Saturday, February 06, 2010

Orpheum
Vancouver Syphony Orchestra

Conductor / Performers
Bramwell Tovey conductor
Larry Knopp Trumpet



Repertoire

Gershwin
Strike Up the Band
Grofe
Grand Canyon Suite: On the Trail
Scott Good
Between the Rooms for Trumpet and Orchestra*
Shelley Marwood
In Pursuit (VSO Olympic Commission)
Gershwin
Rhapsody in Blue
Gershwin
Porgy & Bess: Suite

While being told by my dental hygenist on Tuesday that I had a terrible cavity that would necessitate an expensive crown (“Off with the tooth,” I say) I heard a radio ad for a Vancouver Symphony Orchestra concert for today Saturday that features Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue.

The concert is a popular one as when I attempted to find four tickets together yesterday I found none except some very cheap one up in the gallinero (chickencoop and as Argentines call the upper reaches of their venerable Teatro Colón) of the Orpheum. I bought the tickets. I will be attending the concert with my daughter Hilary and her two daughters Rebecca and Lauren. We will be sure to bring a couple of binoculars so we can watch Maestro Bramwell Tovey play the piano part of the Rhapsody in Blue.

One would have to be sonically brain dead to not get thrills with the beginning of the Rhapsody in Blue with that vamping and swirling clarinet.

The granddaughters had a sleepover with us last night. Rebecca, intelligently turned me down when I offered to play a recording of Gershwin’s singular concerto. After all I will be watching both girls as they experience that thrill that one can only experience once in one’s life which is to listen to a beautiful composition for the first time.

I prepped up last night by listening to Miles Davis-Porgy and Bess with an orchestra directed by Gil Evans, anticipating tonight’s Porgy & Bess Suite. This led to Miles Davis’ Milestones and then to one of my faves, his Round About Midnight.

My guess is that to the girls upstairs the music sounded like grandfather music. The will hear some more tonight. It is my hope that it will surprise them, delight them and make them more curious to see what else I may have in my living room music library.