Thank you for writing such an admiring and attentive review of Carla's work. I think she is a true original, and hope that this piece will travel. At the risk of breaking the cardinal rule: I take your point about the "SFO-SYD" remark — and/but I want to add that for me, the question is not one of the audience's attention span, but the degree to which we conceive of a concert as a social encounter. I respect the Western classical tradition of silent reverence, but I think it all too often slides into self-regard, and toward a disconnect from the essential social act that is music-making and music-sharing. This may be a matter of taste — you're absolutely right that 26LD needs no interruption — but I don't think that engaging with an audience verbally in the middle of a large work need be perceived as dumbing down or hand-holding — it's an acknowledgement that we're all in the same space, breathing the same air, etc. Anyhow — thank you for coming, and for engaging so deeply and thoughtfully with Carla's brilliant work.
my choice to talk to the audience in an improvisational and casual way (and I’m not sure it’s the ‘right’ decision) is about a couple of things:
1. letting the audience come up for air a few times over the course of such a long piece (though in my rock oratorio with my band Rabbit Rabbit Radio - Black Inscription - we decidedly DON’T want anyone to come up for air til it’s all over, as it takes place underwater, metaphorically.)
2. bringing a bit of the rock club vibe to the concert hall, as that’s where I’ve spent much of the last few decades, creatively. admittedly, bad flight attendant jokes may not really be the thing for either venue ;-)
In the end, our cultural affinity/distaste for banter seems, in general, to be rooted in what you want from the relationship between those on stage and those facing the stage. Great generalizations here, but more classically-oriented concert-goers tend to prefer a more thoroughly curated experience, while people who seek out less measured experience of the rock/punk/folk (etc) club, like to feel a direct and personal connection with the performers/band. I have come to love the challenge of cross-pollinating those mindsets and venue etiquettes in both directions - I enjoy bringing a bit of the concert hall into the rock venue and visa versa… though, admittedly, I don’t always get the balance right.
Thank you so much for listening so deeply, and for your incredibly well-articulated and kind words about the piece and the performance. It truly means a lot, coming from you. Warmly, Carla.
This piece sounds like a lot of fun, and, in its dry humor, whimsy, and pastiche, kind of reminiscent of The Magnetic Fields... extra-long Eros/Thanatos double feature of "69 Love Songs" and "26 Little Deaths," anybody?
I still think about the time Kihlstedt visited my high school to perform Lisa Bielawa’s Kafka Songs back in the early 2000s — an incredible performance, and I wish I had been at this one! It was such a treat to read your review.
Thank you for writing such an admiring and attentive review of Carla's work. I think she is a true original, and hope that this piece will travel. At the risk of breaking the cardinal rule: I take your point about the "SFO-SYD" remark — and/but I want to add that for me, the question is not one of the audience's attention span, but the degree to which we conceive of a concert as a social encounter. I respect the Western classical tradition of silent reverence, but I think it all too often slides into self-regard, and toward a disconnect from the essential social act that is music-making and music-sharing. This may be a matter of taste — you're absolutely right that 26LD needs no interruption — but I don't think that engaging with an audience verbally in the middle of a large work need be perceived as dumbing down or hand-holding — it's an acknowledgement that we're all in the same space, breathing the same air, etc. Anyhow — thank you for coming, and for engaging so deeply and thoughtfully with Carla's brilliant work.
Ooo.. I love this particular debate…
my choice to talk to the audience in an improvisational and casual way (and I’m not sure it’s the ‘right’ decision) is about a couple of things:
1. letting the audience come up for air a few times over the course of such a long piece (though in my rock oratorio with my band Rabbit Rabbit Radio - Black Inscription - we decidedly DON’T want anyone to come up for air til it’s all over, as it takes place underwater, metaphorically.)
2. bringing a bit of the rock club vibe to the concert hall, as that’s where I’ve spent much of the last few decades, creatively. admittedly, bad flight attendant jokes may not really be the thing for either venue ;-)
In the end, our cultural affinity/distaste for banter seems, in general, to be rooted in what you want from the relationship between those on stage and those facing the stage. Great generalizations here, but more classically-oriented concert-goers tend to prefer a more thoroughly curated experience, while people who seek out less measured experience of the rock/punk/folk (etc) club, like to feel a direct and personal connection with the performers/band. I have come to love the challenge of cross-pollinating those mindsets and venue etiquettes in both directions - I enjoy bringing a bit of the concert hall into the rock venue and visa versa… though, admittedly, I don’t always get the balance right.
Thank you so much for listening so deeply, and for your incredibly well-articulated and kind words about the piece and the performance. It truly means a lot, coming from you. Warmly, Carla.
This piece sounds like a lot of fun, and, in its dry humor, whimsy, and pastiche, kind of reminiscent of The Magnetic Fields... extra-long Eros/Thanatos double feature of "69 Love Songs" and "26 Little Deaths," anybody?
I still think about the time Kihlstedt visited my high school to perform Lisa Bielawa’s Kafka Songs back in the early 2000s — an incredible performance, and I wish I had been at this one! It was such a treat to read your review.