Lucy and 8bb: one happy family…
After the madness of our fundraising benefit, we had another whirlwind experience - a 24-hour jaunt in Canada. This was a pretty last-minute gig, booked by the National Arts Center in Ottawa for a new contemporary music series hosted by the Arts Center Orchestra.
In the first half of the program, a small group of players from the orchestra were conducted by new music legend Oliver Knussen. Most memorably, soprano Elizabeth Keusch performed Knussen’s Requiem: Songs for Sue, a new work remembering his first wife, who passed away in 2003. Keusch sang with a pure, crystalline tone and almost flawless intonation, and the work was a personal, passionate musical response to a diverse range of texts, all on the theme of death.
We played the second half of the performance, presenting a memorized Pierrot Lunaire with the amazing Lucy Shelton. This meant we were without percussion gear to check, carry on, lug to our hotel, lug to the venue, load in, unpack, pack up, load out, lug to the airport, check, carry on, load back into the studio. In other words, an easy gig.
Although the general consensus was that the performance was not amazingly good, we received lots of complimentary comments from orchestra players and audience members, and enjoyed a party hosted by National Arts Center Orchestra oboist (and fellow Oberlin alum) Francine Schutzman after the concert.
Ottawa had been assaulted by several waves of freezing rain, and the streets were coated with a hardy layer of ice. I had flat, grip-less shoes, and survived unscathed for just five minutes before I took the first of three falls, slipping hard and bleeding for my art. Or that’s how I like to think of it.
Canada’s capital is a beautiful city, featuring some imposing national government buildings. Winding its way through 11 kilometres of the city is a small and picturesque creek, which for several months of each year serves as an extremely popular ice rink, supplying the city’s many government employees with an interesting alternate form of public transportation. Ah Canada, blazing ahead in the quest to solve the impending global warming crisis.
For more photos, go to our flickr Ottawa page.
Comments 4
tim, why do you say that this was not a GOOD PERFORMANCE by consensus –not a good thing to put into print.. . it was FABULOUS!!!!
sorry, but not a good idea to declare the negatives in print…..
lucy, looking forward to our next collaboration!!!!!!
Posted 16 Mar 2007 at 12:16 am ¶I thought it was a really wonderful performance as well - and you were fabulous as always, Lucy - but it is interesting how differently various members of the ensemble feel after concerts. I will write a blog post on that point!
I try to only write honest things on this blog. I omit comments which I feel are damaging (to us or someone else), but I think that the blog would be uninteresting if it is all rainbows and lollypops….
Can’t wait to work with you again!
tim
Posted 16 Mar 2007 at 7:56 am ¶I agree with Tim and Lucy. It is probably bad form to write negative comments about one’s own performances, but it is part of the reality of being a performer.
In retrospect, the concert was probably not as riddled with blatant errors as I thought at the time. The tricky thing about Pierrot in particular is that everything in the score is SO specific, it is easy to lose sight of the overall effect and drama which can survive even with missed notes and slightly botched entrances.
Lucy rocks, nobody does Pierrot like her. Period. Every performance we get with her is heaven-sent.
[To book Pierrot Lunaire, please contact Nicole Borrelli at ICM Artists]
Posted 16 Mar 2007 at 9:02 am ¶I don’t see how any of you could have thought that your performance in Ottawa was anything less than spectacular. I was enthralled and thought it (truly!) one of the most satisfying and exciting performances I had ever heard of anything whatsoever.
Francine
Posted 09 Apr 2007 at 9:58 pm ¶Post a Comment