For the first time in all my many years attending the NZSO concerts at Town Hall in the city of Dunedin, I was able to attend the LAST concert of the Orchestra's winter season. For 22 years I have been able to attend the OPENING CONCERT in April because the seasons are upside down here at the bottom of the planet. Fall time is around Easter and then winter in July, August etc. The winter season in the Northern hemisphere begins November and December... 2014 is the first time I have ever been in New Zealand in November thus I was able to attend the final concert for the season.
I have composed blogs about the many concerts I have attended over years. From NYC, Europe, and Down Under. I love Symphony Orchestra Music!
To hear a Symphony "tuning" is magic to my life!
All the dissonance melting into a perfect pitch. It makes me think that just IF? all of mankind with it's religions, politics, prejudices, confusion could come together as ONE perfect Vibe... but then we come to question: WHO WILL BE THE PRINCIPAL VIOLINIST THE OBOE and FLUTE player THAT SETS THE TONE for bringing us all into ONE KEY. ONE NOTE...?
Being a pianist I am blessed to have a cosmic palate of color and sound at my finger tips when ever the urge comes over me to place my hands upon the keyboard and allow my fingers to improvise. Let them wander into all kinds of IDEAS. Enter the music's world hidden deep within the secret places of my mind. Of course I love recreating sound from the monumental musical creations the great composers have given us. There are times when my fumbling mind 'cleanses' itself of some ugly debris floating around inside the brain by something as simple as muddling my way through a Bach Fugue!
Last night I had the amazing privilege of watching and hearing a young man perform on a wonderful instrument, the cello. To me the Cello is like a human voice. I have a priceless DVD of Rostropovich and Richter performing together at the Royal Albert Hall in London years ago! I have all the recordings of YoYo Ma.
NAREK HAKHNAZARYAN'S PERFORMANCE CAUSED ME TO NEARLY LEAP OUT OF MY SEAT AND STAND DURING HIS PERFORMANCE WITH THE SYMPHONY!
He performed Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme. Mind you, I am not a lover of this particular work however, I could not believe what my eyes and ears were hearing and my heart was feeling!
Narek was applauded with the clapping of hands in unison as well as pounding feet! He came back for many curtain calls and finally played a most amazing encore. Nothing from the standard repitore he performed an Armenian Lament!!! A lament is sorrow, sadness, longing. (the most viewed piece of my recordings on youtube is The Laments of the Maiden and the Nightingale.)
Narek was born in Yerevan, Armenia. Therefore he chose a Armenian melody for his encore and developed it's wailing of sorrow and tears into something beyond imagination.
HE USED HIS OWN VOICE in a haunting duet of the main melody. He drew magic from his instrument which were celestial.
His glissandos stretched to the limit of one's heart strings! Some of the variations sounded like a Jimmy Hendrix crazy jazz improvisation. His body movements matched the music perfectly. Narek is one of the great cellists of the times. (thank the heavens he is only 25 years old! Long may he live and keep giving his music to this planet.)
A friend I attended the concert with commented after the encore, "I think this young man SLEEPS with his cello. He loves his instrument that expresses all he feels. He has found his voice."
I have always envied guitar players, violinists, cellists and other instruments people can carry everywhere they wander... I simply do not have the strength to lift a grand piano into my pickup and drive up the canyon, find a quiet place by the river and make music.
I love the way Christopher Parkening can walk on a stage carrying his guitar by it's neck, seat himself in a chair and then ever so tenderly and with love place the girl of his instrument on his thigh, caress it close to his solar plexus, heart and lungs.
The piano is my first and will be my last love affair. It is shaped like a sacred harp.
David of the Old Testament played the harp, flute and could dance. The harp is the instrument of ANGELS so I was once told. Who's to know?
If you are ever presented with the gift of having this young cellist grace your area do purchase a ticket and hear and see something gorgeous. I am so happy I was able to be in Town Hall last night and saturate my being with such music!
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