SF Bay Area: And Now for Something Completely Different

[Alan H]

My symphony...well it's really Joan's symphony as I only play in it quite rarely now, is having a Unique concert. Here's the program:

Mendelssohn: The Hebrides
Davies: An Orkney Wedding and Sunrise
Elvis Costello: Il Sogno

The Mendelssohn is his "Scottish" Symphony and is very easy to listen to. It's classical and quite nice and not an ear-buster at all.

The Davies piece is pretty unusual, but get this....yeah, it's "classical", but it ends with a piper parading through the audience and coming up on stage with the orchestra. I helped find a piper with a set of pipes that actually tune close enough to A440 to allow him to play with the group. Most pipe bands now tune to about A457, in other words, screamingly out-of-tune with any modern orchestra. Look at it this way; one of Dennis Russel Davies better-known pieces is called "Mavis in Las Vegas"....that gives you some sort of an idea what to expect.

And yeah, you read that right... the last piece is a ballet score by Elvis Costello. It's a modern day twist on "A Midsummer NIghts Dream" written for an Italian ballet company several years ago. I've been listening to the CD and it's cool. It's got a screaming, killer saxophone part that I'm dyin, 'cause I'm not playing it. I had to say no 'cause I'd have to miss the dress rehearsal because I'm convening the Clan Tent on Saturday at the Ben Lomond Games.

You can read the scoop by going to the Redwood Symphony Website here:
http://www.redwoodsymphony.org/

The concert is entitled "A Celtic Journey" and tickets are a measly ten bucks. Kids are wlecome, as long as they can sit something like quietly. The date is Sunday October 8th, and it's a matinee. It'll be over in time for a post-concert dinner.

Any X-Markers interested in forming a Kilted Kulture Kontingent and attending the concert, and then an after concert dinner? I'll be there, dressed to the nines in Eton jacket and Kilt, of course! I promise that you get to play groupie with the principal clarinetist....LOL

[KiltedCodeWarrior]

Alan, have fun, that sounds like it will be a really cool concert and then dinner after will be the icing on the cake

[michael steinrok]

Alan after the poem you wrote last night for the group I feel I owe you. Besides it sounds like a good time. Count me in! Formal it is!

[Tattoo Bradley]

If I was in the area, I'd be all for it. Not too many oppurtunities to go full formal...

[michael steinrok]

Is anyone up for this? A great chance to go formal?

[Panache]

Sinbad and I will be there for the concert!

As for dressing up, we don't have a true formal gear but will try our best.

Cheers

[Alan H]

I will be in eton jacket and vest...as formal as I can get!
But then, I'll be taking tickets.

If you ever wanted to go hear a symphony, but not break the bank for San Frnacisco Symphony tickets, this should be a pretty good concert to catch.

The Mendelssohn is about as mainstream as you can get.

The Davies Orkney Wedding is pretty "out there"...and the bagpiper is sure to be a hit. It's modern and chaotic but not painful to the ears or boring.

The Elvis Costello ballet score is a lot of fun, and is not hard to listen to.

I'm going to ask the orchestra's principal clarinetist (my wife) if she's up for an after-concert run for dinner...for which we will be extremely over-dressed!

One of the bassoonists is a McCracken, which is a sept of MacNaughton, so I'm gonna try to sign him up for the clan.

[Graham]

Wish I could be there Alan, hope it goes well!

[turpin]

I would so love to attend that one in proper attire.

[auld argonian]

I would so love to attend that one in proper attire.

I think that the fun would be in attending in proper attire along with a sizeable rabble of similarly attired dudes and for once being part of a decent sized group of kilted men and not one of the "eccentrics" who's wearing a kilt....it'd be nice for the guys in pants to stop and think, "...I'm wearing trousers and everybody else is wearing a kilt...".

Best

AA