Skip to main content

Joy of Music

I played a concert tonight in Fort Wayne and we had a piano soloist for Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. Jodie DeSalvo was absolutely marvelous.

The thing that impressed me the most was the absolute joy she projected every time she played.  From the moment the piece started - even in the very first working rehearsal - with our excellent principal clarinet wailing up to the high note, she was listening, engaged, visibly enjoying what she heard.  She reacted with obvious delight to what the orchestra gave her in the opening, and responded as soon as she started playing with some fun of her own.  I have played Rhapsody in Blue dozens of times, and never heard it as fresh, playful, and rambunctious as it was this evening.  She performed this 90 year old work as if she was making it up on the spot, and the orchestra responded with energetic glee of its own.  The audience loved it, and brought her back for three curtain calls.

Sometimes we can get caught in the trap of going to work just so we can get done with work.  To get to our dress rehearsal this morning I had to be up before 7, driving before 8.  It would have been foolish and exhausting to travel home between services, so I spent all afternoon in a coffee shop working on my website.  Pleasant and needful work, but no substitute for being at home with my family, you know?

I love the music of George Gershwin, as I have written before (HERE, for example.) But by the time the evening concert rolled around I was ready to leave Fort Wayne and have my life be my own again.

But the way Desalvo took over the stage and owned that piece made me forget how tired I was,  and that work is work.  Along with the entire audience I was completely in the moment, eager to hear what she'd do next and deeply enjoying the beautiful playing of my colleagues around me.

I managed to speak with her briefly at the stage door after the concert - bless her heart, she'd stayed in her gown for an extra hour and stuck around to greet patrons at the end.  And standing in a strapless concerto dress outdoors at 9:30 in February in Indiana, she still managed to project total joy and gratitude for the experience we'd all shared.

I have a new idol.  Thank you, Jodie DeSalvo, for reminding me what really matters, and for being just plain awesome.



Comments

  1. I really enjoyed your post, here. It encapsulated what I feel is one of the best aspects of music (joy!). I love how this joy often transcends academic music know-how, reaching even the most casual listener -- though being onstage and a part of the sound certainly sharpens the effect!

    Of course, Rhapsody in Blue definitely ranks high on the scale in terms of joy. I've been privileged to perform it once (and hopefully someday again) -- such a delight, so much music in there, waiting to be unveiled by the daring performers and soloist.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks for commenting, Jason! It's great to hear from you!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Zoe's Musical Beginnings

I've mentioned before that I started out on the piano by figuring out melodies.  Connecting notes and trying to learn how they worked.  I'm fascinated to observe that Zoe's initial approach to the instrument is totally different from mine. She sits at our new piano and plays random notes, and tells us what to feel.  If she is playing slowly then the music is sad, and we should cry. When we are "crying" she either gets up and hugs us so we feel better (so awesome!) or bangs faster, to indicate that the music is now happy and we should dance.  Her other piano game is accompanying herself - she plays "chords" in alternating hands while she "sings" the ABC song or Camptown Races or Sesame Street.  She makes us sing along.  She loves it when we clap at the end.  When I was little I wanted to know how music worked. Although I make my living as a performer now, I learned about the interpersonal aspects of music later.  Her immediate interest is in ...

Cleaning Your Reeds

Updated: I've posted a video of my plaque cleaning technique HERE ! Oboe reeds are made from organic material, and over time it is inevitable that they will age and change. The first few days of change are usually quite welcome, as you break the reed in by playing and the opening gradually settles down to something you can be comfortable with and the response becomes more and more predictable.  You might even hit a plateau where it appears to be perfectly consistent and reliable for several days! But after that, the reed seems to be on a constant gradually accelerating downslope, until it eventually collapses into a sharp, non-responsive, mushy mess. We can rejuvenate the reed during this time by cleaning it, and can often extend its life as well! There are three good ways to do this. First, least invasively, you can just run some fresh water through and over the reed AFTER you play each time.  Go ahead and rinse that reed in the sink, shake it as dry as possible, a...

Knife Sharpening

I've gotten a lot of questions on this topic, and the most recent querent prompted me to make a video to demonstrate.  You can find that  HERE . Knife sharpening seems to strike terror into many hearts.  And it's little wonder.  Many famous oboists have gone on record as saying that a sharp knife is the most important aspect of reed making. People have entire systems of stones and strops and rods set up to sharpen their knives. And it is important, of course it is - but I don't believe that you need your knife to be razor-like, or objectively the sharpest blade of any in your home.  The reed knife has one job - scraping cane off in precision ways - and it has to be sharp enough for that, and sharpened optimally for that purpose.  More than that is overly fussy for my taste. This is not to say that I allow my knife to be dull.  A dull knife forces you to put too much pressure on the reed and can cause cracking. Obviously it can lead to terribly inc...