Mozart Rules

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is one of the best known and most loved composers in the classical world. He wrote great, accessible music. It's supposed to be good for your kids to listen to it. He started very young and died much too early.

Playing Mozart is an amazing thing. It's an exercise but also a blissful release, when you contribute your part to the orchestra as it moves along through fast and slow passages, the dynamics roar or whisper, the notes pour out or sing solo in delicate beauty. You have 40 people participating with instruments and hundreds listening and it becomes an event--an altered state of mind.

Today, the Castro Valley Chamber Orchestra, of which I am a member, played three Mozart pieces along with two other amazing works. The program went very well, thanks to fine conducting by Josh Cohen, our leader, as well as guest conductors Todd Wetherwax, Sandra Noriega and Tom Baker, who all stepped in and kept us moving and playing the pieces effectively. Mr. Baker had the distinction of composing one of our pieces, conducting it, and also playing viola and piano (not all at once, of course).

Community orchestras bring the pleasures of classical music to the public at very reasonable prices, and give amateur musicians a chance to work on important and valuable works and grow as performers.

It's Orchestra Season Again!

Tonight I resumed playing with the Castro Valley Chamber Orchestra--my musical pals since the beginning of 2007. Each year, from September to June, we gather on Tuesday nights at the middle school and rehearse for two hours each week, preparing for our three concerts per session.

Tonight we played a Mozart Double Piano Concerto that featured one of the most out-of-tune pianos I've ever heard. It made the great composer sound like the entertainment in a honky tonk bar despite fine playing by Tom. We also went through a piece this same fine piano player composed that will be a treat for anyone attending the upcoming concert on Sunday, October 23.

We tackled another Mozart piece, Symphony No. 31, which, unlike the Double Piano Concerto, I had never laid eyes on before. I was gratified at the amount of notes I was able to play on the first time through, sightreading. Part of the reward of playing in a community orchestra, besides the beauty and the camaraderie, is seeing yourself grow and improve over time.

Josh, our beloved and very hard working conductor, recommended playing chamber music to improve your sensitivity to other players, and I couldn't agree more. I belong to the Chamber Musicians of Northern California, which puts on three weekend workshops a year for players with at least some experience playing. I've attended about a dozen so far. The next workshop is the weekend of October 15-16, but you should join the group and apply now if you're interested.

A Double Dose of Chamber Music

Yesterday, I got to enjoy two chamber music concerts. Being in an orchestra and a member of the Chamber Musicians of Northern California, I have met lots of fellow players--and they sometimes invite me to come hear them perform at local venues.

First, I drove to Alameda to the High Street Station to hear the Hillside Quintet, made up of five members of the Castro Valley Chamber Orchestra. They feature flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon and horn. Their two sets mixed the popular sound of Mozart with the rousing refrains of John Philip Sousa's Liberty Bell March (the Monty Python theme), a surprisingly beautiful composition, the Andante by Muszynski from 1985, and other delightful pieces. They even played "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."

That's the Hillside Quintet in the photo above.

Then, I drove quickly East, to Pleasant Hill, where in the contemporary A-frame of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, four separate groupings of musicians (with a few folks playing in multiple ensembles) filled the building with great sounds. After Schubert's String Quintet in C Major (1828) came the biggest surprise of the concert--The Ballade, Pastorale and Dance by Eric Ewazen (born in 1954). In the unusual grouping of flute, horn and piano, it proved, as the Muszynski did, that modern classics can be a delight to the ear.

Chamber Music--Good for the Soul

I just spent the weekend at a chamber music workshop put on by the Chamber Musicians of Northern California. I'm a very grateful member of this group of amateur musicians. Quarterly, we get together at a college or university campus to play music together.

I got to work on two exciting pieces this weekend. One was a Czech composer Dvorak's Bass Quintet. As a bass player I often play with groups with more than four other musicians--for example, an octet with 8 of septet with 7 (see the photo, taken last June). These groups include string and wind players.

For the Drovak piece, it was five folks with different-sized members of the violin family--violin, viola, cello and bass. What a nice sound. This is one of the "warhorses" of the bass chamber music repertoire, apparently, but it was only my second time through it and I'd gladly play it again anytime.

Today, I joined a dozen other musicians, all of whom were wind-powered, for a glorious Gran Partita by Mozart. We worked all day perfecting (well, improving) our performance and played some of it for some other musicians in the afternoon.

My hands, arms and lower back are sore now from my efforts, but I'm happy!

Bass Power!

Here's an idea--six brilliant young musicians from Slovakia, Russia, Czech Republic, White Russia, Yugoslavia, Georgia and Ukraine perform together--on basses! Founded in 1996, Bassiona Amorosa plays a wide repertoire, including music from the early renaissance, baroque and classical period to arrangements of light music.

I have heard eight basses perform at one time, and have a CD of The London Double Bass Sound--which includes a dozen musicians playing my favorite instrument together.

There is a wide range of tones on the bass, depending on whether you play the low, middle or high notes, and you pluck (pizzicato) or use a bow (arco) to get sharp or extended tones. Of course every musician is a little different and every piece is unique, so I never get tired of listening to bass music. And, of course, it puts the "bottom" in whenever it's part of the group.

Next Sunday, I will play with the Chamber Musicians of Northern California (CMNC) on the Mozart Gran Partita, which includes 12 various wind instruments and me--the only string player--holding down the foundation with my bass. Sweet.