondness for music.