SCV 2010 - BARTÓK

[general_tsos_chicken2]

I'm not too familiar with the music. What shows have used this music before?

star used some of it (strings and celeste) in 93, Phantom used part of concerto for orchestra in 2001

I'm over it, this will be an awesome show.

[MikeN]

I really enjoyed Phantom's take on Concerto for Orchestra - I thought they hit it pretty spot on while maintaining the "Phantom" sound.

But I must say, I'm really curious to see how SCV weaves the two together.

Mike

[bawker]

Nice.

I was hoping for an all Adams show (heh) but Bartok + drum corps = win.

[soccerguy315]

should be excellent

[Peel Paint]

Meh. For the second year in a row Vanguard's picked a show I've heard many times before.

Some of my very favorite shows in all drum corps came when they used Bartok's piano concertos or string quartets. There is plenty of material left in those works, If they're going to play Bartok I'd much prefer to hear them tackle something original to the activity.

I see your Meh, and raise you another Meh. Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra and Music for Strings, Percussion, and Celeste are two of my favorite works for orchestra. Plus, there's enough unperformed DCI music in these long-ish works that we don't have to have a rerun situation, here. Even if, I'd much rather hear them again than, well, you know... the usual suspects of frequent flyers on the DCI playlist.

[JMS0527]

Let the comparisons with 1993 Star begin!! (well, once the show is heard)

[Matt_S]

After taking a trip to CorpsReps, it looks like I grossly overestimated the number of times this music's been used. I take back what I said before; I was probably speaking personally as I've listened to the original works pretty often. If SCV goes for a straight retelling, a la Appalachian Spring this past year, then I'm going to be disappointed. Of course, there's certainly the possibility with these pieces - especially Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta - that SCV could take them and turn them into an original show and an instant classic. I guess I'll wait and see what comes out of it, but I'd rather have a show like 1999 than 2009.

[BMBob]

Bartok is one of my favorites. Put it with SCV, and I'm in!

[Jeffe77]

Yes!!

[Peel Paint]

I recently heard on the radio a symphony orchestra concert performance of the entire Bartok Concerto for Orchestra that blew my mind. (Even though I think I remember the name of the orchestra and conductor that performed, I'm not going to identify them here, because I'm not positive I remember correctly.) Up until the last two minutes of the last movement, it was surprisingly sloppy. It just sounded under-rehearsed. Wrong notes, ensemble off badly, etc. Think DCI in mid-June. Now this is a tough work to perform, no doubt, but it's enough of a staple in the repertory and has been around the symphonic block enough times that major orchestras should be reasonably comfortable with it, and this one wasn't.

Then they get to the ending of Movement V, among the most challenging passages in mainstream symphonic literature to pull off, and they nail it. They give one of the best performances of those two minutes that I've ever heard.

My only guess is that they spent the entire rehearsal time they had allocated for the piece on the last two minutes, until they had it down cold, figured they knew the rest of it, and then choked on it, but still recovered their composure to nail the ending. Weird.

Edited November 18, 2009 by Peel Paint