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Tuesday, November 19, 2002

Chris Norman Ensemble

The usually staid and subtle Renaissance and Baroque Society filled Oakland's Synod Hall to the rockin' rafters Saturday night with the Chris Norman Ensemble. With whoops more reminiscent of a pop concert, it could have set purists on their collective ears were it not for the fact that these guys could do it all.

This tribute to Scotland, "The Caledonian Flute," began innocently enough with more "serious" multi-movement works like James Oswald's "The Thistle" and William McGibbon's "Sonata No. 2 in D." Then guest artist and harpsichordist David McGuinness displayed an archly wicked sense of humor before ripping through "Duncan Gray," a forecast of things to come.

With the overly generous (nearly 90 minutes) second half, Norman and friends threw caution to the winds, tearing through Highland dances and seducing the audience with haunting tunes.

While the program might have been limiting in lesser hands, Norman kept the energy up with solo spotlights for all.

But it was charmin' Norman's night, whether hovering expertly between several flutes or pumping the bellows of the Scottish small pipes. He is a star in this Celtic crossover firmament, titillating with triple-tonguing and then turning around to caress a folk melody as if it were the best of Mozart.

-- Review by Jane Vranish, For the Post-Gazette

Musicians from Marlboro

In a country nudging itself towards a serious and complicated international military conflict, the idea of spending a Sunday afternoon simply listening to great music may seem absurd, or it may just be precisely the right thing to do.

Sunday afternoon, the Frick Art & Historical Center and the Tuesday Musical Club presented Musicians from Marlboro in the second of its Sunday Concert Series at the Frick. A touring extension from the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, these six musicians played flawlessly, expertly, passionately. There aren't enough adverbs to describe how well they played.

The program consisted of three titans from the past 250 years -- Haydn, Shostakovich and Dvorak.

Though the Dvorak Quintet in G Major and the Haydn Quartet in F Major were each a delight, the highlight of the afternoon had to be the Shostakovich Piano Quartet in G Minor. A somewhat longish piece in a somewhat longish program (just over two hours), it was expertly played. In a room that amplified every little sound, all the details of this excruciatingly anguished music were crystal clear. The second movement, especially, was, in all its melancholic despair, painfully beautiful.

-- Review by David DeAngelo, For the Post-Gazette

Bryson -- just one of the guys

One way of winning your readers over is to convince them that you're one of them, that "We're all in this together," that it's "Us against them" and that, wink, wink, "We know who the bad guys are, and they are not us."

It's a contract of shared likes and dislikes.

Bill Bryson proved himself to be an effective practitioner of that deal last night at the Drue Heinz Lectures. So effective, I might add, that he sold out the Carnegie Music Hall.

He opened with several jokes, including a reference to the packed house:

"A woman without a ticket called today and said she'd even sit behind a pole," said Bryson. "The best we could do was a Ukrainian."

Further evidence that large men today, like Michael Moore, can get away with looking disheveled, the 50-year-old Bryson layered himself in sport coat and sweater in a collegiate, circa 1966, style.

Again, part of the deal is that it's OK to be a few pounds over the ideal weight.

But, it's very appealing, and in the hands of a talented humorist like Bryson, very funny.

His talk was actually a series of setups for readings from his popular books like "I'm A Stranger Here Myself" and "A Walk in the Woods."

These passages reveal Bryson as droll puncturer of windbags and pretensions, like someone we'd like to be when confronted with life's many irritations.

In fact, he offered his 13 rules for "a better planet," which included a prohibition on the phrase "seeking closure" and the requirement that anyone wearing clothes stamped with the maker's name should also be required to wear the sign "I am an idiot."

In all, a pleasant November evening spent with just one of the guys.

-- Review by Bob Hoover. Post-Gazette Book Editor