My impressions, in order:
The Haydn Sonata- I could tell right away that this guy was a perfectionist. I mean, the piece itself does not lend so much to emotion or meaning per se, but more of the technical accuracy and precision. When he messed up a little at the end, marring this perfection, the whole enjoyment of the piece was lost to him.
The Fantastic Dances, Op. 5- Loved these. Kristina told me an interesting thing about them... that they were written during the Communist Regime and were semi-censored, except that Shostakovich stuck "acceptable" stuff at the end. How do you censor music with no words?
Gnossienne No. 1- Daniel's piece! I enjoyed the contrast between this and the first... while Daniel's hands weren't jumping like hyper bugs so much and doing so many technically impressive things, it was clear that the purpose of the song was the subtleties and emotions.
Ophelia's Song- Vocalists from here out. She was definitely a full lyric or dramatic soprano... sopranos tend to turn flat, and she didn't pull the runs with enough lightness or agility to be a coloratura or light lyric.
Ich Liebe Dich- She was even flatter, and it was kind of an awkward performance. She had her right hand in the air and her left hand by her side, fiddling with her fingers at a very fast pace. The entire time.
annddd then there were a lot more I don't feel like summarizing... or, all of them, at least... I'll go by name.
Kyrstin- She was the best to listen to. Nice timbre and color in her voice. HOWEVER, she forced her vibrato (like Charlotte Church... wiggle-chin, much?).
Adam- So very fun. He did all songs from musicals... very comedic. He's a tenor. He ended each of his three songs on big, dramatic, high pitches with well-controlled, tight vibrato. And a tomato face.
Alyssa- The program says she is a soprano, but she did not show it off in her song selection. They were actually kind of... nondescript.
Victoria- Meh. She had some serious breath control issues. She appeared to be very, very nervous.
Conor- When I saw he chose songs by Ben Folds and Jason Mraz, I could picture him... shoulder-length-ish hair and a preppy-grunge sweater with a smaller voice. I was right. He had his left hand in his pocket with the thumb sticking out (which is a major indicator of confidence, as opposed to the thumb in the pocket and all others out, which indicates discomfort), and the other fiddling frenetically with the hem on his right pocket.
Genevieve- She held her harmony nicely? Didn't sing much.
I Learned...
I have a high G in my range and it sounds decent... hallelujah and finally.
Kathryne
1 comment:
Shostakovich and Prokofiev both pretty much had to play cat and mouse with Lenin their whole life after they started writing music. Both were very progressive composers, more along the lines of Stravinsky than Tchaikosvky. Lenin (or stalin, i forget) thought of this as western influence, and he didnt like it all anyway. at one of Shostakovich's first performances Lenin walked out of the concert hall in disgust. which, of course, devastated shostakovich. so they had to censor their own music from more dissonant 'advanced' material to more traditional, consonant and bit more nationalistic material. Hearing these guys music is interesting because you can hear their anguish through their music, a very dark shadow seems to loom over their music. and uh, their penalty was usually death, both were under the gun quite a few times, Prokofiev had to flee the country for while at one point early in his career.
Rachmaninnoff wasnt around at this time, lucky for him.
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