Auros Concert

[kenjari]

Last night I went to Auros Group for New Music's first concert of the season. I sort of didn't want to go, but it turned out to be worth going. I'm also glad it turned out to be a short concert, because I was able to get home before the Red Sox game was over. I really didn't want to have to brave post-game crowds both on the T and in Allston.
The concert was a birthday celebration for Bernard Rands, who is a very good and well-known composer. He teaches at Harvard, and is probably the only good thing about their program right now. The program also had a piece by Augusta Read Thomas, since she is Bernard Rands' wife. I had not known that. She's an amazing composer in her own right - I've heard several of her works on other concerts, and I've always been impressed. I also enjoyed the fact that the works spanned the whole of Rands' career. When you get to be an older composer (he's 70 this year), you have usually worked in at least a few different styles. You've usually done a wide range of things.
The performances were really good, as usual. Unfortunately, I was too tired and hormonal to give the concert as much attention as I normally do. so I'm not going to give details about each individual piece. I enjoyed Thomas' "...a circle around the sun...". Of Rands' pieces I liked "Scherzi" the best. I liked "Memo 7 for Solo Female Voice" the least - hardly at all, in fact.

Comments

[qualario.livejournal.com]

I've spoken with Mr. Rands twice, and he's quite a good fellow, to boot. The first time was at Conn when Michael and the CCCP were doing his Canti Lunatici on a birthday concert for Donald Martino, I believe. We got to talk a while about his pieces and about working with conductors on his music. The second time was up at Eastman in February 2002, at the Eastman Wind Ensemble's 50th Anniversary gala concert, when they premiered a work of his. This meeting was rather more awkward, when he was clearly being barraged by all sorts of people he'd never met and people who he clearly did not remember--like me. We exchanged a couple of pleasantries about the concert and I walked away feeling like a total git. It was a humbling moment, and another reason why I generally don't like schmoozing.

[kenjari.livejournal.com]

He spoke briefly about his works before the concert. He did indeed seem like a good person. There was a reception right after the concert, but I really didn't want to be caught in a Red Sox mob and thus left immediately after the concert.

[epilimnion.livejournal.com]

The first time I met Rands was at a master class at Conn. He looked at an octet I was writing, and very accurately commented on its relentlessnees adn it's lack of pauses (a deficiency in my music that I have worked successfully to overcome in the past few years). Rands suggested I should maybe go have a pint while writing.

I don't always enjoy schmoozing either. but I've gotten better at it, thanks in part to my job