The Nutcracker - a 55-minute version with narration

The dining table in New York City

Ever since the great success of The Story of Swan Lake in the Maestro Classics series of works for narrator and orchestra, people have been asking when we would do The Nutcracker. We finally decided to give it a try and added it to the recording session this month in London.

Before that however........ the full-length ballet needed to be cut to a maximum of 55 minutes so that it could fit onto a CD. 5 minutes for info on the ballet and Tchaikovsky + 5 minutes for the conductor to talk about the music + 5 minutes for a surprise track in a different genre (perhaps bellydancing this time?!) left 55 minutes on a 70-minute CD for the work itself.

Tchaikovsky created a Nutcracker Suite but he just took a few of the movements out of the ballet so you miss a lot of the iconic music that we all love. We took on the far greater challenge of pruning each of the movements so that you hear the entire ballet with 27 measures cut here and 6 there, etc. It took 7 days of sitting together 10 hours a day for the maestro and me to cut the score and it has taken 4 weeks of 2 or 3 of us to cut the 35 separate orchestra parts, each about 50 pages!

Only comment on photo above.... you should see the cuttings on the floor!

One of the great joys of being married to a conductor is the musician friends who come to stay with us. Guitarist Ben Verdery, legendary performer, composer, and teacher, just performed with the Simon Sinfonietta in Cape Cod, MA and it was great to sit in the kitchen and listen to his practicing for a few days. As he said in his interview at WCAI, "Yes, I still practice 5 or 6 hours a day."He has a new website which is filled with videos and photos and music and deep thoughts. 

Just a wonderful human being.. with a photo of the Dali Lama taped to the side of his magnificent guitar for inspiration.

New Article Published on www.parenthood.com

Introducing Your Child To Classical Music

Many Stories in Music CDs

by Bonnie Ward Simon

About 75 years ago, an internationally known composer was sitting with his children in the Children’s Theater in Moscow when the director of the theater spotted him. After the performance she contacted him. “Wouldn’t you like to compose a work for children?” she asked. And the rest is history. Actually, she had a young poetess write a story and when she arrived at Prokofiev’s apartment, he listened to it and threw her out. In the following two weeks he wrote the story and composed the music for the greatest work for children ever written, “Peter and the Wolf.”

If there is one piece that every child should grow to love during their childhood, it is “Peter and the Wolf.” The charming story of a young boy named Peter who disobeys his grandfather and goes out into the forest and there meets a wolf, is told both in words and by the instruments of the symphony orchestra. The wolf, the bird, the duck, the cat, the hunters, and Peter himself are all represented by instruments of the orchestra. What a wonderful, and memorable, way to introduce children to the rich sounds of these instruments. Every time a parent stands in front of the Maestro Classics booth at a trade show, they pick up the Peter CD and wistfully say, “I remember listening to this over and over when I was young.” They often have never remembered another single work of classical music from their entire childhood.

We have found that introducing children to great music by having a narrator tell the story with the music is probably the very best way to instill a love of classical music. For years there was only “Peter and the Wolf.”  Then there were a couple of others like “Tubby the Tuba,” but, by and large, it was a musical genre with one work. A number of years ago, when I, as the executive director of the Washington Chamber Symphony at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC, proclaimed that every year there should be a performance of “Peter and the Wolf” for parents to take their children to, my husband Stephen, the music director, said, “And what are you going to do for the other half of the program?” And so began the “Stories in Music” project where we collected and created new works for narrator and orchestra. Sometimes the works were great pieces of programmatic music like William Tell, to which we added a narration; sometimes they were classic stories to which we composed new music, as in “Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel”; and sometimes they were just wonderful, little-known works that we had discovered along the way, like “Juanita the Spanish Lobster.” Over and over again, parents would come backstage saying, “We purchased our tickets to hear “Peter and the Wolf,” but we really loved “Swan Lake.” Where can we purchase a recording”. And we would always have to sadly reply that most had never been recorded.

The Maestro Classics’ “Stories in Music” series was our answer to all those wonderful parents in Washington, DC who came to our family concerts year in and year out and always clamored for more. When we finally designed our CD signature format, it included all those aspects of our programs that had made the concerts sold-out successes for fifteen years. We always provided a program book, which included musical and historical information as well as activities and games.  Also, to show young and old that you can like all kinds of music, we linked the orchestral music to some popular music that was more familiar to them. The maestro always talked about the music and what to listen for.  Audience participation was a part of the program as well.

In the CD series, each CD includes multiple tracks: the title track with the story for narrator and orchestra; one on the composer and the history of the story; the one that I call the “fun track,” where invited guest artists perform themes from the music of the story in different musical genres – they range from marching band to heavy metal; one where the maestro gives a child-appropriate discussion of the music they have heard with musical examples and, finally, there is a sing-along or play-along or dance-along track at the end.

Music that you listen to with your child will be with them forever, and someday, when they hear “Peter and the Wolf” or “Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel” or “The Story of Swan Lake” they will be transported back there to the kitchen or the car remembering you and the time you spent together.

Christmas in February?

Very busy these weeks. The Maestro and I are going to London in March to record with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and one of the works, by popular demand after our Story of Swan Lake, that we are preparing is The Nutcracker. Editing such a work is challenging, but also forces me to look at the score more closely than ever before.

Also have just finished an hour long show for the Hilltown Family Variety show that will air on March 3 on WXOJ 1103.3 FM, Northampton, MA. If you are out of range, you can download a podcast at their website.

Fortunately, Marigold, our Golden Retriever, reminds us that we need to go out to the park and enjoy the snow.... though today it was in the 50s in NYC!

What "The Soldier's Tale" Teaches Us About Temptation

            The story of “The Soldier’s Tale” is based on the age-old Faustian legend of a man who sells his soul to the devil. While the hundreds of tales that have been written deal mainly with adults, I find that it is a cautionary tale that can lead to very important discussions with children.

            Often children deeply desire something that they cannot have, and this leaves them vulnerable. Temptation. Will they simply take it and be forced to live with the guilt that follows, or will they be tempted by someone else who agrees to get them the desired item in exchange for something else.

            In “The Soldier’s Tale” the Soldier is tempted by the offer of a book that tells the future and can make him rich. What makes this story even more tragic is that the Soldier had not really thought about being rich and as he sat by the roadside, he was dreaming of his girlfriend, his mother, his home, and his 10 days leave. But when the prospect of wealth raised its head, he was tempted.

            In the beginning, these deals never seem like they will be so bad. After all, the Soldier’s violin was old and not of great value. In time, however, he discovers that it is the symbol of all happiness for him. He discovers that he has lost his financée, his family, in short, his life. In this tale, he is given the opportunity to recover his happiness. The Soldier cures the Princess and marries her. But the Devil is not so easily defeated, and says while he has let him off the hook this time, there is one condition: he must never leave the Princess’ kingdom.

            The Soldier and the Princess live in happiness, but the Soldier is tempted again. He wants to see his mother once more and hopes that he can slip out of the kingdom, thinking that no one will ever know.

            How often in life does one hope that no one will ever know?! (Cookies from the cookie jar – how did mother know? Wet the toothbrush instead of brushing – how did father know?) As the Soldier crosses the frontier, of course, the Devil does see him and turns him into stone.

            “The Soldier’s Tale” is a morality piece, a cautionary tale that appeals to all children because they have a visceral sense of wanting something that they occasionally cannot have. The lessons to be discussed with children after listening to "The Soldier's Tale" are many: Don’t make deals that you know are wrong.  Don’t hope that you won’t get caught. Discuss offers and trades that you have been offered with parents so that you can understand all the implications. And finally, if it looks too good to be true, it probably isn’t. 

           Stravinsky's magnificent music will make this morality lesson both pleasurable and memorable.

Music Library No. 11: A Wonderful Guitar Concerto

"The Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999), blind from the age of three, enriched Spanish music in particular through his concertos for guitar, compositions for which he is best known abroad. Rodrigo studied for a time in Paris, where he spent the turbulent years of the Spanish Civil War, his subsequent career largely centered on Madrid." Naxos

The Concierto de Aranjuez for guitar and orchestra is his most famous piece. I heard it performed with Ben Verdery last week in New York City with L'Orchestre des Portes Rouges. It exudes Spanish style and is one of those works that I give to teenagers and young men in their 20s. It never fails to please, but it really is a work for all ages.

The program note read:

"On the banks of the Tajo River outside Madrid, the 300-acre Gardens of Aranjuez are part of an 18th century summer palace of the Bourbon kings of Spain. Infected by diphtheria at the age of three, Rodrigo, was nearly blind for almost all of his life. It was this event, Rodrigo said, that turned him towards a life in music. A talented pianist who showed a flair towards the concerto form, Rodrigo wrote works for such soloists as the guitarist Andres Segovia, flautist James Galway, harpist Nicanor Zabaleta, and cellist Julian Lloyd Webber. The Concerto is meant to capture "the fragrance of the magnolias, the singing of birds and the gushing of fountains" – in short, all the beauties that a blind man, such as himself, could appreciate. Rodrigo's gift for melody is brilliantly infused with Spanish style dances in the baroque form that matches the formality of the old palace, while the dances of the first and last movement and the plaintive melody of the second, have their roots in older, more primal folk Spanish forms."

The complete concerto can be purchased for less than $4 as a download:

http://www.amazon.com/Rodrigo-Concierto-Aranjuez-Fantasia-gentilhombre/dp/B0013DABYS/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327639594&sr=301-1

If you have a moment, listen to samples of some other performances. John Williams is a famous guitarist, so less expensive does not mean less good. Beware: there are 4 movements to the concerto; make sure you get all of them when you purchase.

Music Library No. 10: Bernstein's Overture to Candide

Leonard Bernstein was one of America's most charismatic musicians. Composer, conductor, educator - Bernstein excelled in every one. Many American's know Bernstein as the composer for West Side Story; others know him for his televised educational concerts at Carnegie Hall, a truly pioneering endeavor both from the standpoint of television and of music education. Bernstein was a young man in his 20s when the conductor of the New York Philharmonic got sick and Bernstein was called upon to stand in. The reviews the next morning were raves and the rest is history. Eventually, he became music director of the NY Philharmonic.

Bernstein composed the operetta Candide in the 1950s. It was based on Voltaire's novella of the same name. Many thought that it was too sophisticated for Broadway, but I encourage you to go see it live if you ever have the opportunity. 

The overture is such a wonderful work, that it stands alone as a brilliant piece of musical composition.

A great biography of Bernstein was written by Meryl Siecrest.