The Rite of Spring on a Summer Night at the beach

Ok, yesterday was probably the coolest most unexpected way for me to close my musical year. When I started this blog, one of my first posts was about a traditional concert held at the beach every year with Brazil’s most prestigious orchestra, OSESP. They've made it their tradition to close their year's season here for the past 7 consecutive years, which is pretty cool. And yesterday it was about that time of year for another concert. I don’t know why, but it wasn’t until yesterday’s afternoon that I took a great big look at the sign of the concert and I almost had a freaking heart attack. MARIN ASLOP was conducting, and I could hear the orchestra rehearse and all I could think of was “Holy mother of God, Marin Aslop is in front of my house”. Insane.

I went to the concert with my mum, as usual, and the beach was insanely packed. I read online that there were about 25 thousand people there, and I believe it because it was really very crammed. People had brought their beach chairs, some sat on the sand but most people stood. What I thought was kind of stupid was the fact that right in front of the stage there were about 100 chairs for VIP people and around those chairs the area was absolutely empty and then everybody had to stand behind a “barricade”. I thought that was SO STUPID. Specially because the people on this VIP area were the closest to the stage and had the nerve to chat like they were in a cocktail during the concert. But that’s just how my shitty country works, I’m not even gonna go there. You guys can see it for yourselves... 

The concert itself was so incredible. I was so thrilled to see Marin in the flesh conducting! I have been a big fan of hers ever since that incredible Last Night at The Proms. But seeing her conduct for the very first time at the beach where I grew up and have gone time and time again for my entire life was really the cherry on the top of a fantastic year!

After some introductions Marin hit the stage and they played Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, the first, third and fourth movements. It’s just electrifying to hear that symphony alone but the whole context made it even more special. It was a very informal kind of concert, since the orchestra was facing the setting Sun I could see some musicians sporting sunglasses (how often does that happen?) and they were all in very light colors, like a light kaki and white.

I’m not gonna sit here and pretend that I know much about Beethoven to expand thoroughly in their playing. But I thought it was real good, very consistent and strong. Those guys know what they are doing. It’s interesting to notice how different this orchestra sounds from the Met’s Orchestra for instance (because I saw them play the 7th symphony back in October) and I’m not pointing fingers and saying this one is better than that one. Just saying it’s so ridiculously different. Why of course it is and that was even more explicitly obvious when they played their second piece of the day, The Rite of Spring.

I know it might sound suicidal but I prefer the Rite of Spring to that 5th Symphony, that’s just my personal taste. Maybe it’s because I know more about this particular piece than Beethoven’s symphony. I have never been much of a symphonic person, I like vocal music too much and most importantly, I like stuff that comes with a story. I feel like I can relate much, much better to the piece if there’s a story behind it, that’s why I liked studying Symphonic Poems  so much (no idea if I translated it right) back in college. 

The guy introducing did a horrible job. Not only did he not tell the story of the piece nor the historic context but he did describe the music as “ALIEN”. ALIEN? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? He said that this music will sound “alien” to our ears. Who does he think he’s talking to? A bunch of people from the Middle Ages? This is not Schoenberg or Berg, come on, you offend my people by saying that. You offend me at least.

But just before they started it there was an ANNOYING dog barking like crazy and Marin just turned to the direction the sound was coming from and people started booing and screaming at the dog. It was quite funny, I screamed too, FUN!

I felt so grateful for most of the concert. Like “I’m so blessed to be here, to be able to hear this in the city where I grew up, with one of the most incredible conductors of this century on the year of The Rite of Spring’s 100th birthday”. And the presenter did say something quite right, I don’t think that this particular piece was ever played in such circumstances, to an opened public in a Brazilian beach on a delicious Summer December evening. The evening was actually quite perfect, the sunset was GORGEOUS and it gave the concert a magical background of all sorts of blues and some reds coming from the setting Sun. The pictures I took were the best my phone's camera could do. 

But down to the Rite itself it was real nice. It’s so interesting to see how different kinds of people conduct the same music in completely different ways. I mean, I saw Valery Gergiev conduct this just last October and his take on it could not be more different from Marin’s. I love to watch her conduct, she quite literally jumps on that podium, over and over again. You can just feel all the excitement emanate from her and how her body responded to all those crazy rhythms, she would sometimes move on their impossible pacings. I loved it! I actually made video to show how many people were there just as the first part ended.

And alien or not, I think that the music managed to touch everybody. I would look around and see people’s expressions, it was a mixture of shock, eagerness and happiness. They were glued to that unusual music, especially after hearing the most “best hits” of symphonic music. When the piece ended the audience roared with cheers and applause. Marin did two calls and they left and so did the 50 million people on that beach. There were a lot of people there.

Overall it was incredible and part of me was so eager to just stand at the “artist exit” to talk to Marin but then I thought it was better not to. Anyways, my friends arrived a little bit after the concert ended and we went to drink coconut water and chat about last night’s party. But I was secretly hoping Marin would decide to get some coconut water for herself. But she didn’t haha

Well guys, that’s it for now. I’m now at my parent’s house in Santos until the end of the year waiting eagerly for the colleges to reply my applications! I’m already working on some other pieces to post later this week so stay tuned! Peace everyone!

Last Night of the Proms - Rule Joycetannia!

The BBC Last Night of the Proms was last Saturday and I myself was dying to see it so I didn’t even go back home to Santos I just stayed here in São Paulo electrically waiting for it to begin. I was kind of disappointed because I wasn’t able to see it, as I tried to download the things the BBC 2 website told me to I probably got a hell lot of virus in my PC. Then I learned that nobody outside Europe or the UK was able to see it as well. That’s strike number 2 for BBC (strike number one was that ridiculous Hard Talk with Thomas Hampson). But I did have a lovely day!

A few hours before the show began BBC 3 was on with a program in which Joyce was the dj and she’d choose all her favorite songs to play. It was so lovely, many things I didn’t know but I think that the one I liked the most was the Vivaldi concert for a violin played by one of her friends, just remarkable! The program was two hours long but I myself didn’t even feel it, I used up this time to FINALLY end translating my arias in German.

There was an absolute angel who posted the whole event on YouTube, here’s the link to the playlist.

Well, 7:30pm in the UK, 3:30pm here in Brazil and it was time for the BBC Last Night of the Proms. I was so very excited and it is much more fun when you have a whole twiterspere of people watching/listening to the same thing and tweeting about it. This was an extra special night and not just because one of my favorite singers was in the spot light. It was actually because this was the first ever Last Night of the Proms conducted by a woman, the amazing Marin Alsop. I’m not going to talk about the events in their right order because quite frankly I don’t remember.

It featured music that I adored and music I barely knew so it was quite a treat. One thing I was absolutely and thoroughly entertained with was Nigel Kennedy’s performance. He’s a violinist and he performed the Csardas which is a ridiculously fast Hungarian dance. But oh man he did so much more than that. He managed to insert little bits and pieces of all sorts of classical tunes into the dances while playing so fast I couldn’t help but start jumping on my seat. Even Marin wasn’t able to keep a straight face as he goofed around while playing the violin like no other. I had the feeling he was going to toss the violin when it ended because it’d catch on fire or something, the man was on fire and it is absolutely delicious to watch! One more thing that I thought was so cool was that he came on to the stage wearing a football team shirt and drinking a cup of tea, he had just performed in Hyde Park. How awesome is a person like that?

Then he also played Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending. This one was serious and absolutely gorgeous. But for this one he was hardly formal, he was wearing a leather jacket and sporting clothes that resembled a rock star. AWESOME!

We also had a little tribute to Verdi’s 200^th birthday the amazing Hebrew slave chorus from Nabucco, Vá Pensiero. If you have already sung this you know how it feels. It’s bigger than you and so incredibly magical. Marin Alsop conducted the overture of Bernstein’s Candide to utter perfection, I loved it how this evening embraced music of all times. I don’t know Candide all that well but when I heard the coloratura of Glitter and be Gay being played by the flutes in the Overture I couldn’t help but sing along!

Joyce talk? Please? Oh you think I forgot about my favorite diva? Well in her first appearance she was sporting a gorgeous vine colored dress and that warm beautiful smile of hers. For her first selection she sang a “Mashup” (as the lady in the radio said) of opera favorites. She started with Massenet’s “Je suis gris” from the opera Cherubin, I love this song, it’s in her Diva Divo cd and it’s absolutely gorgeous. It doesn’t even give you time to think about it, before you know it beautiful Joyce sound is ringing through the hall. Then changing completely the time and feel of things she rocked Handel’s “Ombra Mai Fu” from the opera Xerxes. This is one of those arias that you go, “AWW, I love that, it’s so gorgeous!”, although if you think about it it’s totally creepy because Joyce is playing not even a man, but Xerxes, that weird 3 meter tall king that wanted to destroy everything in the 300 movie. And how he’s in love with a tree because the tree is taller than him while nothing else is, very weird indeed. But, quiet refined and true, Joyce always manages to get to that soft spot in my heart.

Then comes the coloratura fireworks we’ve been waiting so long to listen to. She closed her selection with “Tanti Affetti/Frai padre” from Rossini’s La Donna Del Lago which I found was quite the right choice since she spent her last 3, 4 months singing this role first in London and the in Santa Fe. It was like an explosion of little diamonds as Joyce’s voice went up and down faster and faster. And you could clearly notice that she was very emotional, especially when she said “Tanta felicita” she was literally bursting with happiness and it was such a wonderful thing to watch.

What I found most curious about this evening was that the audience was on fire! I mean, this is not by any means the usual classical music concert audience reaction. It, to me, almost resembled a football game in some moments with screaming, cheering, and a lot of noise! I loved it, but when the music began there was absolute silence, it’s that sense of respect that is totally lacking in my country but I’m not even gonna go there.

Nearing the end of the concert Marin Alsop made a wonderful speech. She first thanked everybody involved, the soloists, the orchestra, the chorus and the audience who was superb. But I really loved it when she said she was incredibly honored to be the first woman to conduct this ceremony but that was also quite shocked that we were in 2013 and there could be “firsts” for women. And I couldn’t agree more, I’m happy that that’s happened and a battle has been won against the ridiculous prejudice there is regarding women who conduct. In my college for instance the best conducting student in the whole school is a girl (who happens to be my friend), my voice teacher is also a conductor and has been conducting the biggest and most important musicals in São Paulo for years. Marin Alsop herself is the head conductor of our most important Orchestra, OSESP.

Moving on on the speech she also thanked her parents who always supported her in her career decisions and even made a little remark about how people were saying just last week that “Girls can’t do that.”. I thought it was wonderful for her to say that, God knows how many people are in need of support and understanding in these “modern” times.

Then she moved on to talking about the power of music and of course my eyes were already filling up with tears. It’s odd how what she said resembles something one of my coolest teachers (her name is Aida, you can’t get any cooler than that right?) always says. The arts is what makes us human beings, without it we are nothing. And music and art cannot be pushed to the margins they have to be front and center. It’s really very moving. My teacher always tells us that we have the power to change people’s lives by touching them in the most extraordinary ways. If we are true to ourselves and to our art form we can accomplish so much not just for ourselves but to anybody who cares to listen.

Back to Joyce talk, she comes back to rip our hearts out with her amazing performance of Over the Rainbow. You know I’ve never been a big fan of The Wizard of Oz or Judy Garland or this song, BUT Joyce made me fall in love with it. As I listened to it live last Saturday tears started falling no stop and before I knew it I was sobbing, yes, SOBBING, making noise. And then I actually watched the video and of course there was much more sobbing happening. I loved it how absolutely emotional she looked when she said “Dreams, really do come true”. And every time I watch the video or hear the song sung by Joyce I cry. So I made a little test with my sis and mom to see if I wasn’t going insane. They both watched the video and cried, so I’m not that weird.

Joyce closed her participation singing the anticipated “Rule Britannia”. Wearing a rather odd looking overdress she rocked the song and put some lovely Joyce coloratura in there. It’s so cool to see everybody singing along to the chorus and getting to their feet with their flags proud and strong. It’s just one of those great moments that you wish you could be there.

I know I didn’t talk about everything that happened but I only talked about my favorites, but you guys can check out the whole performance on YouTube. Now I’m going to have my microwave lunch and head off to college to one more day of incessant studying! Peace everybody!