Grand Rapids Symphony - 3/27/10

The concert began with “Don Juan” by Richard Strauss, and the program notes (by John Varineau) were most helpful in interpreting and understanding this lively piece. The music describes Don Juan rushing from one love to another, and also how he experiences each of these loves. This was great musical story-telling.

Next up was Midori, playing “Concerto for Violin and Orchestra” by William Walton. There aren’t a lot of people who get away with being known by one name (Cher, Madonna, and no, not you Lindsey Lohan), and this “rock star” of the classical world obviously deserves her one-name fame. She was magnificent playing this difficult concerto. But we all appreciated the performance skill more than the music itself. Also, Midori’s dramatic and very active movements proved to be a distraction. In this instance we concluded we’d be better off listening to a recording to fully understand the music. There were magical moments, particularly the short “duets” with the harp and with the cello.

“Scheherazade” by Rimsky-Korsakov closed the program, and was our favorite of the night. It’s a wonderful story: Sultana Scheherazade saves her own life by telling the Sultan an interesting story each night. The Sultan is so fascinated that he postpones her execution for one more day, so he can hear another story (The Arabian Nights/A Thousand and One Nights). It’s a beautiful piece in four movements, and the violin solos represented the voice of Scheherazade (sweetly played by the concertmaster). The percussionists had a large role to play and spent less time sitting back in their corner. David Lockington then surprised all of us with a short, festive encore ("Wild Bears" from Elgar's "Wand of Youth" Suite, information courtesy of Jeffrey Kaczmarczyk).

Interestingly, the men of the orchestra always wear formal tuxedos while the women are required only to wear black. The result is wildly varying women’s attire: skirts, slacks, sleeves of differing lengths and styles, all in assorted shades of black and dark gray. It’s a superficial observation but more uniformity would make a more pleasing presentation.

And speaking of distractions, Ritz-cracker-eating people were with us again, which I will never understand. There were only three of us tonight so we had an empty “buffer” seat between us and our other favorite concert-goers, the sleepers. Only he dozed off this time and not for long periods of time. We thank the percussionists in “Scheherazade” for that.

Forest Hills Community Expo, Grand Rapids - 3/16/10

This was the fifth annual expo and once again it was a great success, at least as it pertains to attendance. Held in the two gymnasiums of Ada Christian School, the event was sponsored by the Ada, Cascade, and East Paris business associations, and the vendors present were mainly drawn from those groups.

Our booth space for The Community, a church of socially-responsible, community-active members, was shared with the Farmers’ Market, sponsored by the Ada Downtown Development. Together with the Farmer’s Market and Ada Township, a children’s gardening program will begin this summer that will coincide with the successful Farmer’s Market, held on The Community’s property in Ada.

But back to the Expo: as one attendee put it, “it’s trick or treating for adults”. Although there’s a special “kids’ room”, the main purpose is to give exposure to local businesses and provide personal customer contact, and yes, attendees get free stuff. It’s a cornucopia of give-aways, ranging from lip gloss, funeral-home consulting, glasses cleaner, body wraps (you will lose 10 pounds in 45 minutes, being pitched by a woman with too much body fat to prove her point), banks, insurance & investment companies, car wash coupons, dry cleaners (25% off whatever you can fit in the give-away bag), bread, pizza, ice cream, soup, plastic firemen hats from the fire department - I could go on ad infinitum. Pens are ubiquitous and I picked up a few of those along with golf tees from an accounting firm.

It’s great fun to meet local business owners and take home a few treasures. How much they benefit from the exposure is for them to measure, and is probably difficult. So long as the booth cost is not prohibitive, it’s probably a worthwhile investment. And fyi, the Farmers’ Market in Ada begins mid-June and will continue through the end of September. The market is a beautiful sight to behold and will be enhanced by the children’s garden booth and additional vendors - shop local!

A Few Favorite Grand Rapids Photos

A Thousand Words.

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Civic Theatre - 3/6/10

If you’ve never seen a production of “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”, here’s a brief summary: it’s the Biblical story of Joseph and his brothers, taken from Genesis and placed in a world of craziness. The show has a long, interesting history, first composed as a 15-minute program by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice for a high school program in 1968. Over the years, it was expanded, recorded, produced again and again, and was finally promoted as a follow-up to the popular “Jesus Christ Superstar”. It hit Broadway in 1982 and a movie video was released in 1999.

Tonight we watched it performed by a talented group of children and adults, and it was impressive, and yes, crazy, in a Mel Brooks kind of way. The story is completely told through song (transitions provided by the narrator, in song), and quickly and humorously moved through the major events of Joseph’s life. To say that the musical numbers do not adhere to any one style would be an understatement. Suddenly, Joseph's brothers were in Paris performing a sort-of French ballad. Later, while groveling before the un-recognized Joseph in Egypt, they turned in a great calypso/reggae performance.

Children remained in current-day clothing, as did the narrator. The rest of the cast maintained their Biblical-age attire with the notable exception of Pharoah; in what began as a stately Egyptian musical number, complete with two Anubis gods, suddenly became a Vegas-style Elvis impersonator show. The wonderful, singing Elvis-Pharoah (Tom Bush) walked down into the audience and asked a woman to stand up with him. She responded with “are you kidding?” “No, I’m not, Ma’am - that’s how we do it in Egypt.”

Joseph (Addison Reid Coe) did a nice job, although his voice became slightly nasal at times. The time-traveling narrator (Peggy Keuning) had a stunningly beautiful voice that moved effortlessly from one scene to another, defying any range limitations. The brothers gave strong performances and were as adept with a country-western song as they were with a disco number (and we won’t quibble with why Benjamin was included as one of the trouble-making brothers). This was a very entertaining musical, joyful and hilarious, and just great fun to watch.

Grand Rapids Symphony 2/7/10

The dissonant music of instruments warming up comes to a sudden halt as the concertmaster arrives. After acknowledging the applause, he faces the orchestra and cues the oboe to sound its pitch. The rest of the orchestra tunes itself to the oboe and momentary chaos once again ensues. Suddenly, all is quiet. It’s a great, anticipatory moment with everyone waiting for the maestro to appear and the concert to begin. A violin soloist walks out followed by - wait, what? That’s not David Lockington. Having only skimmed the program beforehand, I was surprised by Larry Rachleff, who is apparently a popular Guest Conductor holding Musical Director positions in Rhode Island and Houston, Texas. He was great to watch and is the Gene Kelly of conducting to Lockington’s Fred Astaire. Sometimes with only a tip of his head but more often with his entire body, his direction was dramatic and physical, including animated facial expressions. At the conclusion of the concert, rather than Lockington-like gracefully pointing to acknowledge particular players, Rachleff was down among them, urging them to rise for applause.

The 25-year-old, Augustin Hadelich, starred in Beethoven’s Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra. Simply put, he and his violin (a Stradivarius) were amazing. After the overwhelming response to his performance, Rachleff whispered to him and indicated to the audience that we’d get one more. The short encore was Caprice No. 17 by Paganini, and it beautifully showed his skill while also giving us a lovely musical work.

The next piece of the evening was Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in D Minor. During intermission, I read the program notes, which were fascinating regarding the composer’s intentions and the Stalinist Russia’s immediate, and incorrect, interpretation. To emphasize this dichotomy, Rachleff took to the microphone beforehand and briefly reiterated the program notes. (It would have been interesting to hear this piece without the background knowledge and then listen again after the information to see how its impact and one’s interpretation might have differed.) Plaintive melodies, militant sections, and themes reflecting anger and sadness are all apparent in this magnificent work.

Being seated close enough to see the music on the stands, I’m always aware when the end is near. And all but the very front rows can see the percussionists stand to attention to indicate something big is coming. It makes it harder to become totally lost in the music but the benefits of live music performance still outweigh the negatives - like ritz-cracker-eating-lady, this time sleeping heavily, along with her husband, who periodically noisily woke up. This couple provides something new at each concert, and our group of four now vies for the seats farthest away from them. Tails, you lose.

Moon Over Buffalo, Civic Theatre - 1/16/10

This is a funny play, written in 1995 by Ken Ludwig and set in 1953. It reminds us what live theater was like, and in a funny way it pays tribute to stage actors. I was surprised to find it was written by a modern-day playwright because he seems so attune to life on the stage in the 1950s. (He also wrote the very funny, previously-performed “Lend Me A Tenor”.) Interestingly, Ludwig uses references too obscure for most of today’s audiences and the program kindly provided information for most of them. These are references I would expect from playwrights from the 1930s but find it intriguing that a modern playwright would reference the Lunts, Katharine Cornell, Greer Garson, Ronald Colman, and Noel Coward. Most of our party of six didn’t know any of them (ouch!) but Ludwig obviously doesn’t care and includes the references for only movie and stage fans and hopes the rest of the play will be enough for everyone else.

The writing is clever, some of the humor is slapstick, but a bit of it centers around cheesy male organ jokes using Cyrano’s fake nose and then a wine bottle - not a big fan. Acting on the whole was uneven; when you start to think about the acting ability you are watching, you are pulled out of the story. Jon March in the role of George Hay (a very demanding part including much physicality and playing an extended drunk) was great and really carried the show. Margi Hanks as his wife, Charlotte Hay, and Carole McNulty as his mother-in-law, Ethel, were also outstanding.

On the whole, you will come away with an appreciation of live theater, what it was, and a sense of the impact movies and TV had on the theater. The cultural shift from vaudeville and the stage to movies and TV was huge. This is a play I will read for a fresh evaluation of the work, away from the acting. (For anyone interested in the stage to film transition, check out “Once Upon a Time” by George Kaufman and Moss Hart. From 1930 and containing even more references that may be obscure to today’s audiences, it’s incredibly well-written and hilarious.)

The Civic is a great venue, small and intimate, and there are no bad seats. And as theater goers, we all appreciate a live performance, even if all the acting is not stellar.

Grand Rapids Art Museum 1/13/10

It was a beautiful, sunny day today and seeing as I had to renew my membership, I decided to do it in person and visit the museum for a few hours. You all know, or should know, how beautiful the building is, open and airy, and full of natural lighting (and Leed certified). With over 5000 items in storage, the museum rotates some of its art and also brings in other exhibits. So along with revisiting the permanent collection on the third floor, there’s always something new to see. (They are currently hanging a new photography display, and preparing a Calder Jewelry Show - yes, he did small things too.) The “guards” are ever vigilant and I always feel like I’m being stalked (I promise, I won’t touch the art). But I did find a friendly employee who was working on the new photography exhibit and was happy to talk to me.

Within the past five months, I’ve been to The Louvre in Paris, The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, and The Art Institute in Chicago. The Grand Rapids Art Museum is none of these but it doesn’t try to be. Instead it’s a little treasure sitting in the middle of downtown, waiting to be discovered. It doesn’t hit you over the head with its art but asks you to explore. Turn a corner and you’ll run into a Renoir oil painting adjacent to a John Singer Sargent watercolor. Down another hall you’ll find two oil paintings depicting the Provincetown Pier on Cape Cod, one in summer and the other in winter (Gerrit Beneke). There’s a beautiful, large 3-panel oil, alkyd & graphite on linen called “Concourse 2007" by Mark Sheinkman. I call it “curling smoke” and it’s mesmerizing. Wood engravings by Winslow Homer hang together, and nearby is a very small exquisite painting by Henry Farny, “Moonlit Indian Encampment”, beautiful in its lighting and detail.

And don’t miss the “Design and Modern Craft” hall. On the other side of the entry wall, you’ll find short film offerings entitled “Modernism and Film.” Take a seat and watch. First up is “Manhatta” from 1920, a 10-minute documentary featuring a day in New York City, with texts by Walt Whitman, and produced by artist Charles Sheeler and photographer Paul Strand. They obviously loved New York City. Next up is the 3-minute “Rhythmus 21", an early abstract work by Hans Richter that features squares and rectangles changing shape, accompanied by a piano and string bass score. The score sounded ominous to me as though the film-maker was warning us about something but that’s just my take. And the last is a 1-minute excerpt from “Modern Times” by Charlie Chaplin, about which nothing else needs to be said.(The first two can be found on YouTube and the third in parts.)

Lastly, I took a final look at “Open Water”, the ArtPrize winner that is on display until the end of month, when it moves to a private collection. (As I am writing this, I see an update that Dick & Betsy DeVos are the purchasers and will leave the work on temporary loan to the museum.) (Update: it now hangs in their restaurant, Reserve). Look on the opposite wall and you will see a short video composed of photos from the larger ArtPrize event accompanied by music taken from performances by the Grand Rapids Symphony of David Lockington’s composition “Celebratory Fantasy Fanfare for ArtPrize.” I wish it had been longer because it was great fun to watch and beautifully accompanied by the music.

So go and explore, and find your own treasures.