An Italian-American Writer & Poet with a Yankee Outsider Perspective
Dear Saint Paul Mayor Chris Coleman, and beloved musicians of the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Imagine Dickens’ A Christmas Carol without Tiny Tim, the Fezziwigs’ Christmas party, and Scrooge’s redemption! That’s what the cacellation of all SPCO concerts for … Continued
No offense, Senor Tuba, but you mostly don’t belong in a symphony orchestra. Like your overgrown business compatriot–the contemporary “business model”–your music is too raucous, too lumbering, too prone to go awry in favor of swagger and ump-pa-pa. Good for … Continued
The process of creating an orchestra is like working a manuscript through a thousand drafts, each adjustment, adding and subtracting, listening and blending, heightening and subduing finally produces a glorious resonance of refinement and depth. It’s simply not possible to … Continued
It’s difficult to love a huge aggregate. But the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra is small by orchestra standards: thirty-some versus over a hundred (I’m guessing) for the Minnesota Orchestra. Saturday night’s concert at the Ordway was for me a love … Continued
Forgive me, I’m headed toward a slam of one of the great orchestral numbers. Last night we heard our favorite orchestra, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, preform several Schuberts and one modern amazement: Betty Olivero’s “Neharot, Neharot,” which means “Rivers, … Continued
I’m borrowing a title from Phebe Hanson and Joan Pride’s travel memoir because it applies to all kinds of motions–teeth, bows, feet. Item: in the last two weeks, I’ve been visited by two performances of Bach that were too fast. … Continued