Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Making love to goats, Rachmaninoff, and Elgar

I’d say Hough and the conductor may have had some sort of falling out.

Modest Mussorgsky. What’s missing from the Disney version, in Fantasia, is the witch’s sabbath.
Modest Mussorgsky. What’s missing from the Disney version, in Fantasia, is the witch’s sabbath.

The San Diego Symphony concert on Saturday, March 16, started with a rather famous piece of music entitled Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky. You may have heard it once or twice within the Disney arena. What’s missing from the Disney version, in Fantasia, is the witch’s sabbath. The ominous music is supposed to be portraying a witch’s sabbath and that has some complicated and severely pagan elements. 


Mussorgsky described the witch's sabbath in a letter. For starters, the witches create a strong brew, possibly a psychedelic, and drink it. They have brought with them an adolescent male goat. After drinking the brew, the witches work themselves up into a frenzied circle surrounding the kid. Satan’s spirit inhabits the goat and begins selecting the witches he is going to make satanic love with. Yes, that means what you think it means. It should be noted that there is no evidence of a witch’s sabbath having ever occurred. However, Goya painted one and Berlioz also used one in Symphony Fantastique.


The performance was tight. I’m not saying the orchestra had imbibed a psychedelic witch’s brew but they did whip the music up into a frenzy. 


I’ve long been an admirer of pianist Stephen Hough. I specifically remember his performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. It was quite authoritative. 


Imagine my surprise when he sat down to play Sergei Rachmanoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and proceeded to stretch a nine-foot condom over the piano with the opening chords. The entire performance was clad in safe sex. Actually, it was more like a lecture about safe sex. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and seeing. Rachmanoff's second piano concerto is one of the sexiest pieces ever written but not on this night.

Sponsored
Sponsored


Hough appeared to be playing the piece as fast as possible with no nuance in the phrasing. I don’t recall him looking at the conductor at all. The orchestra struggled to find its footing and the performance rode the ragged edge of disaster for its entirety. 


I have no idea what was going on but if I were to guess, I’d say Hough and the conductor may have had some sort of falling out. That is nothing but conjecture on my part but something was definitely up.


Conductor Lionel Bringuier managed to pull out a magnificent performance of Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations which was the final piece. I will say that his style of conducting wasn’t my cup of tea but it was effective in the Elgar. The discombobulation of the Rachmaninoff was absent in Elgar and the concert came to a satisfying conclusion.


Video:

Night on Bald Mountain - Fantasia



The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Big swordfish, big marlin, and big money

Trout opener at Santee Lakes
Next Article

The vicious cycle of Escondido's abandoned buildings

City staff blames owners for raising rents
Modest Mussorgsky. What’s missing from the Disney version, in Fantasia, is the witch’s sabbath.
Modest Mussorgsky. What’s missing from the Disney version, in Fantasia, is the witch’s sabbath.

The San Diego Symphony concert on Saturday, March 16, started with a rather famous piece of music entitled Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky. You may have heard it once or twice within the Disney arena. What’s missing from the Disney version, in Fantasia, is the witch’s sabbath. The ominous music is supposed to be portraying a witch’s sabbath and that has some complicated and severely pagan elements. 


Mussorgsky described the witch's sabbath in a letter. For starters, the witches create a strong brew, possibly a psychedelic, and drink it. They have brought with them an adolescent male goat. After drinking the brew, the witches work themselves up into a frenzied circle surrounding the kid. Satan’s spirit inhabits the goat and begins selecting the witches he is going to make satanic love with. Yes, that means what you think it means. It should be noted that there is no evidence of a witch’s sabbath having ever occurred. However, Goya painted one and Berlioz also used one in Symphony Fantastique.


The performance was tight. I’m not saying the orchestra had imbibed a psychedelic witch’s brew but they did whip the music up into a frenzy. 


I’ve long been an admirer of pianist Stephen Hough. I specifically remember his performance of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. It was quite authoritative. 


Imagine my surprise when he sat down to play Sergei Rachmanoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and proceeded to stretch a nine-foot condom over the piano with the opening chords. The entire performance was clad in safe sex. Actually, it was more like a lecture about safe sex. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing and seeing. Rachmanoff's second piano concerto is one of the sexiest pieces ever written but not on this night.

Sponsored
Sponsored


Hough appeared to be playing the piece as fast as possible with no nuance in the phrasing. I don’t recall him looking at the conductor at all. The orchestra struggled to find its footing and the performance rode the ragged edge of disaster for its entirety. 


I have no idea what was going on but if I were to guess, I’d say Hough and the conductor may have had some sort of falling out. That is nothing but conjecture on my part but something was definitely up.


Conductor Lionel Bringuier managed to pull out a magnificent performance of Edward Elgar’s Enigma Variations which was the final piece. I will say that his style of conducting wasn’t my cup of tea but it was effective in the Elgar. The discombobulation of the Rachmaninoff was absent in Elgar and the concert came to a satisfying conclusion.


Video:

Night on Bald Mountain - Fantasia



Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

At 4pm, this Farmer's Table restaurant in Chula Vista becomes Acqua e Farina

Brunch restaurant by day, Roman style trattoria by night
Next Article

The danger of San Diego's hoarders

The $1 million Flash Comics #1
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader