Saturday 9

 

Welcome to Saturday: 9. What we've committed to our readers is that we will post 9 questions every Saturday. Sometimes the post will have a theme, and at other times the questions will be totally unrelated. Those weeks we do "random questions," so-to-speak. We encourage you to visit other participants posts and leave a comment. Because we don't have any rules, it is your choice. We hate rules. We love to answer the questions, however, and here are today's questions!

Saturday 9 -- Mahler: Symphony No. 8 (1968)

Did you choose this symphony because you recently saw Tar?

Unfamiliar with this week's tune? Hear it here.

1) Mahler's No. 8 is sometimes referred to as "Symphony of a Thousand" because it was scored for a large orchestra and choral force. Do you often listen to classical music?
Yes.  I don't often listen to music any more, but when we are in the car and the radio is on, we generally turn to a classical statin.  We have a large collection of classical records (yes...records...vinyl)

2) This piece has solos for each of the main vocal ranges: soprano, alto, tenor, bass. Do you know which range your voice is in?
When I was still able to sing, it was Alto.

3) Historians tell us Mahler kept fit by swimming and riding his bike along the Alpine trails. What's your favorite form of exercise? 
Walking down the hall to the bathroom and back again.

4) Mahler could be difficult to work with because when it came to his music, he was a stickler over even the most minor details and wouldn't give an inch. Would you rather work as part of a team or on your own?
Definitely on my own.

5) This week's featured artist, Leonard Bernstein, said his father didn't want him to pursue music. Instead the elder Bernstein wanted his son to either join the family business (a beauty supply company) or become a rabbi. Did your family try to influence your choice of career?
My father had dropped out of college and was determined that I was going to be a teacher.  He told me you only worked until 3 p.m., got the summers off and got a good salary (how little he knew about being a teacher!)  So I started college, knowing that I hated teaching and really wanting only to do something clerical.  I only lasted a year and then quit and got a job working for the Physics Department at UC Berkeley and I was very happy in that job.

6) Bernstein's best-known work is West Side Story. Without looking it up, can you name a song from this beloved Broadway classic?
"Maria"  I pretty much know all the songs from West Side Story

7) Born in Lawrence, MA, Bernstein "went home" when he performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood in Lenox, MA. Tanglewood has played host to a variety of musical artists. In 2022, Ringo Starr, Bonnie Raitt, and James Taylor all performed there (with James Taylor scheduled to return this summer, as well). What's the first concert you ever attended?
I don't know what the first classical concert was -- the nuns took us to the San Francisco symphony once a year in my grammar school.  The first non-classical concert I attended was Judy Garland.

8) In 1968, when Bernstein released this album, a sitcom called Mayberry R.F.D. premiered. It was a spin off of the highly successful Andy Griffith Show, which ran from 1960 to 1968 and is still broadcast and streamed today. Were you an Andy Griffith Show fan?
Still am!  That show was on more than 50 years ago and I believe Ron Howard is the only member of the cast still alive, but the shows are still fun for me, and they are on every day.

We were once at a theater for a play that Andy Griffith was attending (long after the show ended).  I didn't realize he was behind me in the lobby and stepped on his foot ... my claim to fame)

9) Random question: When people ask for your advice, what do they usually ask you about?
It used to be about shows that are playing in Davis and Sacramento, but since I gave up the theater critic job nobody asks me that any more.

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