October 8, 2012
Classical Revolution Madison.
It was very windy here in Madison, Wisconsin, as I was walking home after teaching Conlaw2 today. So I cut through the Institute for Discovery, to make one block an indoor block. I heard music, music too loud to be plausibly piped in, and then I came upon this classical music performance. The flyer says it's "Classical Revolution Madison." What's the revolution? Other than that it's lefty Madison? According to their Facebook page: "Classical Revolution Madison Cooperative performs in cafes, bars and other non-traditional venues connecting classical music with today's public." Long live the beautiful revolutions.
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Video taken with your iphone?
If they played it at the "club", that would be a revolution. Or this,...2 blond chicks, twins, playing "Nothing Else Matters", on harps. Now that's revolutionary...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvI5oy25QO4
Schumann's Piano Quartet.
Yes, iPhone.
September 11
Come be a part of history as Classical Revolution Madison Cooperative votes to adopt bylaws as a new cooperative designed to serve the musicians and audiences of Madison, Wisconsin in a revolutionary new way.
Great changes have come to the
organization this summer with the goal of creating a transparent, inclusive organization with both flexibility and longevity which can bring quality music from local and global musicians to the people.
This Saturday, the board will present the new bylaws for review and adoption, answer questions about the shape of the organization, and begin to sign up membership for the year. If you have ever played, planned, to play, or somehow hoped to participate and shape Classical Revolution in Madison, come help be a part of our future!
Holy Shit! It's a planned revolutionary coooperative organization! That's inclusive and transparent! And revolutionary!
Damn, jaltcoh got in there first. I was going to say that if I were picking a piano quartet to play in public, that wouldn't be my first choice. Or second. Or third. It's very tricky, and although the slow movement is gorgeous, it also involves the cellist tuning the C string down a step and then back up. Admittedly, it might actually be easier to do that in a noisy public place than in a concert hall ...
That explains the curious lack of spiritual dimensions.
Rothko would have shared the concert through a series of painted colored rectangles.
snark aside, I love this video and all it represents. Surprising moments of art always tickle my fancy.
The world needs less Schumann, not more.
Classicism is the problem. If they played Renaissance or baroque music, I'd be all for it.
I'm not impressed by the "revolution" smugness (i've seen world-class string quartets play on a subway platform and quality musicians of every sort on street corners) but i am a supporter of bringing high art to places you wouldn't expect it. Good for them.
Palladian, Schumann isn't a "classicist." And, believe me, you wouldn't much like Renaissance music played by a modern-instrument piano quartet. Baroque you could get away with, choosing your music veeeerrrry carefully.
Hey. I dig classical music as much as the next cat. But face it: any three molecules of Angus Young are more revolutionary that all of these twerps put together.
Totally OT, but I must apologize to Chip Ahoy about the Le Creuset tomato pot. I eyeballed the thing again and thought, "You know, maybe it would in fact fit in there ["it" being the NYT "no-knead bread" loaf]," and the long and short of it is that I baked a loaf of bread in there, and though it's still cooling, so I haven't tried it, it looks and smells terrific.
It shall be added to my own "Things wot I made then ate."
Have iPhone, will travel, eh?
Well, thank you for sharing such a delightful moment, Madame. such things are what make our lives more worth living.
PS The last few times we cruised (Royal Caribbean), in the half hour before supper, there was always some kind of ensemble doing classical and Pops (Gershwin, etc.) outside the dining hall.
A very civilized way to dine, we always thought.
mesquito,
Hey. I dig classical music as much as the next cat. But face it: any three molecules of Angus Young are more revolutionary that all of these twerps put together.
I bet my own cats know as much classical music as you do. (Not a dig at you, just saying that my own cats hear a hell of a lot of classical music.)
But as for the "revolutionary" element: Yes, indeedy, it is lame. Sooooo lame. And yet people keep doing it.
I write for a classical music website called San Francisco Classical Voice. I've written for them for fifteen years, but now that I'm in Oregon I can't do concert reviews, so all that's on my plate is CDs.
Well, two of the items on my plate in the last couple months were from a string quartet called Brooklyn Rider and a string quartet called Ethel. Brooklyn Rider's combined three new works (one co-written by members of the quartet) with Beethoven's Op. 131, and Ethel's was all new music. They were both fantastic recordings -- but my, the posturing going into the packaging! Ethel's is titled "Heavy" (not the name of a piece on the album) and is packaged like a 45 single, if you're old enough to remember those. The documentation tells you all about who holds the rights to each piece, but not a word about the music or the composers. Cuz it's supposed to be a pop album. See?
I don't think listening blind is at all a bad idea, but could people please stop making such a damn production of it?
They are pretty good.
They were both fantastic recordings -- but my, the posturing going into the packaging!
Ever read the liner notes on a second-tier 1960s rock LP? Lord. 1800 words of tripe.
wow, life is good in Madison.
I didn't say Schumann was a classicist, I implied he is dreck.
And I have heard nearly every bit of the Baroque repertory played by every sort of musician and ensemble, "authentic", revisionist, sacrilegious, informed, misinformed, and every performance paradigm in between. I'd still rather hear it than most classicists and romantics, with some exceptions for a few of them... Haydn, some Beethoven, some Schubert.
I do think that much late medieval and Renaissance music is perfect for populist, impromptu public performance, much more suitable than subtle, long-form classical and romantic works.
This is why I like Althouse. I learn stuff I had no idea about. I get to sample little bits and pieces of the lives and interests of people much more learned than myself. Not all of it is my cup of tea, but at least I get a sip.
Come join the revolution!
Needed: piano movers
Nice. See, not everything about Madison sucks.
Palladian,
Schumann is not dreck.
OTOH, Schumann chamber music is really lousy background music. And that piece in particular. The piano quintet you could maybe get away with, or the third string quartet. The oboe romances, sure -- in fact, most of the small-scale pieces would work, though I'd hate to play the Maerchenerzaehlungen in a noisy crowd. It's hard enough to know what's going on in there when you can hear the other two players.
OTOH, Schumann chamber music is really lousy background music.
Yes, so horrendous and annoying that it's impossible to either enjoy or tune out.
Palladian, I love late medieval, Renaissance, & baroque music too, though I'm certainly not an expert.
Claudio Monteverdi is one of my favorite composers.
I played at a Classical Revolution event a few years ago in Madison. It was at a bar right off of the square. We played the Villa-Lobos Trio around 10:30 pm after shots of tequila. It had much better reception than at the bassoonist's DMA recital a month previously.
I have interpreted the "revolution" to be exposing people to classical music in places that classical music tends not to be. People may be delightfully surprised that they like it and it can be fun!
Neat!
I thought I would help add some texture to the understanding of "Revolution" here, since, although I live in Chicago, I know someone from the group and so know a little about it. Certainly there are heated connotations of the word "Revolution", and while Classical Revolution Madison certainly seeks to change the way chamber (and maybe at some point orchestral) music is brought to the public, this is also a chapter of a larger community. There are Classical Revolution chapters in Paris, Vancouver, Baton Rouge, etc. The original began in San Francisco, where the founder hosted the first event at a bar called Revolution Cafe, thus the name. So part of the name simply comes down to the community's history, as well as its mission.
As a side note, I've found the squabbling to prove one's good taste in music by diminishing the value of certain geniuses rather... interesting.
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