HighNotes Links

Hello again from the Evanston Symphony Orchestra! We’re a true community orchestra, with volunteer players who all live in Evanston and nearby towns and come together for the sheer joy of making music. Please join us whenever you can, either in person when we can play together again or on YouTube in the meantime! The theme of this October issue of HighNotes is, of course, “Scary Music” and we’ve invited you to “sit back and listen to lively musical tales of ghost ships, dancing skeletons, a wild mountain, a troll king’s lair, and an apprentice who didn’t follow orders. You might want to turn on the lights, though – or even turn them off if you dare!” The links to these lively musical tales are below, as are links to some of the things mentioned in “Bygones” and other articles. (By the way, some of these pieces on YouTube start out with an ad. Just give it five seconds and click on “Skip Ad” in the lower right-hand corner of the screen.) Unfortunately, we don’t have any videos of the ESO playing the featured musical works, so have chosen links to videos and articles we think you’ll also enjoy. We hope to see you back here in November for “Americana” in music – and food!

The Flying Dutchman Overture – Richard Wagner – Here’s a link to a performance by the Chicago Symphony under the baton of Sir Georg Solti in late 1976. The ESO’s longtime General Manager, David Ellis, was in the audience and can vouch for the performance! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qhNF1R6AYk If you can’t click on the link or copy it, you can go to “YouTube.com” and search for “Wagner The Flying Dutchman Overture Solti” You’ll have a number of choices, including the full opera, but the version in the above link is “Wagner Der fliegende Hollander Overture Solti” with the title in German. We mentioned in the HighNotes article that there are several versions of the Flying Dutch- man story. You can find more information about them here: https://northatlanticblog.wordpress.com/2015/07/06/the-origins-of-the-flying-dutchman/ If you can’t click on the link or copy it, just “Google”/search for “Origins Flying Dutchman” and this will be one of the first choices you see: The Origins of the Flying Dutchman | northatlanticblog, which is the article at the above link.

Danse Macabre – Camille Saint-Saëns – If you go to YouTube and search “St Saens Danse Macabe,” you’ll get a number of choices. We quite like this one of the Philharmonia Orchestra ·conducted by Charles Dutoit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1s28gmLicc And just for fun, here’s a link to a 1980s cartoon for a PBS elementary school music class that also appears in the same search. It’s not great visual quality, but that is probably due to the differences in technology 40 years ago! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CHqhsMP80E

ESO HighNotes Links 1 of 2 Vol.1, No.4: Oct2020 Night on Bald Mountain – Modest Mussorgsky – Searching on YouTube for “Night on Bald Mountain” will bring up a number of choices . Here’s a 1994 performance in Tokyo by Maestro Claudio Abbado and the Berlin Phil- harmonic, which many people consider the best. Unfortunately, the video is a bit fuzzy, but we enjoyed watching Maestro Abbado interact with the musicians. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tu1no7hOlSs By the way, if this piece of music brings back memories of having the stuffing scared out of you as a kid, this Disney version is probably the reason! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLCuL-K39eQ

In the Hall of the Mountain King – Edvard Grieg – There are a lot of choices if you search YouTube for this piece. Here’s one from the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. It’s fun to watch Music Director Thomas Dausgaard take the orchestra through its paces! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nMUr8Rt2AI And who doesn’t want to know more about trolls? If you Google “History of Trolls, you’ll find a number of articles. We rather like this one, “A Brief History of Trolls:” http://folklorethursday.com/folktales/brief-history-trolls/

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice – Paul Dukas – This is another piece of music with choices of the concert orchestra version or the Disney version, so we’re bringing you both. In the first category is this offering from the French Radio Philharmonic conducted by Mikko Franck: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3A0JfsJt98Y In the category of Disney versions, the best one of the full sequence we could find has the introduction in Spanish. If you don’t speak Spanish, no problem! The announcer is just giving a lead-in to the plot, which you’ve already read about. And, he only speaks for 20 seconds – just enough time for two sips of coffee and a bite of a cookie! By the way, this video is interrupted by an ad at about the half-way point. Annoying, but you can just click on “Skip Ad” and you’ll be sent back to Mickey. At the very end there’s a fun little clip in silhouette of Mickey and Maestro Leopold Stokowski of the Philadelphia Orchestra congratulating one another on their fine performances! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DX2yVucz24

The Typewriter – Leroy Anderson – Typewriters are definitely in the “Bygones” cate- gory, but many of us may have a vintage Underwood, Royal or Smith-Corona gathering dust in the corner of an attic or basement or storage unit. If you come across it, you may want to try your hand at Leroy Anderson’s The Typewriter, a piece many of us played in high school or college. This particular recording by Spanish orchestra “Voces para la Paz” (Voices of Peace) is from June 12, 2011. The soloist, Alfredo Anaya, is a percus- sionist and is obviously having the time of his life. After all, how many pieces of music are there where can a percussionist be center stage and the star of the show?! https://youtu.be/G4nX0Xrn-wo

ESO HighNotes Links 2 of 2 Vol.1, No.4: Oct2020