MOVIE: Song of Love (1947)

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Song of Love Year: 1947 Rating: Approved Length: 119 minutes / 1.98 hours Anyone who has spent a significant amount of time with me will know that I absolutely love the story of Clara and Robert Schumann. She was such an inspiring woman and well ahead of her time in terms of her independence. In researching her life for a future historical fiction novel I plan to write, I found that Katharine Hepburn had portrayed Clara Schumann in Song of Love (1947). I already knew the story beats of the life of Robert and Clara (with some of the drama Johannes Brahms (Robert Walker) introduced), but Song of Love misses the point almost entirely. While there were some scenes in this movie that spoke to the situation of Robert and Clara's tragic love story, they were completely lost in what I can only describe as "1940s sitcom schtick." These scenes added nothing to the narrative of the implied love triangle between Clara, Robert, and Johannes....
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MUSIC: CSPhil – Peer Gynt

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Colorado Springs Philharmonic Conductor: Josep Caballé Domenech Date: March 18, 2017 Enchanted Landscapes: A Symphonic Poem Ofer Ben-Amots Of all the commissioned pieces for the 90th season of the Philharmonic, I thought this was one of the stronger pieces. While it didn't have any of the musical motifs of the original "America the Beautiful," it had an inspiration all its own that conveyed the power of the original. Starting and ending in a somber tone, "Enchanted Landscapes" paints an auditory picture of a cloudy day on Pike's Peak. Then, suddenly, a storm whips up! With thunder and lightning, wind and rain, the peaceful calm are broken by nature's fury. Almost at once, quiet falls on the mountain as snow starts slowly fluttering down. Finally, the storm has passed, and all is quiet on the peak once more. Nänie Johannes Brahms For a piece about death and dying, I found Brahms' interpretation of this poem to be a little more high-energy than I was expecting. Gone are the lamentations of a life...
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MUSIC: CSPhil – Citizen Without a Country

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Colorado Springs Philharmonic Conductor: Josep Caballé Domenech Date: October 23, 2016 Symphonic Overture "America, The Beautiful" Wang Jie Another of the commissioned pieces for the 90th season of the Colorado Springs Philharmonic, this Symphonic Overture was written as a fugue to evoke the silhouetted profile of "America's mountain" - Pike's Peak. As a mountain climber myself, I could hear the rising melodies that brought the listener to the top of this iconic mountain, but I had a hard time determining if the piece ended at the apex of Pike's Peak (which it sounded like it did), or if it completed the whole profile of the silhouette. Nevertheless, it was a fitting tribute to the song it was honoring and another great first performance. Concerto in B minor for Cello and Orchestra Antonín Dvořák I'm a fan of Dvorak. One of my most favorite pieces of all time (if not the most favorite overall) is by him, so I was definitely looking forward to this piece. Seeing as the...
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