Maybe it's a sign that Columbia is evolving, culturally speaking; but it seems to happen quite often that arts events that would probably draw a similar audience end up scheduled on the same night. That wouldn't be so frustrating except for the fact that on so many nights here there is no major concert event taking place. Perhaps there needs to be one central calendar where ALL arts groups can see who's booked events on which nights of the coming season, so as to try to avoid conflicts. No, I'm not the one to take on that job!

Tomorrow (Thursday night) is a great example of the dilemma the chamber music lover faces here in town: the Sterling Chamber Players are having one of their (and this is a great idea) dinner-plus-a-concert events at their venue (300 Senate Street) in Columbia. On the same evening just a few blocks away at the Columbia Museum of Art, the Wadsworth Chamber Music Series continues with a typical all-star cast, and featuring a new chamber music work by violist/composer Kenji Bunch.

MMM is not here to recommend one over the other; these are both worthy series that deserve support. The info on the Sterling Chamber Players concert is here, and that for the Wadsworth concert at CMA is here. Different repertoire at least, so decide what appeals to you and make your own choice.

What passes for winter down here is starting to recede; the cherry trees in town are already starting to bloom. As the days become more appealing for walking around town, I thought this would be a good time for this post...One of the best things that the Cultural Council of Richland and Lexington Counties has done is to create layouts via Google Maps for most if not all the public art on display in the Midlands. So, as the weather gets more and more pleasant, take the opportunity to drive around (and where possible, get out and stroll!) to see what's out there. In many cases the maps show photos of the artwork at given locations. The Cultural Council has done an excellent job creating this resource. Below are the links to the "Art Maps."

Sculptures, Monuments, Memorials, and Installations

Fountains

Murals, Designs, and Mosaics

Yesterday afternoon violinist Aaron Berofsky and I launched a project that we've been plotting for awhile, a series of concerts and an eventual recording of all ten of Beethoven's sonatas for violin and piano. We're beginning the project up in Ann Arbor, where I lived for four years while teaching at Michigan, and where Aaron is currently on the violin faculty. The first of three concerts we're doing up here in snowy Michigan took place yesterday afternoon in the intimate setting of the Kerrytown Concert House, where we did sonatas 1, 4, 2, and 7. Later in April we'll do sonatas 3, 5, 10; and in May, 6, 8, and 9, the daunting "Kreutzer." We're doing the sonatas also at other times in Lansing, working on putting the cycle on in a couple of other cities, and definitely doing it in New York next season.

In planning our New York performances, I originally suggested to Aaron the possibility of doing an all-day marathon of all 10, with a couple of long 2 or 3-hour meal breaks, thinking that might be a way of drawing a little more attention to the endeavor. At the end of yesterday's concert I confessed that this was an insane idea, at least for this generally sleep-deprived 47 year old. Just playing this one concert (admittedly the longest one of the three programs) wiped me out. I remember thinking just before #7, the highly dramatic C minor sonata: "After giving our all for 3 violin sonatas, we're just now starting this heavy-duty C minor?"

It's not so much the physical demands of playing the music as the mental demands. Truly this is music where every note has to be thought about; consciously in the learning/rehearsal process, perhaps not as overtly conscious in the performance process but still, every detail of the music is so meticulously created that there is scarcely a moment when the mind can chill out, or coast, or relax. The 3-headed pianist that Leon Fleisher used to describe in lessons (the planner, who is thinking about how and what to do in the moments just in the future; the doer, who is the technical executor of the plans; and the listener/evaluator, who hovers overhead somewhere, listening to the results, judging, and reporting back to planner and doer what their product is actually sounding like) is never more fully deployed than in playing Beethoven.

Of course the flip side of the taxing nature of an all-Beethoven program: there's also nothing more exhilarating than playing this music. Later, I'll post more on just why that's so. For know, suffice it to say that we had an absolutely thrilling afternoon.

I don't really understand how Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's "Hardball," was able to get (or keep) a major television job. Though it seems politically he leans to the same side of the fence I do, his inane utterings quite often have me embarrassed on behalf of "our" cause. Matthews' latest bit, which I only heard once but upon further research have found he's flogged quite a lot, is that Hillary is Salieri and Obama is Mozart. Obviously this tickles Matthews' fancy enough that's he's repeated it on his own show, on Joe Scarborough's show, and on election coverage by MSNBC. One wag out there in the blogosphere has taken this idea and run with it a bit; you might find it amusing.

On the flip side, no Best Album Grammy but three very hearty cheers for country music star Vince Gill. As you may know, Herbie Hancock's recording "River: The Joni Letters," his tribute to Joni Mitchell, took the Best Album award in a big surprise, the first jazz recording to receive that honor in 43 years. Apparently, according to the New York Times' Jeff Leeds, there was some grumbling that "the choice of Mr. Hancock may stoke criticism that Grammy voters are out of step with pop music's cutting edge..."

But Mr. Gill, who was up for the same award, along with the Foo Fighters, Kanye West, and Amy Winehouse, defended Hancock in comments backstage after the ceremony, saying that Herbie Hancock is "hands-down a better musician than all of us put together." Amen, Vince, and in a business known for entertainers who often believe their press/corporate hype, your honesty deserves a salute.

In the next few days a couple of "must-see" events are happening in Columbia. Today and tomorrow USC Opera and the Southern Exposure Series are collaborating to present Kurt Weill's "The Threepenny Opera" at the USC Recital Hall. Director Ellen Douglas Schlaefer, who's done consistently creative work for USC Opera in the several years she's been here, has had an interesting challenge on her hands in staging this show in the acoustically-good but limited space of the recital hall...you'll no doubt want to see what she's come up with. As pointed out before in this blog, the often ham-handed efforts by some of today's post-modernists to fuse vernacular musics with more ambitious formal structures was anticipated three-quarters of a century ago by Weill, to much more successful (and devastating, in this opera and Mahagonny) effect. Shows are tonight (Saturday) at 7:30 PM and tomorrow (Sunday) at 3 PM. If you're a usual USC Opera-goer, make sure to get to the hall early---the Southern Exposure audience knows from experience to do so to get a seat, so you'll miss out otherwise.

Tuesday evening, Feb. 12, the National Symphony is coming to the Koger Center as part of a statewide residency they have undertaken. The residency has included performances and classes at public schools and other concert venues throughout South Carolina. Since the Koger Center got out of the classical music presenting business some years ago, performances by major touring symphony orchestras in Columbia are, to say the least, rare. I'm not aware of any in the several years I've lived here. Sure, you can drive 95 miles to Charlotte or Greenville to hear a touring orchestra on occasion, but as for hearing a major-league orchestra in the Midlands, well, if you miss Tuesday's concert, you may very well have to wait till sometime in the second Obama Administration for another chance.

The NSO's Tuesday program at 7:30 PM isn't exactly provocative stuff, but should show off the band to good effect, culminating in Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition" in the Ravel orchestration. One piece I'll be looking forward to, though, is Benjamin Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra". A frequent staple of music outreach/educational programs for orchestras, it's a pretty nifty piece on its own, especially without the narration (I hope they dispense with that for the concert).

I highly, highly recommend getting out to both of these events in the next few days...make them early Valentine's Day dates.