The setup

camera.JPGThere’s something exciting about being on the ground with a video production team like we have this week in Naarden. Wires, lights, cameras and crew - it’s everywhere in Grote Kerk as Haydn’s masterwork is brought to life, but it’s all carefully kept out of site on the video feed itself.

The most striking piece of equipment is a camera mounted on a huge crane (30 feet in length, perhaps?) operated by three crew members. This is the camera providing sweeping shots from the left and center of the church, above the audience and through the chandeliers.

crane2.JPGThe last filming session with the performers takes place today. Actually, the entire piece will be performed and recorded again, providing additional footage to draw from in assembling the final cut. I plan to take in at least part of today’s session from inside the production trailer parked outside the church. The trailer is a world of its own that really fascinates me. There are video monitors galore, the sound is fantastic, better than the live mix, and the film director, Rhodri Huw, will be sitting with a score of the Haydn work and calling shots from the camera crew inside the church.

June 26, 2010 | Filed Under Haydn: The Creation, Videos | Leave a Comment 

The viola of love

Have you ever heard the viola d’amore (viola of love)? It has seven strings and covers a wide range of octaves. One of my favorite violinists, Rachel Barton Pine, has taken an interest in this ancient instrument. Read her comments on it here - http://www.stringsmagazine.com/article/default.aspx?articleid=26255 and enjoy a bit of her performance on the viola d’amore in the Youtube video below in which she showcases a Vivaldi concerto. Close your eyes and you might think you’re listening to a violin/viola duet!

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May 13, 2010 | Filed Under Videos | Leave a Comment 

A moving, modern work

The onset of Holy Week provides good opportunity for me to spotlight one of my absolute favorite works of sacred music, James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from The Cross (perhaps significantly not titled simply “The Seven Last Words”). It’s a matter of personal taste, of course, but this cantata for string orchestra and choir thoroughly satisfies my own thirst for something spiritually meaningful, aesthetically rich and varied, original and technically engaging. In short, it touches me deeply. For me, this is where poetic talk about the power of sacred music really takes on flesh. Here’s a clip from one of my favorite parts of the piece, a setting of the words, “Verily, I say unto thee, today thou shalt be with me in Paradise.”

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Could there be a more moving promise of release from the pain of life in this world? That these words were spoken to one whose life was ending in torture and mockery makes them all the more poignant, and MacMillan’s approach to the text begins, appropriately, in an almost despairing mood that prepares the listener for powerful musical contrasts ushered in before the words of Christ—which arrive only at the very end of the movement, in a soprano duet. The text preceding Christ’s words in this movement are taken from a versicle for Good Friday: “Ecce Lignum Crucis in quo salus mundi dependit: Venite adoremus” – “Behold the Wood of the Cross on which the Saviour of the world was hung: Come let us adore him.” MacMillan explains a bit about the cantata’s origin and inspiration in the video below.

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I’m thrilled that SDG is now working with MacMillan on a major new commission. It will be exciting to hear what he produces. We’ll announce details of the project soon.

April 1, 2010 | Filed Under Recommendations, Videos | Leave a Comment 

MacMillan “St. John Passion” premiere in Boston

Tonight marks the U.S. premiere of James MacMillan’s St. John Passion (not an SDG project), presented by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The BSO has a great collection of video and audio footage contextualizing this MacMillan piece at http://www.bso.org/bso/mods/content1.jsp?id=40900010  Also worth checking out is the collection of composer interviews currently featured on the BSO’s YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/bostonsymphony, which includes a brief bio on MacMillan and interviews with composers John Harbison and Osvaldo Golijov. Harbison comments on the musical history of the Passion genre. Golijov comments on the challenge of composing his acclaimed St. Mark Passion as a Jew approaching the Passion story.

In the video below, an interviewer asks MacMillan if he considers him (the interviewer) to be “Satan…the Devil in disguise”, a reference to MacMillan’s comments on anti-religious sentiment in the media. Interesting comments follow. What a way to kick off an interview!

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More on MacMillan’s media/religion-related comments here.

January 21, 2010 | Filed Under Interviews, Videos, New Music | Leave a Comment 

Sven-David Sandstrom comments on his “Messiah” oratorio

I enjoyed meeting composer Sven-David Sandström yesterday and discussing his “Messiah” oratorio, a work commissioned by the Oregon Bach Festival and the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart. Many thanks to the OBF for their help arranging the interview.

Here are a few comments from the composer on his new work. I hope to post more from the interview at a later date.


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Click here for more on the Messiah project.

July 11, 2009 | Filed Under Sandström: Messiah, Videos, New Music | Leave a Comment 

“Messiah” to be born in Oregon

This week I’m humbled by the privilege of enjoying the Oregon Bach Festival and witnessing the birth of composer Sven David Sandström’s new Messiah oratorio. Sandström’s new piece is the result of brave vision and sponsorship on the part of the Oregon Bach Festival and the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart. The world premiere will take place tomorrow evening at 7:30 p.m. at the Hult Center for the Performing Arts (click here for concert details). Here’s a sneak preview of the new oratorio from the festival’s YouTube channel:

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Reports and reflections to follow…

July 9, 2009 | Filed Under Sandström: Messiah, Videos, New Music | Leave a Comment 

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