culture doubleheader

tuesday night we listened to chamber music, schoenberg's "transfigured night" and vivaldi's "four seasons". both were very good, and david southorn's solos during the "four seasons" were the first performance i felt deserved a standing ovation in years.

last night i went to hear chris botti's jazz, um, variety show. it's hardly a trumpet performance, though it was billed as well, since botti is mostly acting as master of ceremonies. while there's clearly a jazz band in there somewhere -- the parts of the show i enjoyed most were the pianist, bass player, and drummer riffing on random themes -- the ensemble is far too large and performs far too many different kinds of numbers to be a band. there was also an electric violinist, a guitarist, and a keyboard player, as well as male and female vocalists.

it was all enjoyable, though i was painfully reminded that an electric trumpet is far too loud, especially when botti plays it as loud as possible, just to show that he can. i'd prefer he show off his virtuosity; he's got plenty of that.

OTOH, the electric violin was useful for playing duets with the trumpet, since they can be made to play at the same volume. that's a nice trick, since the usual rule of thumb for the acoustic versions is that one trumpet is as loud as eight violins. but with them at equal volume, botti was able to show off by playing not just in harmony with the violin, but in unison with it.

so, i had fun last night too, other than the concert leaving my ears ringing. :P