I feel a blog coming on....

I  was so right about Terry Riley`s music being nothing for minimalists: "The Sands" has to be practised very carefully and well to make the piece effective. But it`s going to be a lot of fun. The Kronos Quartet has been great to work with - friendly and competent gentlemen with collegial attititudes and a handshake for those at the back of the orchestra, not just those at the front. Thanks  guys,  for not forgetting the grassroots.

Another fellow who didn`t forget the grassroots was Leonard Bernstein, known to all American musicians of my generation (the Baby Boomers) simply as "Lenny". Sadly I missed out on meeting him during my student years in Boston. But of my colleagues who knew him, everybody loved him. Nothing but good was ever said about Lenny, his kindness, wit and generosity. He wrote so much energy into his music that one can`t help reproducing it while playing. It makes me very nostalgic for the country and the times in which I grew up- times that were slower and more naive. But there was a belief there that the world is a good place- I think that Lenny`s music reflects that faith.

The Third Half: you`re going to see the Basel Symphony Orchestra like you`ve never seen it before (and possibly never again). Putting together Riley`s "In C" has been a major

high. It`s like asking everybody to exchange instruments and play something completely new, except that any exchanges here have been completely voluntary. This is why you`ll see a whole new selection of instruments on the stage on Thursday evening, including a Celtic harp, an accordion, a viola d `amore,a "Naturhorn", a guitar, a kazoo, etc. It´s really a blast  and as always with DRD, easy as pie. I think he must have sold Obama the motto, "Yes, we can", because ever since we`ve been working with him that`s always what we`ve experienced. We`re a happy bunch of musicians when he`s around, and you hear it.

I can`t wait for Thursday!

Nothing for minimalists

I`ve started to get really excited (even freaked out) about next week`s AMG concerts; we`ve never done anything like this before. I`m always for trying something new, but this program with music by two living composers is "boldly going where no Basel Symphony Orchestra has gone before". So let me calm down and get coherent: our next program features works by Thomas Newman,  "It Got Dark" and Terry Riley, "The Sands" and features the Kronos Quartet as soloists. Why am I so excited? All three (respectively six) of the aforenamed artists are very much alive today and enjoy something like cult status in the musical world. Callifornia meets Basel? Why not?

Thomas Newman comes from a  musical family (father, uncle, cousin - all successful composers) and is best known for the more than eighty film scores he has written (American Beauty, Scent of a Woman, Finding Nemo, Fried Green Tomatoes, etc). He`s also a friend of David Harrington, first violinist  of the Kronos Quartet, for whom he wrote "It Got Dark". This piece he compares to  "picture postcards"-  ephemera- taken from his memories and is written in movements. I`m very curious about the pictures he`ll evoke.

The second piece on the program, "The Sands" was written by Terry Riley for the Kronos Quartet. Riley`s productivity seems nearly inexhaustible- the list of his compositions goes on and on. Known as a founder of the "Minimal Music" movement, he has become, to my way of thinking, a larger than life figure. I `ve been looking through the web for examples of his music and other writings and what I`ve found shows me a man of extraordinary intelligence, warmth and  spirituality. It`s going to be a real pleasure and stimulus to have him here while we work on "The Sands" and "In C". "In C" is a fascinating, hypnotic work which is a great introduction to Terry Riley. I just loved the comments I read while listening to "In C" on Youtube. They show which audiences listen to and love Riley- take a look and listen . I think you`ll have fun.

On the whole, Riley`s  music is so much more than meets the eye/ear that the term "minimal" is not completely accurate. Come and hear for yourself. I`ll be looking for you on Wednesday and Thursday for our concerts and on Thursday for the "Third Half" and afterward at the Casino Lounge. It`ll be fun to rub elbows with the stars.