The Arts et al wishes you a Happy Halloween!

A scene from Winthrop Corey’s ballet “Dracula” performed by the Mobile Ballet a few years ago. Taken by yours truly.

Mobile Arts news for today…

- The USA Vanguard, which is the student newspaper on the campus of the University of South Alabama, published a very detailed article on Mobile Ballet’s “A Gala Evening.” You can read it here.

- An e-mail from Ben Harper at the Mobile Symphony (MSO) reminded me that tomorrow tickets go on sale for the “Joshua Bell and the MSO” scheduled on Thursday, March 28 at 8 p.m. The tickets will go on sale at 10 a.m., but I know from experience the phone lines are often busy if you try to call at exactly 10 a.m. Be prepared for short waits and getting comfortable with the “redial” button on your phone. But hey, it beats camping out at Larkins Center!

- Speaking of the MSO, I cannot believe it’s only a few weeks until the annual “Beethoven and Blue Jeans” concert! It’s a personal favorite of yours truly, and one of the most attended concerts of the year. I will keep you posted all the way until the event, and will talk to Enen Yu (my violin teacher) to get all sorts of background information on the piece she is performing as a soloist with the orchestra!

So I decided to catch up on Kevin Lee’s “Artifice” column at the Lagniappe website (Lagniappe is a weekly independently published magazine). I think Mr. Lee was referring to my previous post on arts journalism in his column!

He writes:

An Internet perusal landed Artifice on the musings of a local arts participant and journalist. Though young, she has quickly gained clarity.

The astute author, musician and dancer remarked on local journalists, their battles against erroneous expectation and in particular the tendency of Mobile arts organizations to see those writers as little more than public relations channels. It frustrated her.

She decried the lack of appreciation for objectivity. Her concerns that not enough locals viewed media reflection as a litmus test, a challenge to boost their own quality, rang true.

It’s familiar. Ask a number of local reporters and they can regale you with stories of thin skin among the populace and easy umbrage inflamed by the seemingly innocuous. It doesn’t take much to “get someone’s goat” around here.

You can read the rest here.

Just a small note: I was so happy (and surprised) to see coverage of an ABT performance on Gawker today!

I took this photo in July while I was in NY interning!

Today was a milestone. My parents rented the truck, made appointments with Realtors, set the date, and purchased my one-way ticket to New York City for December. It’s happening. I’m completely overwhelmed with the idea of moving to New York, but it’s been a dream of mine for awhile. It feels very final, very real and very exciting.

All photos from NYCB.org.

Happy Gala Week! Don’t forget to remind your dance-minded friends and co-workers the New York City Ballet (NYCB) dancers will be on our turf in less than five days! If you didn’t know, they will be performing a a few short ballets and excerpts from ballets with the Mobile Ballet Company on Saturday, Nov. 3 at 7:30 p.m.

Those pictured above: Abi Stafford, Nilas Martins, Rachel Rutherford, Charles Askegard, Albert Evans and Daniel Ulbricht will be performing. According to the Mobile Press-Register, other NYCB dancers will also be joining them, but it isn’t official yet which additional ones will come!

Last night was the final airing of the Mobile Symphony (MSO) re-broadcast on WHIL. I devoted a post to it earlier, only to express my anticipation of hearing their recording of Rachmaninoff’s 2nd.

Scott Speck introduced the piece by saying that it was “the best Mobile Symphony recording” that they’ve done yet. In the beginning I thought it far fetched, but by the fourth movement agreed with him entirely. Just thinking on the clarity of the violins and violas in their first movement alone gives me chills.

The recordings of the 2nd that I listen to most are by the Rotterdam Philharmonic and the Moscow Radio and TV Orchestra. Both interpretations of the work seem flat, in comparison to the MSO’s, which had more character. Rotterdam recording feels as though the orchestra got cavities by the fourth movement from all those sugary-sweet melodies, and lazily excused themselves from exaggerations and extra thought.

The MSO however, and I’m speaking mostly about the fourth movement, seemed to have devoted so much thought into those crescendos at the climax. Rotterdam and Moscow Radio orchestras both hit forte too fast and to quickly, but the MSO crept up the crescendo as if Speck were turning the volume nob on a radio in very measured increments. However, when the climax does appear, this interpretation makes it feel as though a rest lies between the measures–its a little too disjointed. These approaches have both disadvantages and advantages.

Other complaints, are that the forlorn little passage at the end of the third movement doesn’t have that feeling that I like so much in the Rotterdam version. In addition, Speck chose a score with cuts. When I first learned of this, three or four years ago now, I was outraged. However, I understand now that it’s done for the sake of time, and because some think those musical ideas aren’t worth all that repetition. I’m undecided about which version is best. To be (a purist) or not to be (a purist)…

All around, its a darn good recording of the 2nd for community orchestra like the MSO. I’m going to study the score in the next few days.

Thomas B. Harrison, the arts editor for the Mobile Press-Register published an article about the “A Gala Evening” on Saturday, you can read it by clicking here.He even interviewed Charles Askegard!

The definite list of New York City Balletdancers was also included in the article, and it has changed immensely since I talked to Mobile Ballet artistic director Winthrop Corey.

Right now the dancers coming are: Rachel Rutherford, Charles Askegard, Nilas Martins, Albert Evans, Abi Stafford, and Daniel Ulbricht.

 The last broadcast in Mobile Symphony  broadcast season airs on WHIL 91.3 FM tomorrow night at 8 p.m. This weeks show will be a broadcast of Rossini’s “William Tell Overture” and Rachmaninoff’s “Symphony No. 2.”

The Rachmaninoff symphony is a favorite of mine. It’s very, very lush, and beautiful. I’ll go as far to say that it’s the most beautiful symphony I’ve ever heard. Music not for such trivial occasions as finding true love, death or fate, but music for something more lasting and beautiful than those things–if that’s possible, for some reason that work makes me believe there is.  

If you decide to listen to the broadcast, which is available for streaming on the web if you’re outside of Mobile, definitely listen for an audience reaction during the “William Tell Overture!” There is a period when the familiar theme develops and the audience lets out this “Ah!” It should be audible on the recording tomorrow night, unless Nomad decided to edit it out.

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I was excited today to see a package from Newsweek in the mailbox! I wrote for their national college magazine Currentover the summer, and finally got my copies of the magazine in the mail! In addition, I received a letter from their Vice President! It’s hardly readable in the photo above, but my favorite part is the last line “Who knows, you may even end up in Newsweek some day!” I know this letter was probably written and signed by some intern or personal assistant, but who cares? I’ll keep it forever.