WMV Music Web Log

Mike Strand writes:

Hi, Carl!
About your concert at the Czech Embassy:
I was thrilled to have been sitting so close to such skilled and enthusiastic music-making. My wife Linda expressed pleasure as well - she prefers the small chamber settings to the large halls.
All of the music was new to me, and the Schulhoff piece has me re-thinking my past negative feelings about so-called "modern classical" music. It really can be lyrical, folksy, rhythmical, etc.! The closing bars, which I enjoyed, reminded me of stampeding horses, yet organized and musically excellent, not chaotic.
Martinu's tango blew me away - he takes this music form into new territory while remaining faithful to the form itself (something Astor Piazzolla also aspired to, but some of his best stuff is not really tango, in my view). I tend to the traditional and am happy when I can write something decent, but it's good to hear the work of a master who brings originality and insight into a familiar structure.
It was a hoot watching Mr. Mitsumoto conduct - he made the suite all the more satisfying to witness.
My father's mother, Judith Hellstrom Strand, from Sweden, was an enthusiastic amateur mezzo-soprano who enjoyed drama. She would have loved hearing Karyn Friedman sing the Mahler songs!
The Dvorak trio has symphonic proportions. Strong feeling expressed expansively with clarity and beauty ("Truth is beauty, beauty is truth"). The scherzo reminded me of one by Beethoven.
Recently I've been listening to Phillip Glass's music. I even started a new tango "El matema'tico (the mathematician)" as a sort of tribute to him and to my own vocation, but the music is not going anywhere right now. I tried starting from chord progressions (with "fractured chords" that resolve to diminished chords), but I think I really do better when I have tunes and motifs in mind before I start.
With your indulgence, here is a list of music l plan to send to you after June 5:
Ragamuffin - a piano solo in honor of Scott Joplin
Patas arriba (Topsy-Turvy) - piano solo
Amada difunta (Beloved Deceased) - piano solo
El cartero (The Mailman) - a duet for piano and soprano instrument
En una tetera (In a Teapot) - duet for piano and flute (or sax, if it can be made to sound like a whistling pot). Written while trying to keep warm during the big snowstorm of Feb. 2003.
Pasos gatunos (Feline Steps) - duet for piano and soprano instrument.
I would be grateful for any time you could spend trying them out.
Best of luck on June 5!
Mike

PS: Wow to both the May 26 Post review (positive but kind of shallow) and to May 24 at the embassy.