Bryce Harper? Please. What instrument does HE play? We've got Teddy Abrams for another five years.

The rest of you can prattle on about your basketball coaches while I yawn and fire up the gramophone -- because here's a genuinely important contract extension.

TEDDY ABRAMS SIGNS 5-YEAR CONTRACT

Louisville, KY (3.20.2019)… The Louisville Orchestra Board of Directors, together with CEO, Robert Massey, are pleased to announce an unprecedented 5-year contract to extend the term of Teddy Abrams as Music Director. This extension from the usual 3-year contract renewal shows the organization’s confidence in the artistic direction and creative vision of the young conductor.

“We’re thrilled to make this extraordinary commitment to engaging Teddy until the 2024-2025 Season. His vision for the renaissance of the arts for our orchestra and our community is unique in the world,“ says John P. Malloy, President of the LO Board of Directors.

Abrams was named Music Director of the Louisville Orchestra in 2014, the youngest conductor ever named to that position with a major orchestra. He’s become a popular figure throughout Louisville while developing a national reputation for innovation and community building.

Since stepping onto the Louisville Orchestra podium, Abrams has built an impressive list of accomplishments including the release of “All In,” the LO’s first album in nearly 30 years, which reached #1 on the Classical Billboard chart. He has re-invigorated the orchestra’s historic leadership in commissioning new works and presenting world premieres. His own award-winning compositions have brought a diverse new audience to the Louisville Orchestra including The Greatest: Muhammad Ali, Unified Field, Kentucky Royal Fanfare (which was performed for Charles, Prince of Wales) and others. One of his first priorities was establishing a new concert series that took the orchestra into Louisville neighborhoods for performances in the Music Without Borders Series to expand the orchestra’s community impact. He also launched a 2-concert “Festival of American Music,” a musical challenge to audiences to expand the definition of concert music through an exploration of the American influences on the music of all genres.

Artistic collaboration has become a focus for Abrams’s work. Several of his most notable collaborators have been indie-rocker Jim James, Grammy-Award winning fiddler Michael Cleveland, folk singer-songwriter Will “Bonnie Prince Billy” Oldham, choreographers Adam Hoagland and Andrea Schermoly, filmmakers Dennis Scholl and Owsley Brown III, and many more. Abrams’s efforts to bring the Louisville arts community into collaborative projects have resulted in exceptional performances featuring individuals and local organizations including Louisville Ballet, University of Louisville musicians from the choral and jazz programs, artists from the Kentucky College of Art and Design, independent local artists such as rapper Jecorey “1200” Arthur, folk fiddler Scott Moore, folk cellist Ben Sollee, jazz singer Carly Johnson and others.

A passionate advocate for music education and mentoring, Abrams regularly conducts in-school masterclasses at middle and high schools, launched a select program to personally support serious high school students in their music pursuits, revitalized the Louisville Orchestra’s 78-year-old MakingMUSIC program of education concerts for elementary school children, crafted a recycling-creativity project for youngsters to make musical instruments from “trash” known as “Landfill Orchestra,” and is currently working with the Detroit-based Sphinx Organization (dedicated to transforming lives through the power of diversity in the arts) to mentor two talented young conductors.

In addition to his activities as Music Director for the Louisville Orchestra, Abrams is Music Director for the Britt Festival, a summer concert series based in Jacksonville, Oregon. He is in demand as a guest conductor and has appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, the National Orchestra, and the orchestras in Houston, Milwaukee, Vancouver, Colorado, Phoenix and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He served as assistant conductor of the Detroit Symphony from 2012 to 2014. From 2008 to 2011, Abrams was the Conducting Fellow and Assistant Conductor of the New World Symphony in Miami Beach, serving under his long-time mentor Michael Tilson Thomas.

An accomplished pianist and clarinetist, Abrams has appeared as soloist in Louisville and across the country. He also collaborates with a wide variety of musicians as keyboardist for both classical, indie-rock and pop concerts. He has held residencies at the La Mortella music festival in Ischia, Italy, and at the American Academy in Berlin. Abrams is a proud alumnus of the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra and graduated from the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with a bachelor of music degree, having studied piano with Paul Hersh.

4 shows for only 65 bucks: The Louisville Orchestra's 2018-2019 Neighborhood Series at the Ogle Center.

I've already re-upped our subscription for the forthcoming Louisville Orchestra four-pack at the Paul W. Ogle Center. For music fans, this package is one of the most overlooked entertainment bargains in New Albany, bar none.

For most New Albanians, it's only minutes to campus of Indiana University Southeast on the north side (4201 Grant Line Road), where the parking for these shows is free. The venue is excellent and intimate; your view of the orchestra will be up close and personal.

Here's the schedule, and tickets are available at the LO's web site.

KENTUCKY STRINGS
SAT 13 OCT 2018 | 7:30PM

1812 OVERTURE
SAT 19 JAN 2019 | 7:30PM

AN EVENING IN ITALY
SAT 2 MAR 2019 | 7:30PM

WILLIAM TELL
and OTHER OVERTURES
SUN 14 APR 2019 | 3PM

Roger's Year in Music, 2018: The onset of a bimonthly roundup of the music playing in my head (January/February).

Previously I threw my hands into the air, made a belated list of favorites, and called it good for 2017.

The long awaited and much belated account of Roger's Year in Music, 2017.

In 2018, the revised plan calls for a musical recap every two months. Will I stick to the regimen? Beats me, but it's worth a try.

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I cannot fathom how I've managed to miss The Charlatans -- not just the band's most recent album from 2017, but its entire career since the early 1990s.

From the offset, 'Different Days' is an album drenched in colour. Opener 'Hey Sunshine' bursts with lavish kaleidoscopic synths, whilst The War On Drugs-esque follow up 'Solutions' drives with zealous passion. Elsewhere on the LP, 'Let's Go Together' and 'Not Forgotten' are the record's most anthemic moments and see The Charlatans rising in a concoction of electric organs and Madchester swagger.

Music like this is my sweet spot, so it's time to catch up.

Conversely, I'm fully aware of Travis, which was the opening act for Oasis the first time I saw the Brothers Gallaghers at the then-Murat in Indianapolis. Like The Charlatans, Travis came on the scene around 1990.

I completely missed Everything at Once, the 2016 release.

In a packed-to-the-rafters north London venue, Travis are launching their (latest) comeback in an ultra-Travis manner: playing two sold-out shows in one evening in a pub. No stunt-casting venue-hire or fan-teasing viral gimmickry required.

Thanks for the tip, Joe. It's a stellar collection of songs.

Another missing link in recent years is the Len Price 3 (a tip of the hat to Shea). Last year's album was Kentish Longtails, and at Louder Than War, Ged Babey hones in.

There seem to be a lot of targets the band unleash their vitriol on in their songs; Trendy Camden bands, social climbers and flash bastards, bullshitters, liars, female airheads with debatable morals, ‘screen zombies’, vacuous Pop-puppets. Eight songs out of fourteen are venomous attacks on the people they ‘hate’. The word ‘morons’ appears in two songs. This almost puts me off the band a bit – but then, most of the targets deserve the abuse they get.

The beautiful thing about the Len Price 3 is that one needs only hear the opening chords of a song to know what lies ahead, so brief samples suffice. The band has been compared to early-days-old-school Kinks and The Who, and it's easy to see why.





The catchiest song of the year to my quivering ears comes from Django Django:

Django Django and Self Esteem’s new video is synth-pop magic; Rebecca Taylor of Slow Club guests on “Surface To Air.”

In the ear worm rankings, Django Django is followed closely by this anthem of disaffection from South London's post-punk group Shame.

They’re as ferocious as their acknowledged inspirations the Fall; even when the guitars aren’t turned up to a jet roar, Steen’s furious sneer gives them urgency (“My voice ain’t the best you’ve heard / And you can choose to hate my words / But do I give a fuck?” he asks on One Rizla). Best of all, though, they have huge, anthemic tunes to go with the anger.

I rediscovered the joys of both Franz Ferdinand and Sparks when the two bands produced the FFS collaboration in 2015:

This is not a meeting of equals, and it doesn't have to be. It's a marquee-name band throwing their weight behind a cult act that clearly inspired them—and the cult act showing who's really in charge.

FFS had the salutary effect of causing me to positively reassess both bands; I could hear echoes of Alex Kapranos in last year's Hippopotamus by Sparks, and now I think of the Mael brothers while listening to Franz Ferdinand. It's not a bad thing at all.

When Manic Street Preachers were promoting Futurology in 2014, James Dean Bradfield and Nicky Wire were unstinting in their praise for the Scottish band Simple Minds as a major formative influence.

The shadow of Simple Minds’ early work shrouds the record, ‘Dreaming A City’ is a bona fide steal of ‘Theme for Great Cities’ and lead single, ‘Walk Me To The Bridge’, openly acknowledges singer/guitarist James Dean Bradfield thoughts, “Simple Minds were crystalline gods to me.” Yet, the Manics have not created a clumsy homage to those electronic art-rock records: the sound is genuine, and these pieces are emblematic of the whole record.

Americans tend to think of Simple Minds as a one hit wonder courtesy of "Don’t You (Forget About Me)" in 1985, but the truth is considerably more extensive. As more than one reviewer notices, Simple Minds has been far more successful at preserving its classic sound amid changing times, while still adapting and reinventing around the edges, than a band like U2.

The latter might choose at some point to select a single producer and make an actual rock record, but I'm finished holding my breath. Meanwhile, Simple Minds is sounding great.

The strange, accomplished and hypnotic sound of Wild Beasts has intrigued me since Two Dancers, released on my birthday in 2009. I don't listen often, but certain occasions beg for it.

The group's new (and last) album following the announcement in late 2017 that it would be disbanding is called Last Night All My Dreams Came True. It's a "live in the studio" collection of reworked previous songs, and to be honest, I've have preferred a benedictory offering of new material.

By means of introduction to Insecure Men, this excerpt from the review by Alexis Petridis of The Guardian.

It’s seldom that anything involving Fat White Family comes with a heartwarming story attached. They are, after all, a band who describe themselves as “an invitation, sent by misery, to dance to the beat of human hatred”, whose artistic obsession with the ugliness of life is apparently reflected behind the scenes. Their music springs from a grimy personal world of penury, mental torment and hard drug use: “heartwarming” isn’t really on the agenda.

And yet, there is something at least vaguely cheering about the story behind the eponymous album by Insecure Men, a project that really came to life when the band’s chief songwriter, Saul Adamczewski, was asked to leave temporarily after – and this is a very Fat White Family kind of story – refusing to vacate the Paris venue the band were playing on the night of the Bataclan attack because he’d arranged to meet a heroin dealer there later on.

After a fairly harrowing spell in rehab, Adamczewski emerged not only clean, but eager to make music more tuneful and less unsavoury than the oeuvre of Fat White Family, in the company of his schoolfriend Ben Romans-Hopcraft.

Adamczewski has this to say about Sean Lennon, who produced the record.

We’re really close friends and I love working with him, and I’d rather work with him than anyone else, he’s my favourite person to work with. He hasn’t got much of an ego. He’s just happy to nurture people’s ideas – even if they’re crap – all the way to the end until they realise they’re crap.

That's beautiful.

Finally, we heard the Danish String Quartet on NPR last fall, and apparently so did everyone else, because it took three months to get Last Leaf on back order.

An Old Danish Dance In The Key Of Melancholy, by Tom Huizenga

Classical and folk music continue to intermingle in fascinating ways. The intersections stretch back far beyond Bach, who cleverly slipped a German folk song into his Goldberg Variations. Later, composers like Ralph Vaughan Williams and Béla Bartók combed the countryside, collecting tunes from villagers. And a recent piece, Steel Hammer, by Pulitzer-winner Julia Wolfe, draws inspiration from the folk ballad "John Henry."

The members of the Danish String Quartet also have affection for folk. They are plenty happy playing Haydn and Brahms, but their new album, Last Leaf, is entirely devoted to old Nordic folk melodies and dances, which they've arranged for string quartet. The oldest date to around 1300, but there are newer ones, and even a couple faux-folk tunes composed by the group's cellist Fredrik Schøyen Sjölin.

Very compelling, this mixture.

Now, a selection of video documentaries, interviews and concerts. First, Propagandhi, a veteran Canadian band occupying the intersection of the musical and the political.

On the flight back from Porto, I watched The Rolling Stones performing Sticky Fingers Live at the Fonda Theatre 2015.

Rolling Stones fans who snagged one of the precious few tickets to catch the legendary British rockers performing a secret show on May 20, 2015, in Los Angeles at the historic Fonda Theatre were given a truly rare treat. The Stones performed their classic 1971 studio album Sticky Fingers for the first time ever in its entirety and those who missed out can finally get their first view of the show when “Sticky Fingers Live At The Fonda Theatre 2015” drops on Sept. 29 via Eagle Rock.

The video contains band member interviews and background, helping to explain why the set list is re-arranged from the original running order on the 1971 album -- and failing to solve the question of exactly whose zipper was featured on the LP's cover. To put it simply, the performance reveals a band of old-timers still capable of surprises in an intimate setting, if not in the stadiums. Specifically, Stones fans will enjoy guitarist Ron Wood's channeling of material that featured Mick Taylor, a very different lead player.

Having announced a seemingly endless final tour prior to retirement, my attention was drawn to a 2010 BBC documentary about Reg Dwight's climb to the top.

The Making of Elton John: Madman Across the Water (BBC)

Documentary exploring Elton John's childhood, apprenticeship in the British music business, sudden stardom in the US at the dawn of the 70s and his musical heyday. Plus the backstory to the album reuniting him with Leon Russell, his American mentor. Features extensive exclusive interviews with Elton, plus colleagues and collaborators including Bernie Taupin, Leon Russell and others.

Finally, as referred to previously, two hours of a dinosaur band playing a set list composed of songs I've heard hundreds of times, performed by a couple of guys in their early 70s.

At one point, Townshend held up his signature Stratocaster in the soupy fog and in a nod to Woody Guthrie said, “This red guitar kills fascists!”

Pete Townshend has told numerous interviewers that somewhere in the middle of The Who's 50th anniversary concert tour, he began feeling renewed seeing large numbers of young people in the crowd. Seems the pedant in one of rock's finest songwriters again felt the need to begin dispensing education along with the music.

Swap power chords for beer, and I can relate to this sentiment. Here are a few other posts about music that appeared in January and February, 2018.

Focus on Portugal: Learn about the music called Fado.

Cream documentaries: Beware of Mr. Baker and Jack Bruce: The Man Behind the Bass.

Drinking songs and other music by Brahms at Saturday's Louisville Orchestra performance at the Ogle.

Forecastle steps in it.

Just in case you're wondering what Katie Toupin's been doing.

THE BEER BEAT: "The Drinking Bout in the Cathedral Porch," or why it's time to make the Feast of Fools great again on New Year's Day.

First Friday Concert at the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library: Myra Craig and Owen Heritage, this Friday (March 3) at noon.

I've known Myra for a long time, and it's great to see her take advantage of the chance to perform music from the classical repertoire at the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library. Kudos to the library for staging these shows. Count me in, although I'm not sure about where to score lunch. Alas, I'm sure beer isn't allowed.

First Friday Concert: Myra Craig & Owen Heritage
March 2, 2018
180 West Spring Street, New Albany, IN 47150
812-949-3522

Free lunchtime concert held the first Friday of the month at 12:00 noon at the New Albany-Floyd County Public Library. March 2nd: Myra Craig (viola), Owen Heritage (piano). Program: Suite for Viola and Piano (Ralph Vaughan Williams); Suite no. 3 for Cello (J.S. Bach) – transcribed for viola; Sonata for Viola and Piano No. 1 (Christopher M. Wicks).

The First Friday Concerts are free and open to the public, and no registration is required. Feel free to bring your lunch. The concerts are co-sponsored by the Kentuckiana Association of Musicians and Singers, and Hastie Piano Service.

The Louisville Orchestra's "War + Peace" program will be performed this Friday and Saturday at the Kentucky Center.

There'll also be a "coffee concert" with the same program at the Kentucky Center on Friday morning (February 2) at 11:00 a.m. I'm not sure we'll be able to make either of these, but I encourage readers to get the LO back on your radar. The event calendar is here.

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CLASSICS: WAR + PEACE

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 2018 @ 8:00 PM

SAT 3 FEB :: Themes of heroism, bravery, lost companions and even life and death come together in a dramatic and moving program. Composer Sebastian Chang collaborates with Iraqi artist Vian Sora to create a new work based on Ms. Sora’s personal experience.

CHARLES IVES: They Are There!RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS:  Dona Nobis Pacem, Mvt. 2 “Beat! Beat! Drums!”CLAUDIO MONTEVERDI: Madrigals of War and Love (selections)
SERGEI PROKOFIEV:  Waltz from War and Peace
SEBASTIAN CHANG: Between Heaven and Earth   A collaboration with Vian Sora  [WORLD PREMIERE]
ARNOLD SCHOENBERG:  A Survivor from WarsawGUSTAV MAHLER:  “Revelge” from Des Knaben WunderhornARVO PÄRT: Summa for Choir
SAMUEL BARBER:  Adagio for Strings
MAURICE RAVEL: La Valse

TEDDY ABRAMS, conductor

KENT HATTEBERG, chorusmaster
Louisville Chamber Choir
U of L Collegiate Chorale
Chad Sloan, narrator + vocalist
Vian Sora, visual artist

Deanna Hoying’s interview with Teddy Abrams, Sebastian Chang, and Vian Sora can be found here.

Program notes can be found here.

Date: Saturday, February 3, 2018

Time: 8:00 pm

Venue: Kentucky Center, 501 W Main St., Louisville, 40202 United States

Drinking songs and other music by Brahms at Saturday's Louisville Orchestra performance at the Ogle.

There's a reason I'm always riffing on the same refrain. Last evening, it was time for another Louisville Orchestra concert at the Paul W. Ogle Cultural & Community Center at IU Southeast.

Inspired by the mountains and countryside of Austria, Brahms wrote his Second Symphony — a work that evokes both victory and peace. The composer wrote his Academic Festival Overture as a “thank you” for an honorary degree. It’s a sparkling mix of student drinking songs that were popular in the era and offered a cheeky response to the “serious” occasion.

JOHANNES BRAHMS: Academic Festival Overture
JOHANNES BRAHMS: Symphony No. 2 in D Major

I've always enjoyed the story behind the Academic Festival Overture, which Brahms wrote for the occasion of an honorary degree bestowed on him by the University of Braslau.

No doubt the premiere was intended to be a solemn occasion. As an unspoken reciprocation of their award, the University of Breslau had anticipated that Brahms, one of the greatest living composers (albeit one who had not attended college), would write a suitable new work to be played at the award ceremony. There is little doubt that what he provided confounded his hosts’ expectations. Rather than composing some ceremonial equivalent of Pomp and Circumstance—a more standard response—Brahms crafted what he described as a “rollicking potpourri of student songs,” in this case mostly drinking songs. It is easy to imagine the amusement of the assembled students, as well as the somewhat less-amused reaction of the school dignitaries, to Brahms’s lighthearted caprice.

It's very reminiscent of my academic career at IU Southeast.

But seriously, the concert on Saturday night (conducted by Teddy Abrams) was the third of four "neighborhood" appearances by the LO at Ogle this season, and reiterating, the Confidentials adore the convenience of the orchestra in our backyard.

Both the LO's series and the venue itself are chronically underrated assets for the city of New Albany.

Happy birthday, Suomi. Now, for some Sibelius.

Finland is 100 years old as of the 6th of December.

The legal basis for Finland's subjugation within the Russian empire evaporated when the Romanov dynasty fell during the first of two Russian revolutions in 1917. Professor Barry picks up the story in November of 1917.

Independence was actually granted by VI Lenin and his Bolshevik regime less than one month after seizing power and overthrowing the Duma government in November. Lenin admired the Finns and appreciated the fact that friends there had sheltered and hid him at least twice in the past after he had fled for his life from the Tsarist and Duma Regimes.

The composer Jean Sibelius wrote Finlandia with his country's national awakening in mind.

Finlandia is probably the most widely known of all the compositions of Jean Sibelius. Most people with even a superficial knowledge of classical music recognise the melody immediately. The penultimate hymn-like section is particularly familiar and soon after it was published the Finlandia Hymn was performed with various words as far afield as the USA.

The views of Finland's natural beauty seen in the video are stellar, indeed. In 2016, we didn't have time to make it past Helsinki, but I'm hoping to rectify this in the future.

Happy birthday, Suomi.

"The Louisville Orchestra opens its 80th Season with a FREE Concert at Iroquois Amphitheater."

It's a verbatim press release from the Louisville Orchestra, reminding me to get my performance calendar back into shape.

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The Louisville Orchestra opens its 80th Season with a FREE Concert at Iroquois Amphitheater

On Saturday, September 9, the Louisville Orchestra will perform a FREE concert led by Principal Pops Conductor, Bob Bernhardt. The concert will begin at 7PM at the Iroquois Amphitheater and will feature pieces and excerpts from the upcoming Classics, Coffee, and Pops concerts.

The program is as diverse as the LO’s 80th season and ranges from Beethoven to the Beatles. The Iroquois Amphitheater is a beautiful venue for this light and casual event.

• Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 7, Mvt. IV (Finale)
• Ludwig van Beethoven Symphony No. 7, Mvt. II (Funeral March)
• Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5, Mvt. III (Waltz)
• Gioachino Rossini “Largo al factotum” from The Barber of Seville, Chad Sloan, baritone
• John Williams “Harry’s Wondrous World” from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
• Samuel Barber Adagio for Strings
• Leonard Bernstein Overture to West Side Story
• (arr. Maurice Peress)
• John Lennon/Paul McCartney Yesterday
• Teddy Abrams Unified Field, Mvt. IV
• Gustav Holst “Jupiter” from The Planets

This concert is free and fun for the whole family thanks to the generosity of Caldwell Tanks. Parking is $5.

Single tickets for the Louisville Orchestra’s 80th Season are now on sale! Call 502.584.7777 or click here for a schedule of concerts.

Multiple subscription options are also still available for discount ticket packages for the upcoming season. Call the LO Patron Services at 502.587.8681 or visit LouisvilleOrchestra.org. LO staff will be at the event to fulfill all subscription needs and answer any questions about upcoming concerts.

September Snapshot

9.9.17 | Season Preview | Iroquois Amphitheater | 7pm | More Info9.16.17 | Sgt. Pepper’s at the LO Pops | Kentucky Center | 8pm | Tickets | Info9.23.17 | Yuja Wang Plays Rachmaninoff | Kentucky Center | 8pm | Tickets | Info9.27.17 | Mostly Mozart | Kentucky Country Day School | 7:30pm | Tickets | Info9.28. 17 | Mostly Mozart | Ursuline Arts Center | 7:30pm | Tickets | Info9.30.17 | Mostly Mozart | Paul W. Ogle Center at IUS | 7:30pm | Tickets | Info

The Louisville Orchestra is sponsored by the Fund for the Arts, The Kentucky Arts Council, and the Association of the Louisville Orchestra.

Brown-Forman sponsors the 2017/18 Classics Series.

LG+E Sponsors the 2017/18 Pops Series and the Music Without Borders Series.

Hilliard Lyons sponsors the 2017/18 Coffee Series.

Zoltán Kodály! Floyd Central's symphony orchestra wins a state championship.

This just might be the best video I ever posted, because it's Doug Elmore and his FCHS orchestra students in the process of winning a state championship -- and while I probably don't know any of the players, Doug's a helluva guy.

He's also one of only a few people around who understands why I'm pumped that the orchestra's winning program included music by Zoltán Kodály.

Congrats to all!

(that's right ... an exclamation mark ... told you it's important)

PHOTO: ORCHESTRATING MASTERY: Floyd Central symphony orchestra wins state title (special to the N and T)

The Floyd Central High School Symphony Orchestra was crowned ISSMA State Champions at Pike High School Indianapolis on Saturday. The Floyd Central A Capella Choir finished third and the Concert Band placed ninth. The orchestra is conducted by Doug Elmore, the choir directed by Angela Hampton and the band byHarold Yankey.

Music played: "Intermezzo" from the Hary Janos Suite by Zoltan Kodaly; Symphony No. 4, movement 4 by Tchaikovsky' Enigma Variations, Variation No. 9 by Edward Elgar. The orchestra has been to the state finals 28 consecutive times and last won in 1995. It placed runner up in 1996, 1998 and 2016.

Rejuvenating contemporary classical music? Count me in.

Our flight from Detroit landed at 9:00 p.m. on Saturday night. Thunder Over Louisville's fireworks began promptly at 9:30 p.m., and I was grimly determined to be home as quickly as possible.

Once securely barricaded and with whiskey in hand, I laughed out loud at my social media feed. It appeared that most of my friends under the age of 45 loved the locally themed music during the fireworks, or at least grasped the merit of it, while those my age and older were bitterly critical.

Aw ... would more classic rock help y'all feel better?

Speaking only for myself, since Thunder is an annoying distraction far beyond its musical component, which quite likely is the display's only redeeming quality, I was thrilled to know Teddy Abrams was involved.

Finally, something sensible.

Teddy Abrams is stepping up his role with Thunder Over Louisville, by Carolyn Tribble Greer (Louisville Business First)

Now we know the theme for this year's Thunder Over Louisville — "Thunder: Local & Original." The theme will help direct the soundtrack for the fireworks display, which will feature the music of Louisville and Kentucky natives ...

... Teddy Abrams, conductor and music director for the Louisville Orchestra, will collaborate with Thunder's producer, Wayne Hettinger. Abrams researched and created dozens of music tracks for this year's soundtrack, according to the release. The Louisville Orchestra also will be included in the soundtrack.

Coincidentally, this soon-to-be-forgotten tempest in a spittoon accompanies an article from The Economist I'd previously slated for a link.

For my money, Abrams is doing a great job of taking "classical" music to the masses, as it were. As Prospero's essay concludes, "What classical music—especially the contemporary kind—needs to thrive among 21st-century audiences may not be pre-concert cocktail receptions or other incentives. It may simply need a completely different concert format."

Rejuvenating contemporary classical music, by Prospero (The Economist)

Different concert formats may help to attract new fans

... Yet (Steve) Reich enjoyed an attentive crowd in Tallinn; chances were they didn’t realise they were listening to contemporary classical music. “People want to hear things that have a concept attached to them,” explains Kristjan Järvi, the Estonian conductor who performed the pieces with his Baltic Sea Philharmonic. Mr Järvi’s idea for the concert, where Mr Reich’s unusually crowd-pleasing interpretation of Radiohead songs formed the centrepiece, was to create an all-round experience of music and light design. The performance took place not in a concert hall but in a former power station now functioning as a creative hub. “Concert hall lighting has all the atmosphere of a dentist’s office,” Mr Järvi says. And, he argues, “traditional classical concerts only appeal to a certain crowd, people who have been introduced to classical music by their parents.”

About that Friday evening in March with Teddy Abrams and the Louisville Orchestra at the Ogle Center.

Last night we went to IU Southeast and attended the Louisville Orchestra's performance at the Ogle Center. It was wonderful, but first, a few bars of history.

There was a time during the 1990s, extending into the early twos, when I knew about the LO primarily from being pals (and having beers) with Sid King, who played double bass with the orchestra at the time.

Sid had various dealings with the music department at IU Southeast, where I attended university. The fact of my existence as owner/bartender testified to the power of the philosophy degree pinned to the wall nearest the Guinness tap.

Sid came into the Public House often (though judiciously, of course, and sometimes he even ate food). He brought his musician friends, and this led to the unprecedented cultural phenomenon of the Butt-head Bass Quartet's annual Christmas shows, which is a topic for another time.

They're good memories. Sid and I used to have long chats about the importance of bringing "formal" music to the masses where they drink, riffing on the notion of Paganini standing atop a table in a dive somewhere in Europe two centuries ago and orchestrating happy hour with his bow.

We never got around to implementing any of these ideas, but that's the nature of pub chat, and the point of this digression is to celebrate the LO's creative outreach into the community by playing venues such as the Ogle Center.

The craziness of my existence has abated to an extent that we're able to get back into a routine when it comes to the LO's performances, and while it's certainly not far to drive to downtown Louisville for music, the hop to IU Southeast is even quicker. It reinforces my undergraduate experience there, long before the Ogle Center was built, and it reminds me of the 1990s with Sid and the pub.

Last evening's program was entertaining and educational. The full orchestra opened with Mozart's overture from The Magic Flute (premiered in 1791), and closed with Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1, known as the Classical Symphony (1918).

The dates are important, because while the milieu of Mozart justifies the "classical" shorthand, Prokofiev's symphony is said to have been written in a classical style, but during the "modern" era -- or, as a "neo-classical" work.

One needn't know the difference to enjoy the music. As a pedant, I like learning the differences because it helps me enjoy the music even more. Of course, you're free to close your eyes and be transported to any happy place you like.

Between Mozart and Prokofiev, the LO broke down into sections and performed music intended to showcase brass, woodwinds and strings. This was a delightful opportunity to hear the nuances brought by individual instruments to the sum total of the collective.

Conductor Teddy Abrams noted that only percussion didn't get a star turn, but I rectified this upon returning home by going to YouTube and watching one of the "Neil Peart in isolation" videos.

I especially appreciated Abrams' effort to explain the universal appeal of Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings, which I've always regarded as the finest eulogy ever, to be played during the pause just before the world ends and the cosmic video screen dissolves to test pattern.

Somber, yes; but also uplifting.

The Adagio is something you feel, and it doesn't matter whether the feelings it engenders can be described with mere words. My mother died two weeks ago, and at some point I looked at the LO's program for the show we'd scheduled before she left, and saw the Adagio listed.

It wouldn't have been her kind of music, not exactly, but Barber's work certainly qualifies as precisely the sort of lamentation and celebration that I needed after her Thursday visitation service, on a Friday evening at the Ogle Center, thinking about life's joys and sorrows and long it's been since Sid and I had a beer together.

When all the threads start weaving themselves and there's music to make sense of the loom -- these are the best times of a all.

The Louisville Orchestra, documentary films and musical scores.

One of our household goals for the coming year is to attend more performances of the orchestra, the opera and the ballet.

As a preview of opportunities coming soon, here is the Louisville Orchestra's latest information via e-mail.

Classic Film + Music

Creating a new film for an old score and a new score for an old film. 

Louisville, KY  (February 1, 2017)…On Saturday, February 25 at 8PM at the Kentucky Center, Teddy Abrams and the Louisville Orchestra will perform the live musical accompaniment to a world premiere documentary, followed by a new score to a groundbreaking classic film.

A NEW FILM FOR AN OLD SCORE:: Teddy approached filmmakers Dennis Scholl and Marlon Johnson with the offer, “You can make a film about anything you want so long as it relates to the piece by Debussy called Jeux, (‘Games’).” After a visit to Louisville and a trip to the Louisville Slugger Museum, Johnson and Scholl found such rich footage and images in the Museum’s archives, that they were determined create a documentary about the making of the famed baseball bat. Their new 19-minute film is titled Les Outils du Jeu (“Tools of the Game”) and follows the creation of a bat from a tree in the forest to the hands of historic heavy-hitters like Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron.

A NEW SCORE FOR AN OLD FILM:: Nathan Farrington and Sebastian Chang have created a new soundtrack for the classic 1925 epic silent film Battleship Potemkin using more than 20 different scores from composers such as Beethoven, Bach, Mahler, and Stravinsky. Farrington said, “The movie itself is one of the most important pieces of cinema ever produced. It’s a groundbreaking piece of Russian propaganda about 1905 Russian Revolution and it continues to inform movie making today. We are excited to present this incredible picture in a fresh and relevant way.”

2016/17 Brown-Forman Classics + Treyton Oak Towers Coffee Concerts:

All Concerts at Kentucky Center’s Whitney Hall

 Classic Film + Music–SAT 25 FEB 

Sacred + Profane– FRI 10 MAR + SAT 11 MAR

Walton + Britten – FRI 31 MAR + SAT 1 APR

Festival of American Music I: Celebration of MTT – SAT 15 APR

Festival of American Music II: American Journey – FRI 28 APR + SAT 29 APR

All programs, dates, times and venues are subject to change.

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Brown-Forman Classics CLASSIC FILM + MUSIC

In collaboration with the Speed Art Museum’s Concert Series and the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts.

Saturday, February 25, 2017

8pm || Kentucky Center

Tickets $75 $55 $40 $27 

Call 502-584-7777 or visit LouisvilleOrchestra.Org

LO Concert Talk 7pm in the Mary Anderson Room

Teddy Abrams, conductor

Achille-Claude Debussy (1862 - 1918 Paris, France)

Jeux (“Games”) Premiered on May 15, 1913 with the Ballets Russes at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris.

Les Outils Du Jeu (“The Tools of the Game”) a documentary by Dennis Scholl + Marlon Johnson about the creation of a Louisville Slugger.

Sergi Eisenstein, Film Director (1898 - 1948 Moscow, Soviet Union)

Battleship Potemkin 1925 silent film (see the full film here)

A new score created by Nathan Farrington and Sebastian Chang.

The controversial and enigmatic Herbert von Karajan, rock star of the classics.

I forget the exact number quoted in this documentary, but at some point during the conductor Herbert von Karajan's long career, an appreciable percentage of the world's classical music album sales could be attributed to him.

Von Karajan also was a member of the Nazi Party in pre-WWII Germany. Was his allegiance indicative of true belief, or was it for the sake of career advancement alone? As time marches on, it's easy to forget that being a Nazi was a post-war deal breaker -- unless it wasn't, with the criteria for determination quite elastic.

The film deals far less with political commitment than one man's colossal ego. Deserved, or not? Along the way, there is much good music.

Karajan's Magic and Myth (BBC)

Over twenty-five years after his death in July 1989, the controversial Austrian conductor Herbert von Karajan remains an enigma. He was the most successful conductor in the history of classical music. Many of those recordings - of Italian opera, of Wagner and Richard Strauss, of Sibelius, Beethoven and Brahms - are treasured by music lovers around the world. Yet, even at the peak of his fame, his performances were variously criticised for being too opulent, too manicured, lacking warmth or spiritual depth.

This musical profile explores the many paradoxes in the life and music of this controversial figure, who forged his international reputation in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra shortly after the end of the Second World War and went on to reign supreme in the classical music world during his three decades with the Berlin Philharmonic. The film also examines Karajan's belief in the visual power of music, and his determination to leave behind a substantial legacy of music on film.

Karajan was famous not only for his music, but also his glittering off-duty moments on the ski slopes, piloting his own jet, sailing his yacht and driving top-of-the-range fast cars. Yet, at the same time, he was a solitary man with few friends, who drew his strength from long walks in the Austrian mountains.

In this feature-length profile, the first ever made about Karajan for BBC Television, those who worked closely with Karajan, including singers Placido Domingo and Jessye Norman, violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, conductors Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Sir Neville Marriner and flautist Sir James Galway, speak of his almost magical power as a conductor and the reality that lay behind the Karajan myth.

Non-review: Pinchas Zukerman and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Tuesday, January 12.

Shocking as it seems, there was a time not so long ago when we'd have been able to reference a review of this concert, as published in the Courier-Journal on the following day. Those sorts of intellectual flourishes have gone the way of music and arts in schools.

You don't think there's a connection, do you?

We were delighted to be on hand for the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's performance on Tuesday evening at the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts.

Pinchas Zukerman conducted and was the soloist on Beethoven's Violin Concerto in A, which was preceded by the "Egmont" Overture (Beethoven) and followed after the intermission by Elgar's Enigma Variations.

I don't possess the training and qualifications to offer a genuine review, apart from observing that Zukerman seemed to be wringing that violin's neck quite convincingly during his showcase. Indeed, pop culture's nods to devils, fiddles and the selling of souls genuinely predate even Charlie Daniels.

It made me think of the similarities and differences between such solos during an orchestral concert, compared to, say, Ritchie Blackmore or Eddie Van Halen at a rock show.

Happy Hour-priced sushi, sides and libations at Sapporo on 4th Street (5:00 p.m. - 6:30 p.m.) may have rendered us nicely mellow, and yet it seemed to be an uncommonly enjoyable evening. In spare moments, I found myself speculating about the logistics of a symphonic orchestra's tour; surely it would take three or four buses for 65 players, their instruments and whatever support personnel are along for the ride.

The demographic composition of the orchestra audiences always fascinates me. This one almost entirely white, and mostly old, but not as much as I thought it would be.

The conclusion: My career of attending pop/rock spectacles could be over. We may begin prioritizing orchestra, opera and Ogle Center come autumn. Not that I'd turn down a Maccabees or Jezabels ticket if either of those two groups ever came to Louisville.

Alice Cooper on the classical composers: "These guys were out of their minds."

Alice Cooper and Keith Moon. None were as crazy as Moon the Loon.

It probably depends on what the meaning of "crazy" is.

These classical writers were insane, when you think of how crazy they were. These guys were out of their minds. They were just eaten by this music, they were mentally insane over it. They were the rock stars of their time. But I think they would have been a lot crazier than we were.

Alice Cooper may have been an alcoholic, now long since dry, but I'm not sure he ever was crazy. When I saw him perform in Louisville, circa early-2000-something (the time before that was 1977), he seemed to me the last of the vaudevillians. Not that I doubt his sincerity in promoting classical music; as he makes clear, the quality of timelessness hops genres, and constructing memorable music spans them.

Alice Cooper: 'These classical composers were crazier than me!', by Tom Service (The Guardian)

Alice Cooper has been many things in his time: a rock god, a chicken-chucker, a guillotine-operator, a welcomer of nightmares – and now, it seems, a dewy-eyed advocate for the teaching of classical music in schools. Seriously. In a recording studio in central London, Cooper is embarking on one of the most unlikely projects of his half-century tenure as the world’s shock-rocker-in-chief: he’s providing the narration for a new recording of a Prokofiev classic, although his version is called Peter and the Wolf in Hollywood.

ON THE AVENUES: The musical year 2012 (part two).

ON THE AVENUES: The musical year 2012 (part two).

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Purportedly, this second segment of my annual review of music was supposed to be devoted to listings of classical, world music and jazz, as intended to illustrate the sublime well-roundedness of my artistic taste.

This time around, you’ll have to take my word for it, because no new ground was broken in the year recently passed. There was stasis. So it goes. It remains a matter of overt pride and personal enrichment for me that all types of music can be enthralling at any given time, in a certain place, and according to variable moods.

For example, at some undisclosed point each year on a Saturday, I switch on WUOL-90.5 and listen to an opera broadcast from the Met. It doesn’t even matter which opera it is, because I don’t know enough about the genre to be selective. If nothing else, it helps to keep the Marx Brothers satire alive.

Elsewhere, my favorite classical works – medieval music, Smetana, chamber works, Shostakovich – are revisited regularly. These come from my own CD collection, and also via WUOL, for which I am thankful, and need to get back to supporting with some real money in 2013.

My world travel schedule has taken a hiatus in recent years, but music from the remainder of the planet still features regularly on my play list. I browse Internet radio stations and YouTube, delve into the CD collection, and make pairings: Fado for a Port night, or Dengue Fever with Asian cuisine. In fact, the Cambodian-American band’s documentary, “Sleepwalking Through the Mekong,” was a 2012 milestone, and I regret coming to it so tardily.

And then there are my first true loves, jazz and swing, the prototypically American musical styles I literally was raised to appreciate. Alas, I have been profligate of late. In 2012, the death of Dave Brubeck probably served as the only reminder of jazz for many observers of the Lady Gaga cohort, and while sad, it’s not unexpected. Perhaps 2013 finally will be the year when I muster the necessary organization to wire the WCTU Reading Room at Bank Street Brewhouse for sound, and begin devoting certain nights entirely to jazz. Or samba. Perhaps Handel or Borodin.

After all, we need listenable diversity.

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Last week I reviewed the list of my favorite pop/rock recordings of 2012. One release was purposefully omitted, because while influential in its limited time, I suspect it won’t stand the ultimate test of shelf life, in the sense of music worth returning to again and again. However, I might yet be wrong, and that’s why it’s time to talk a bit about Van Halen.

Early in 2012, there was much fanfare when the group announced a new album, the band’s first since 1984 (both the year and the title) with original singer David Lee Roth, and a tour to follow. I skipped the cash outlay for the tour date in Louisville and bought the CD instead. Interestingly, there was little truly “new” material therein. Rather, the songs were assembled largely from leftover, unused or discarded demos from the heyday of Van Halen during the Reagan Administration, newly recorded for the digital age.

For three weeks straight, I listened to Van Halen’s comeback CD. It made such a profound impression that when I started writing these musical columns in December, I couldn’t even remember the album’s title. Forced to scan the rack for a look see, it came back to me: “A Different Kind of Truth.”

The album isn’t entirely bad, although I’d be guilty of damning Van Halen with faint praise if I were to call it the “best” since the band’s last album with Sammy Hagar in 1993.

Gary Cherone, where have you gone?

There is formulaic filler, reminding the listener of why certain songs were omitted in the first place, but there also are moments of bliss and excellence, as when the lumbering leviathan belatedly gets rolling during Eddie Van Halen’s inspired, throwback solos on the song “Blood and Fire.” Thus was the air guitar duly enabled, back when we were sweaty and utterly shameless.

Eddie still has it, but David Lee’s voice isn’t at all the same, even if he’s crafty like a vaudevillian and adept at concealing vastly reduced range. Perhaps not unexpectedly, the single most noticeable absence is that of former band member Michael Anthony, ingloriously booted by the conspiratorial brothers to make room for Eddie’s son Wolfgang. “A Different Kind of Truth” proves definitively that Anthony’s backing vocals always were an integral part of the band’s sound. Without them, something vital is missing.

So, why will Van Halen still be a memorable presence for me whenever I think back on music in 2012, even if the new album was so-so, and in spite of missing them live? It’s precisely because it compelled me to return to the archive, and to listen again to those first five albums from the band’s original incarnation.

I liked the Van Hagar era, too, but indeed, there was a time when Roth prancing in spandex, screaming, and a grinning Eddie with his axe, shredding, meant quite a lot for the rock oeuvre as a whole. After finishing those five timeless albums, the new release seemed utterly irrelevant. And so collectively we age, gracefully or otherwise.

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These intense musical dalliances and re-immersions are hallmarks of my year I music. It always happens. In 2012, there was Van Halen, the “pop” period of Genesis, wonderful recaps of King Crimson and Soft Machine, and two Blu-ray/CD purchases to close the year: Led Zeppelin’s “Celebration Day” (the 2007 London reunion show with Jason Bonham on drums) and “Hungarian Rhapsody” by Queen, a concert from 1986 in Budapest.

In the days of my youth … it never could be said that I was a Led Zeppelin fan. It may have been a cultural phenomenon, given that the pot smokers in my school milieu steered toward Zepp, while the drinkers listened to the Stones and the Who. Whatever the case, the band’s performance as elder statesmen is quite compelling. Listen to Robert Plant as a lion in winter, wisely reinterpreting his own rock singer legacy, not as a shouter, but as a craftsman.

To view the very epitome of the now-discredited stadium rock genre, rewind to 1986 and revel in the excess as Queen plays the soccer stadium in Budapest, with every movie camera in the entirety of Communist-era Hungary assembled to capture the rare spectacle of a Western concert behind the Iron Curtain.

The film, unreleased until now, is an essential gem, capturing the late, lamented Freddie Mercury and his band mates at their post-Live Aid pinnacle, with interspersed footage of Queen as bemused tourists that chills me to the bone, so redolent of the mood in Budapest just one year later, when I purchased a ticket for $7 and saw Genesis on the very same stage.

As much as seeing Genesis meant to me at the time, after seeing the Queen film these many years later, I’d have happily swapped Phil Collins for Mercury. He was a one-off. Then again, so are we all.

Radio, someone still loves you. But that’s a tale for another time.