Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Happy Valentine's Day!!!
When in doubt…Blog!
Good morning from the UK!!! It is Monday morning and I am at work but taking a few minutes during a meeting gear up to catch up on the blog.
Music…more music. First of all let me say how remiss I was about not mentioning Lucinda Williams in my other blog about music. I saw her back in November at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire and somehow was left off my other blog with lots of music information. Anyway, she was fantastic and I if you don’t have any experience with her music, I highly recommend it. I believe she is frequently called “country” but don’t believe that adequately covered her music style. She spent quite a lot of time talking to the audience and telling the story behind the songs she was singing. I think one reason I was keen to mention her in this blog is due to the fact that I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Willie Nelson in London a couple weeks ago. Check out “Overtime”, a lovely duet with Willie and Lucinda. I have downloaded a collection from iTunes called “the essential Lucinda Williams” which is a great collection of some of her best tunes from multiple different releases.
Willie was great and Wembley Arena was packed. I wasn’t really sure of what to expect with the UK audience but many folks not only seemed engaged with Willie but knew the words to many of the songs. The audience was a hugely diverse group including folks of all ages which was very similar to the Lucinda Williams audience. Willie played from all genres including country, folk, bluegrass, blues, and gospel. The opening band was an Irish band called the Sharron Shannon Big Band. It is quite fascinating to see the similarities between the Celtic folk music and American folk music.
In contrast to the above, I had the exceptional pleasure of seeing the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam at the Barbican Centre yesterday. The conductor was Mariss Jansons and there was a mezzo soprano, Elina Garanca, for the Berio Folk Song part of the performance. The orchestra had over 100 musicians! My seat was dead centre and the sound was fantastic!!! The program including Berlioz Overture: Le Carnaval Romain, Debussy: La mer, Berio: Folk Songs, and Ravel: La valse. We were treated with two encores as well. I totally enjoyed the soprano and found the addition of the folk songs a welcome treat. My favourite piece was the Debussy piece as I truly felt as if I could feel the waves of the ocean with the orchestra sounds. The addition of the wind instruments with all of the strings is such a nice sound experience. Is that what makes an orchestra an orchestra?
I have made my final plans for skiing as well and will head off to Courchavel on March 4th. It has been snowing quite a bit in the high French alps so the chance of good snow is quite good. I might even have the pleasure of skiing powder in Europe…how cool is that?
Good morning from the UK!!! It is Monday morning and I am at work but taking a few minutes during a meeting gear up to catch up on the blog.
Music…more music. First of all let me say how remiss I was about not mentioning Lucinda Williams in my other blog about music. I saw her back in November at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire and somehow was left off my other blog with lots of music information. Anyway, she was fantastic and I if you don’t have any experience with her music, I highly recommend it. I believe she is frequently called “country” but don’t believe that adequately covered her music style. She spent quite a lot of time talking to the audience and telling the story behind the songs she was singing. I think one reason I was keen to mention her in this blog is due to the fact that I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Willie Nelson in London a couple weeks ago. Check out “Overtime”, a lovely duet with Willie and Lucinda. I have downloaded a collection from iTunes called “the essential Lucinda Williams” which is a great collection of some of her best tunes from multiple different releases.
Willie was great and Wembley Arena was packed. I wasn’t really sure of what to expect with the UK audience but many folks not only seemed engaged with Willie but knew the words to many of the songs. The audience was a hugely diverse group including folks of all ages which was very similar to the Lucinda Williams audience. Willie played from all genres including country, folk, bluegrass, blues, and gospel. The opening band was an Irish band called the Sharron Shannon Big Band. It is quite fascinating to see the similarities between the Celtic folk music and American folk music.
In contrast to the above, I had the exceptional pleasure of seeing the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam at the Barbican Centre yesterday. The conductor was Mariss Jansons and there was a mezzo soprano, Elina Garanca, for the Berio Folk Song part of the performance. The orchestra had over 100 musicians! My seat was dead centre and the sound was fantastic!!! The program including Berlioz Overture: Le Carnaval Romain, Debussy: La mer, Berio: Folk Songs, and Ravel: La valse. We were treated with two encores as well. I totally enjoyed the soprano and found the addition of the folk songs a welcome treat. My favourite piece was the Debussy piece as I truly felt as if I could feel the waves of the ocean with the orchestra sounds. The addition of the wind instruments with all of the strings is such a nice sound experience. Is that what makes an orchestra an orchestra?
I have made my final plans for skiing as well and will head off to Courchavel on March 4th. It has been snowing quite a bit in the high French alps so the chance of good snow is quite good. I might even have the pleasure of skiing powder in Europe…how cool is that?
