Bach's Brandenburg Concertos 3 & 4

If you were in attendance at Abravanel Hall last night you definitely got your money's worth because it was an epic night of music featuring Bach, Boulez, Sibelius, and Grieg!  The orchestra began with Bach's Brandenburg Concertos 3 & 4 which were simply beautiful.  I always picture these being performed during a ball in a Jane Austen novel.  Like he did with the first two concertos, Maestro Thierry Fischer chose to perform a more modern piece by Pierre Boulez in between them.  Memoriale featured a solo flute, strings, and horns and I thought it was quite ethereal.  The juxtaposition between the pieces was very striking.  The orchestra was divided into three groups who each performed one of the pieces with a dramatic spotlight.  I really enjoyed the effect.  The main event, for me any way, came after the intermission when the orchestra played Concerto for Violin and Orchestra by Jean Sibelius.  I was first introduced to Sibelius when I attended a performance featuring his music on a trip to Finland and I have been a huge fan ever since.  Like the country of Finland itself, I find Sibelius' music to have an austere beauty.  The Violin Concerto is moody and atmospheric with just a little bit of melancholy so, of course, I absolutely love it!  Soloist Baiba Skride gave a beautiful and emotional interpretation which drew me in from the first note.  The orchestra concluded with selections from Peer Gynt by Edvard Grieg.  My favorites are Morning Mood (instantly recognizable from Looney Tunes cartoons) and In The Hall of the Mountain King which is quite dramatic.  I thoroughly enjoyed this dynamic concert and I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here).

The Lower Lights 2018

I really love listening to Christmas music performed live so I take any opportunity I can to do so.  One of my very favorite Christmas traditions is going to the Lower Lights Christmas concert which I did last night.  It was just wonderful.  The Lower Lights are a supergroup made up of over 30 insanely talented musicians and vocalists (many of whom are famous in their own rights) who come together to perform a series of Christmas concerts each year.  They have a folksy bluegrass sound and have recorded some unique and innovative arrangements of hymns and Christmas music.  Last night they performed all of their usual numbers but my very favorites were a sultry and bluesy version of "Still, Still, Still," an instrumental version of "What Child Is This?" featuring a guitar, steel guitar, mandolin, bass, and banjo, one of the most beautiful arrangements of "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" with just a piano and steel guitar, and a rousing rendition of "Once in Royal David's City" that got everyone on their feet.  They also performed quite a few of their gospel songs including "Old Time Religion," "Down to the River to Pray," "Go Tell It On the Mountain," and "When the Roll is Called Up Yonder."  It took a while for the audience to get warmed up but these gospel songs got Kingsbury Hall jumping!  They ended their set with "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)" which was a lot of fun.  For the encore they performed "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," which is a crowd favorite (people were calling out for it as soon as they came back on stage), and a rocking version of "Oh Come, All Ye Faithful."  They ended the evening, as they often do, with a beautiful a capella version of "Silent Night" with a heartfelt message for the holidays.  This gets me every time!  This concert was a really great way to kick off the holiday season and it made me so happy to hear this music live.  There are two more concerts and I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here).

Finding Neverland at the Eccles

A couple of years ago, while on a theatre trip to New York, I was able to see Finding Neverland and I loved it so much!  I loved it just as much after seeing it again last night!  It is a beautiful and heartwarming story of how J.M. Barrie (Jeff Sullivan) comes to write the play Peter Pan after Sylvia Llewellyn Davies (Ruby Gibbs) and her four sons help him find his imagination again.  The music is absolutely wonderful (I listen to the Original Broadway Cast Recording all of the time) and every song is staged brilliantly.  I love how Barrie goes to Kensington Gardens for inspiration in "My Imagination," how he and the Llewellyn Davies brothers become pirates in "Believe," how he turns a dull dinner party into an adventure in "We Own the Night," how the people in his life try to get Barrie to act more sensibly in "Circus of Your Mind,"  how Barrie's alter ego, Captain Hook, encourages him to act boldly in "Live By the Hook," how Barrie's acting troupe reacts to his new play in "The World Is Upside Down," how Barrie and Sylvia play with their shadows in "What You Mean to Me," how Barrie's acting troupe rediscover their inner children in "Play," how the Llewellyn Davies brothers use their imagination in "We're All Made of Stars," how Barrie tries to comfort Peter when he realizes that he will have to grow up in "When Your Feet Don't Touch the Ground," and how Barrie brings the play Peter Pan to Sylvia when she is too ill to attend the premiere in "Neverland" (Reprise).  I think the penultimate scene with Sylvia is one of the most magical bits of stagecraft that I have ever seen and I cried once again.  I really enjoyed Sullivan's performance, but I missed the Scottish accent, and his chemistry with Gibbs, who has a beautiful voice, is palpable.  The acting troupe is completely over the top, and a bit cliched, but they are a lot of fun.  The young actors playing the Llewellyn Davies brothers (they rotate from night to night) are delightful and elicited many cheers from the audience.  It is all so enchanting and the message that you should never take life too seriously really resonates with me.  If you can discover your own inner child I think you will really enjoy this musical which runs at the Eccles Theatre through Sunday, Dec. 9 (go here for tickets).

Korver For Three!

Last night was Kyle Korver's first home game as a member of the Jazz and I can't remember when I have been more excited for a Jazz game!  It was so much fun to see him out on the court making three pointers!  The Jazz played the San Antonio Spurs and it was a fantastic game.  They took a 3-2 lead with a three pointer from Donovan Mitchell in the first few minutes of the game and they never once relinquished that lead!  Korver came in during the last three minutes of the first quarter and the arena went crazy!  In less than a minute he made a 25-foot three point jumper and the crowd went crazy once again!  He hit a few more three pointers during the game and ended up with 15 points.  It brought back so many happy memories of watching him play and I pretty much lost my voice cheering for him.  Korver wasn't the only one who played well!  Ten different players combined for 20 three pointers (a franchise record) and the Jazz basically had their way with the Spurs to win 139-105.  I am so glad that Korver is back in SLC and I anticipate going to a few more games this season (this could be a bad thing)!

Note:  I wore my old Korver jersey and I got quite a bit of attention (every time he scored the man behind me would pat me on the back).  I think I might need to get a new one!

Boy Erased

I love this time of year because a lot of Oscar contenders are released and I had the chance to see one of them, Boy Erased, yesterday.  Lucas Hedges is Jared Eamons, the son of Marshall (Russell Crowe), an affluent Baptist minister and owner of a car dealership, and his wife Nancy (Nicole Kidman).  He breaks up with his girlfriend and questions his sexuality when he begins college.  After a traumatic incident at school with another boy he is outed to his parents who, seeking the counsel of other church members, decide to send him to a gay conversion therapy program run by Victor Sykes (Joel Edgerton).  In the beginning he is a willing participant who wants to change.  He is told by one attendee named Jon (Xavier Dolan) to devote himself wholeheartedly to the program and by another named Gary (Troye Sivan) that he should play the part so that he can go home again.  He begins to question Sykes' practices when an attendee named Cameron (Britton Sear) is humiliated in front of the group and, during an emotional exercise, he retrieves his phone and contacts his Mom.  She is horrified by what has been happening in the program and decides to take him home despite her husband's objections.  What I really liked about this movie, which sets it apart from The Miseducation of Cameron Post, is that neither the parents nor the program director are vilified but the message about the harm done by conversion therapy is very clear.  They are misguided but they mean well.  Both Kidman and Crowe give highly sympathetic performances because you definitely understand why they do what they do even if you are horrified by it and I loved the fact that they ultimately accept their son (the final scene between Hedges and Crowe is so affecting).  I also really enjoyed a cameo by Cherry Jones who plays a doctor who tells Jared that he is completely normal.  Hedges, as always, gives a brilliant performance that is incredibly nuanced as a young man forced to reconcile his sexual identity with his Evangelical Christian upbringing.  You see his confusion, his desire to please his parents, and his dawning realization that he is not evil.  It is very restrained but it is extremely powerful with an important message that everyone needs to see.  I highly recommend it!