Today, we have our next episode of the new InterMISSION podcast from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  Up to this point, it's been very well-done with fairly interesting stories and wonderful music in the background.

This new episode features Jennifer Gunn, who has been a Chicago Symphony Orchestra member since 2005, performing on the flute and piccolo. As the site notes, "She shares the dramatic story of how she won the audition for her position and pays tribute to Walfrid Kujala, her famous predecessor. She also gives advice to aspiring performers; explains how she prepares her parts in advance of rehearsals; and talks about why she loves the live CSO concert experience."
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And there's another reason I really enjoy these InterMISSION podcasts from the CSO.  It's because along with the episodes themselves, they also post a chart with links to all the music -- in full -- that was heard, even if only played for just a few seconds as snippets.

As long as we're on the subject of classical orchestral music, I figure this is as good a time as any to post the majesty of the season, Beethoven's 9th Symphony.  This is a wonderful video recording by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of their Music Director Riccardo Muti.

It's long, of course, but if you only want to hear the Ode to Joy" section, it begins around the 52-minute mark.

No, the other one.
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This is a huge treat for classical music lovers.  But I also think that for those who aren't, at the very least the first 20 minutes or so of this video may well still be fascinating.  It's a video that the Chicago Symphony posted on their new CSOtv website of Sir Georg Solti conducting the orchestra in 1989 playing Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.  I believe this may have aired originally on PBS Great Performances.  I don’t know if this video will only be up during the holiday weekend or longer.  I suspect the latter, but no guarantees
  
What's important to add – this isn’t just Solti conducting Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.  They call it “Revisited,” and the video begins with over 20 minutes of Solti talking about how and why he chose to interpret the performance this new way, which is much more “violent” than usual, but which -- after years of studying it -- he believes is close to what Beethoven wanted, and that is intercut with extensive clips of him rehearsing the orchestra to get what he wants.  Only after that do they have the full piece.  The whole thing is wonderful but it's that first 20 minutes that's riveting.  So, you really get an idea what a conductor does, better than almost anything I’ve seen – and you also see why Solti and the CSO were considered so great together.

For those who only want to see and hear the symphony itself, you can jump to the 22:30 mark.  Any who just want to see the documentary part, it runs...well, 22-and-a-half minutes.  But you probably figured that out.
 
Because it's only on the CSOtv website, I can't embed it on these pages, but you can watch it here.
 
By the way, speaking of Solti and his deep connection to the Chicago Symphony brings up a fond memory. Back in 1997, ​I was home visiting Chicago and remember going to a CSO concert with my mother to what was supposed to have been Solti's 1,000th concert with the orchestra – but he’d passed away a few weeks earlier (having done 999 concerts).  They still went ahead with the scheduled festivities, but it was more a memorial than gala celebration. 

After the concert, they still had the planned reception for invited guests.  We found this out as we were leaving  and passed by a large, glass-enclosed conference room, and my mother asked the security guard at the door what it was for.  Now, for this tale to have any meaning, you must understand that my mother was 74 at the time, tiny (about 5’-2” 90 pounds), had had polio and was deeply Midwestern polite, she never swore, always went by decorum, tried to be nice to everyone, if you or she or anyone did something rude, even accidentally, it really bothered her, and she was a full-believer in apologies – the point being that she was profoundly sweet, on the frail side, and very lowkey -- but when she found out about the reception she insisted to me on getting inside.  When I explained that it just didn't seem possible, she stood her ground.  (My joke about her -- and I even said it to her -- was she was someone who wouldn't take "No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no" for an answer.  And the reason she was so insistent on getting inside was because, as she said -- I want to see Lady Solti.”  So...we actually sneaked it.  Somehow.  My recollection was that the security wasn’t very tight, to say the least, but thankfully not because it made her SO happy that she did get to see Lady Solti. 
 
I never would have imagined that she’d have wanted to sneak into anything.  But she did.  So, that’s what convinced me that it must me done.

This is a real historic treat.  Even if you don’t want to watch the whole thing (or any of it), it’s music, you can just let it play in the background.
 
A couple months ago, as I've mentioned here, the Chicago Symphony massively beefed its online presence, with their CSOtv service.  Many things are fee-based, but not everything.  (They have some free audio material -- including the podcasts I've posted here that have been excellent.)  And the other day, they sent a link to this --
 
At first I thought it was just audio, but not actually video from March 4, 1962.  It’s a televised performance the CSO gave at the WGN Studios, of all places, with its new Music Director Jean Martinon conducting and Isaac Stern as soloist.  (Though WGN is known for its decades broadcasting the Chicago Cubs, it's always been a very interesting independent local station in its efforts to provide different programming from the competing network. This was from their Great Music from Chicago series. It also speaks to how different the TV landscape was in 1962.)

By the way, to place this in additional perspective, this comes 10 months after then-FCC Chairman Newton Minow (father of our oft-mentioned Nell here...) came his famous "Television is a vast wasteland" speech.  (Delivered in Chicago, as it happens.  That was really more-directed at networks, and I don't know if it had any impact on WGN broadcasting this -- as I said, they had long done interesting counter-programming.  But it's all an interesting look at the times.

The concert is just under an hour long, and includes Handel’s Concerto grosso in G Minor, the Scherzo from Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Mozart’s First Violin Concerto featuring Stern.  It’s wonderful.  I remember when Jean Martinon was their Music Director, but I’d never seen him conduct, so this was a special treat for that.

Unfortunately, I can't embed it on the website, but you can watch it here.
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I guess we're going to make this a bit of a Chicago Symphony Day.  This evening, Saturday, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will be hosting a free, streaming event, “Sounds of Celebration: An Evening at Home with the CSO.”  This is the orchestra’s largest annual fundraising event of the year, proceeds which will benefit the CSO's community programs and other projects that go to the heart of the Orchestra’s mission.

The streaming festivities begin at 7 PM Central time.  That's 5 PM out here in Los Angeles -- or 8 PM on the East Coast.

The broadcast is hosted by the CSO's own musicians, and will include appearances from Maestro Ricardo Muti, Yo-Yo Ma, Eric Owens, Missy Mazzoli, Wynton Marsalis, Herbie Hancock, Mitsuko Uchida, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Hilary Hahn, Anita Rachvelishvili and Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute from The Office – and a fellow-alum from my New Trier High School).

Today, we have our next episode of the new InterMISSION podcast from the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  Thus far, it's been very well-done with fairly interesting stories and wonderful music in the background.

This week's piece is "Risks and Rewards."  ​Several CSO musicians share stories about the musical risks and challenges they face during a concert, and how they are able to resolve those hurdles for the audience. As the host notes, "They reveal a few places in the orchestra’s repertoire that can be troublesome, and how they approach these risky moments to perform at their best."

There's an added feature of the InterMISSION podcast which I particularly love, that takes a very good podcast and makes innto into something special..  They provide a page with a Playlist of all the music you hear during the podcast. 

They not only offer a link to snippets of the music, but also the code so that I can embed the Playlist of full movements here. 
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The second episode of the new InterMISSION @ the CSO podcast from the Chicago Symphony has now been posted, hosted by CSO horn John Hagstrom.  As they write, "James Smelser has been a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's horn section since the year 2000. He shares what many years of experience have taught him about playing second horn parts to maintain the high musical expectations of the CSO. He recalls fond memories of playing for 13 years next to the orchestra’s former principal horn, Dale Clevenger, and describes the role he now also occupies as the chairman of the CSO Members Committee."

His stories of working with Dale Clevenger, who was a legendary member of the orchestra, are particularly fun, as he tosses in his best effort at an impersonation.

​If you're at all interested in classical music, but even to a lesser degree music in general, these have been very interesting, giving insight into the personal aspect of playing in a symphony orchestra on a very high end, with generally interesting (and sometimes funny) stories and a focus on history -- all with a wonderful musical playing in the background, and to highlight what's being discussed.

I figure that as long as I'm taking a day of personal privilege to recharge, I may as well continue a bit longer and continue with the nice news.

​​I've written here in the past about my cousin Diana Leviton Gondek, who's a terrific artist in the Chicago area.  Not long ago, she was invited to participate in an exhibition, the Stola Contemporary Art show which began this past Friday.  And I mention that because I love her new work that she's using to promote the show.

For those around Chicago who might be interested in attending, you can find information here.  For those not, well...okay, you can at least just enjoy her "Dreamers."

Back around 1997, two small independent British movies were released with somewhat similar there -- a quiet English town hit with major economic troubles and layoffs, and the efforts a group takes to address those challenges.  One was a huge worldwide hit, even becoming a Broadway musical, and other did well in the U.K., but disappeared everywhere else and most people probably haven't even heard of.  I enjoyed both, though wasn't bowled over by the one that so many flocked to, but I loved the other that is unknown here.

The big hit was The Full Monty.  The other was Brassed Off.  Forget seeing it, if you even know of it, raise your hand,  Anyone??  The film had a wonderful cast, starring Ewan McGregor, Tara Fitzgerald and Pete Postlethwaite, so it's not like it didn't have actors who Americans wouldn't know of (though this was near the beginning of McGregor's career.)  It was written and directed by Mark Herman, who also wrote and directed the equally wonderful Little Voice.  (Definitely recommended with Michael Caine, Brenda Blethyn and a tour-de-force performance by Jane Horrocks, who played the ditzy 'Bubble' on Absolutely Fabulous.)  And also the farce, Blame It On the Bellboy.

As I said, the story of Brassed Off is not totally dissimilar to The Full Monty.  It's about the likely closure of the town's coal mine, which is their main sustenance.  In the center of this is the town's pride, its colliery band, which has been around for 100 years  And if the mine gets shut down, so will the band.  Its leader (played by Postlethwaite) desperately wants to keep the musicians together, at the very least to have a chance to win one final national contest.  And amid all this, Tara Fitzerald returns to town, and crosses paths with McGregor her old flame.

[UPDATE: What I meant to include, but forgot and left out mentioning is that I almost never buy movie soundtracks, maybe I've bought two or maybe three over the past 30-40 years -- and one of those is the wonderful soundtrack for "Brassed Off."]

I mention all this because I just came across my favorite scene in the film.  Oddly, it has very little to do with the plot, and is really just music.  But it's just a glorious music scene and so unexpected on several levels -- close to being a four-minute scene of just a band playing music. But what also stands out is that it's a famous guitar piece, "Concierto d'Aranjuez" by Rodrigo, arranged for, of all thngs, brass band.  And when I saw it in a theater, not only did the audience sit mesmerized, but when the scene ended, it's so beautifully played that the audience...watching a movie...burst into applause.  

The set-up is that the colliery band is and has been for 100 years all men.  And they're on the verge of breaking about.  When into their midst Tara Fitzgerald walks into the room.

It's wonderful here.  In the context of the movie, when this scene suddenly occurs -- it's rivetingly glorious.

I was going to leave it at that, but then I figured, what the heck, toss in a bonus.  So, for anyone now who might be interested in seeing the movie -- it's available on Netflix as a DVD though not for streaming -- here's the trailer.