Disconnect

Great musical weekend in Austin. My teacher Dan Welcher's Fifth Symphony received a very successful and well-received premiere by the Austin Symphony: you can read a review by local critic Jeanne Claire van Ryzin here. She has some insightful and complimentary things to say about the piece, and also makes a crucial comment about the concert program, which also featured Sarah Chang playing Bruch's Violin Concerto no. 1, followed by Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien:

"If anything, this weekend’s program, while noteworthy, revealed ASO’s greater disconnect from the very musical culture of its place and time. Little if anything was done by the ASO management to specifically market Welcher’s piece to Austin audiences. It shouldn’t have had to share the limelight with a celebrated soloist. And that strategy is curious, because a premiere by an Austin composer would have been an obvious means for ASO to connect with potential new and younger Austin audiences who wouldn’t normally connect with most of the symphonic repertoire ASO typically offers."

Exactly. EXACTLY. Illustration: this was the only ASO concert that my fellow composition students and I have attended en masse, and get this--almost all of us left at intermission, after Welcher's piece. If you're not even connecting to the younger generation of composition students, forget about connecting to the younger generation of general listeners.

On an unrelated note, the following day I had a curious one-two of musical inspiration. A cellist friend introduced me to Schnittke's Piano Quintet and we listened to it and discussed it, and then immediately after, I went to hear Sonny Rollins play at the UT PAC. Man, that guy is a walking advertisement for yoga, still playing like that at age 78. The whole evening prompted some thoughts about notated music versus improvised. The advantages of one occasionally charm me into thinking that it's the ideal approach. I realized this weekend that it's much like going between the city and the wilderness--each one makes you appreciate the other. Perhaps it's not a matter of choosing one exclusively, but simply finding a balance.