If it's not Scottish, it's CR*P!!

From Groundskeeper Willie to Sean Connery, who doesn't like all things Scottish? They've got bagpipes, men wearing skirts without underwear, shortbread, haggis, golf, and the perhaps the finest beverage in the world. And I'm not talking about irn bru, lads and lassies!

The Scottish countryside being the ultimate in misty, fairy-tale romanticism, has inspired many musicians to write works evocative of the country. German composer Max Bruch, was enamored of the writings of Sir Walter Scott and though he never went to Scotland, composed the Scottish Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra, incorporating many Scottish folk themes into the piece. Sadly, we are not playing THIS work for violin this week, but rather his Second Violin Concerto. Also a good piece, but not particularly Scottish.

We are however, playing two works inspired by Felix Mendelssohn's trip to Scotland.

Fingal's Cave is on the Hebridean island of Staffa. Twenty meters wide, and over sixty meters deep, the cave is an impressive sight with huge hexagonal rock pillars stretching high out of the sea. On stormy days the sound of waves crashing against the rocks echoes across the island, and it is not surprising that Fingal's Cave was originally called ‘Uamh Binne' – ‘the cave where the sea makes music'.

In the summer of 1829, Mendelssohn traveled to Scotland with his friend Karl Klingemann and spend three weeks exploring the country by foot, pony, and steamer. Like Bruch, Mendelssohn was enamored by the writings of Sir Walter Scott, and he already had a vision of the country through his exposure to Scott and 18th century poet James Macpherson. The reality lived up to the literary portrait, prompting Mendelssohn to write in a letter back home, “....everything looks so stern and robust, half-enveloped in haze or smoke or fog.”

"Discovered" by 18th-century naturalist Sir Joseph Banks in 1772, the cave actually became known as Fingal's Cave AFTER Mendelssohn visited it and wrote Die Hebriden (in English, Fingal's Cave Opus 26). Fingal, Fionn mac Cumhail, was the eponymous hero of a poem by James Macpherson.

Mendelssohn's overture popularized the cave as a tourist destination. Other famous 19th-century visitors included author Jules Verne, poets William Wordsworth, John Keats and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and impressionist artist Joseph Turner, who painted "Staffa, Fingal's Cave" in 1832. The playwright August Strindberg also sets scenes from his play A Dream Play in a place called "Fingal's Grotto." Queen Victoria also made the trip.

The final work on this weekends' concerts, the Scottish Symphony, has Mendelssohn not quoting Scottish folk tunes but rather trying to recreate the feeling of Scotland that he held inside him. On a visit to Holyrood Palace and the ruined abbey on its grounds, he wrote his family:

"This evening at twilight we went to the palace where Queen
Mary lived and loved.... The chapel close to it is now roofless;
grass and ivy grow there and at the broken altar, Mary was
crowned Queen of Scotland. Everything around is ruined and
decayed, and the bright sky shines in. I believe I found today in
that old chapel the beginning of my Scottish symphony."

Mendelssohn made some initial sketches of the symphony while still in Scotland, and then tried to revisit the score on an 1831 trip to Italy. Although known as Symphony No. 3, it is actually the last of the five mature symphonies Mendelssohn completed. We hope you will join us this weekend for our trip to musical Scotland (mostly). Who knows, there may be some underwear-less men in skirts gadding about, and we promise- no haggis!!!

What I Did On my Summer Vacation

Well, here we are back at Jones Hall at the start of the 2006-2007 season. For many of us, the summer has been full of travel, meeting new friends and getting reacquainted with old ones, and making music for audiences worldwide. But nothing beats coming back to our home crowd; it sure was good to hear y'all s rousing cheer last night at the Opening Night concert! And it sure is great to be able to say “y'all” with impunity... without those puzzled Yankee looks!!

One of the things I do in the summer is to teach and perform at the Intensive String Quartet Seminar at New York University. This year I was pleased to have four students from Houston attend the seminar. With our “quartet-bonding” group sing-a-longs (with the guitar we bought at lunchtime one day), “mornin' y'all s,” and “fixin' tos” (as in “I'm fixin' to freak out the rest of my group by saying “y'all”) we were able to inject a little of the spirit of Texas into the festival. One of the students, a violist named Jonathan, I met through this blog. He is a regular commentator to the Wavelength blog, a student of our Principal Violist Wayne Brooks, and a huge fan of the Houston Symphony. Below is the interview in which he tells of his experience this summer, in his own, unprompted words. Really!


RP: Did you enjoy the festival?
JS: I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a wonderful opportunity to focus solely on music for three weeks of my summer.

RP: So, how did you like being a music student in New York?
JS: It was thrilling just being in the city, and being there for music made it all the more thrilling. The city has so many opportunities for music students, it would be any student's dream to study or live there.

RP: This was a program where you stayed in one string quartet group the whole time. How did you find the experience of working so closely with the same 3 people for 3 weeks?
JS: It was wonderful. I play in a youth symphony, and we are fortunate to have distinguished musicians as our conductors. But there is little that is discussed amongst the musicians. In a quartet, there is no conductor. The majority of discussions and collaborating will be with the four members of the quartet. Luckily, there are coaches who help and guide each quartet; but most of time, the students have to discuss their ideas with each other and try them out. Of course there will be differences of opinion in which democracy will a valuable asset to avoid tensions in the group. Learning to communicate and collaborate with three other people is difficult sometimes, and unfortunately, sometimes a rare experience for students. This festival allows students the experience and knowledge of working with other students.

RP: What did you learn from them?
JS: I had a terrific group of people. My group's violinists lived in the city, so aside from learning about the city from them, I learned how to take four parts and work together with people to make something excellent out of it. I also learned what their ideas of the piece were and how they thought we should carry them out.

RP: What did they learn from you?
JS: Probably much the same of what I learned from them; and if nothing else, just how crazy violists can be.

RP: What did you get most out of the summer?
JS: The most valuable thing was a new outlook on chamber music. During this festival I learned how to efficiently rehearse in a quartet. I learned how to tackle different issues that arise in chamber music, and how important every single note and party is. The knowledge I gained about music over the three weeks is something I will hold onto and build on forever.

RP: You went to hear the New York Philharmonic one evening. As a
loyal Houston Symphony concert-goer, how would you compare the
experience? What would you tell Houston audiences?
JS: I feel I can accurately compare the experiences, because the New York Philharmonic's program consisted of three pieces, two of which I have heard the Houston Symphony play. I noticed the difference when they played Dvorak's 8th Symphony in G Major. When the Houston Symphony played this piece in Jones Hall, I was moved. It is one of my favorite symphonies. The emotion and energy the Houston Symphony generated when they played it was overwhelming and made for a terrific experience. However, when the New York Philharmonic played it, I was not as moved. They played the same notes, but something was missing. I did not get the energy and emotion that I got with the Houston Symphony. Now, being back in Houston, I would tell, and do tell fellow Houstonians how fortunate we are to have the Houston Symphony.

RP: What would you want to tell New Yorkers about the Houston Symphony?
JS: I would want to tell them all that if the Houston Symphony is performing in Carnegie Hall, they should mark that date on their calendars, because it will be a performance that will blow them away.

RP: How was your performing experience in New York?
JS: It was another fantastic experience. We performed our quartet very well and we were all very pleased with the way our performance went. We even received a standing ovation and went back on stage to take the applause!

RP: Any last words?
JS: Just a few more things: Firstly, if anyone ever needs to buy sheet music, I came across the best place to buy it: Frank Music Company, located in New York. Go to their site, www.frankmusiccompany.com and look at their catalog. Secondly, I encourage everyone to go to a music festival of some kind during the summer. It is a great time to strictly focus on your playing and working on various aspects of your instrument.

RP: And even if you don't play an instrument, its a great opportunity to hear the next generation of up-and-coming musicians and learn what shapes them! Thanks for writing, Jonathan!