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I just heard a wonderful concert with the Ying
Quartet last night. They did an evening of Ned
Rorem. They are a world class ensemble and they are three brothers
and a sister. All are Chinese Americans from
Chicago. What an unusual situation to see a family working together
to make a great product that brings credit, power and prosperity to their
family. Although the stereotype of the Chinese is
that they are very good with cooperation and money, this group is beyond any
stereotype. They show what can really be done when people have the
time and motivation to really work entrepreneurally together.
The Americans and English used to do that in the Victorian era before we got
this hyper-individuality and me centered approach to everything.
Their URL is http://www.yingquartet.com.
I went with the Broadway Conductor Stan Tucker who
will be conducting one of our concerts. I had gone to see the
movie Chicago the night before. It was surprising how much more
sensual this was than that obviously sexual movie. I kept thinking
how I liked both actresses as people but that the work was so over-produced and
over-technological not to mention "forced" that it almost
failed. How different to see four musicians with no extra help
to clean up the pimples simply have no pimples because of their
quality. No wonder the rich want this one of a kind product
for their own. It is like anything that is a classic but
unfortunately cannot be understood or even appreciated if the complexity in your
own head is too dense. They want to simplify the world but what
should be done is to simplify their mind through competence. I
have often refused to go to New York performances except for friends simply
because they cannot afford to properly prepare them. Two rehearsals
on a great concerto or three days on an opera is nonsense. And
the chamber music at our venerable culture palace also suffers from a lack of
time although not a lack of great talent and potential. I compare
this concert of four young people with other concerts that I saw last year that
were dry, dull and proficient and which cost three times the amount of this
ticket on the Upper West Side. Is it the Vase or the Water
Harry?
The Rorem pieces were wonderful but what was
unusual was the kind of commitment that made little masterpieces truly come
alive in great performance. We rarely get that in
American Complex Music (classical) these days. No one has the time
to practice with two and three jobs and most are unwilling to build a product
together. Everyone wants to be a star and make the "big
bucks."
The evening of Rorem and Ravel is a world
that today's children will not likely ever know. It was complicated
but the little theater on the Upper West Side was sold out with people of all
ages but mostly the elderly liberal audience. The one that the
conservatives blame for the demise of Western Classical Music. The
conservatives were there but they were musicians "on the make" shaking hands and
trying to network. The smell was too much. I had to
leave. Will talk to Ned today. I brought materials
from the Festival for him but took them home. I saw pieces of myself
in those "movers and shakers" that destroyed the power of the
evening. The inability to just participate in great art.
To release the mind and be with a community for an hour or so in time without
polluting the experience with the need to "work the crowd."
It is also amazing how "sexy" a great performance
can be if you know how to listen. If you get a chance to see
this group, don't miss them.
Ray Evans Harrell |
