February 2023
Although it is short month this February - It has been a wild February with cats, teaching, an English Viol workshop and working on Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony.
February 4. An interesting and very enjoyable performance at Duke University by a trio, the Poulenc Trio - Oboe, Bassoon and Piano. Who would think it? Certainly not string players! Wrong! The oboe playing was superb, my favorite instrument after the cello. The Washington Post wrote " The bassoonist music dances with a lightness and grace uncommon for his instrument". The program - Two Poulenc works - Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano, Sonata for Oboe and Piano, opus 166. A work by Viet Cuong commissioned for the Poulenc Trio by the Barlow Endowment for Music Composition. Shostakovich's "The Romance, op.79a" A Spin through Moscow. This is one of our most popular piece we play in the Duke University Gardens for the Duke Alumni Reunion Brunch. A "Suite in the Old Style" by A.Schnittke and the "Fantasie Concertante sur des themes de "Italiana in Algeri" by G Rossini.
Our first NC Cello Society event of 2023
Was an excellent Cello Society talk by Marc Moskovitz based on his new book, MEASURE; in Pursuit of Musical Time. Here's a link to the recording on YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKHxC5b3H4U
Link to Marc's book: https://boydellandbrewer.com/9781783276615/measure/
Link to a bio of Marc: https://www.uncp.edu/profile/marc-moskovitz
February 18. Finally after 2 years of waiting for Alison Crum and her husband Roy Marks from England, to have our Viol Workshop at UNC. I met Alison in Exeter in the 80's where she taught viols there at the University. Over the years, I have gone to her workshops in England and the US. For me this year was a short event as I had much to do. Very sorry not to have spent more time.
February 22 - More music coming to the surface again. Our string quartet got together again after a hiatus. Happy to be playing Haydn again, and Elgar's "Salut d'amour" which always brings tears. Later in the afternoon, my students from the Chapel Hill School of Music Arts had a Studio class instead of private lessons. I had made a list of pieces that had 3 parts, so that the students could play all the parts. Too many music books concentrate on solo pieces, and the students don't learn to play the accompanying lower parts. They practice before the class, so we had fun hearing all the parts. If they want to play in groups or orchestras, they have to be able to listen to their parts. I'm looking forward to the next Studio class.
February 25 - I was asked to be one of the judges of the Chapel Hill Philharmonia Young Artist Concerto Competition. It was a bit of a disappoint as the five competitors were all pianists! Fortunately, we had a piano teacher judge. The other judge was a fine clarinet from the orchestra, and I was from the cello section. The level of performance was very high, and it was difficult to decide. We choose two winners, in case the first winner was not able to perform. A few years ago when I was a judge there, we chose a young outstanding violinist. Not long after that, he won a competition in Boston, and he decided to go there. Fortunately, our second was outstanding and ready, so it was a great performance.
I decided not to have the motto " Oh Bloody Hell" in the front plate. In England I would have left it on the plate, but I felt it wouldn't be apropos for Americans.
Having my fun car, I went off to James' Track Meet about 30 miles from Chapel Hill to cheer him on. This is his thing, and as you can see, he won several medals.
Jane
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