Did You Know Dumbeldore Was A Music Person?

While millions of Harry Potter fans watched the death of Dumbeldore, the wise, wizened Wizard, to the tune of an estimated $159.7 million in ticket sales, I joined the throngs and added to the cumulative total. While the subject is "hot" and in people's minds, I want to call your attention to a salient aspect of his life. Important news: Dumbeldore was a music person.

"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. " a magic beyond all we do here!" (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Scholastic Press, 1997, p.128.) Quite a compliment, coming from a Magician and teacher of magic.

Did you know that his 6-line bio includes: "Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music...."(Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Scholastic Press, 1997, p. 103.).

In a world where music education is undervalued and often omitted from schools, having a man like Dumbeldore as an advocate can be enormously beneficial to our cause! He can be quoted as a towering role models to influence others.... Please share or rush this info to all your friends, acquaintances, co-workers, and their children.

You may be surprised to learn that an ardent classical music afficionado, like myself, so busy with concert-going and reviews, has other interests. It is well- documented that I love music of many kinds and have a curious mind. (Some have used that world as an insult, but I take it as a compliment, thank you!) I am a great admirer of the imagination, humor, and story-telling of J.K Rowling. And I have read every volume of the series, as well as her charming Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them published by Obscurus Books 18 a Diagon Alley, London - - which you should not miss.

Please let me know your opinion. You can write to me at GUSTAVWIND@LYRICNY.ORG. I love getting attention! Please remember to use only the loftiest terms and the most elevated thoughts. Lyric's website and a person of my stature cannot and will not respond to inappropriate language which is so disgustingly prevalent in our society at this time.

Looking forward to hearing from you (and to seeing you, if you can find me. I am known for my varied disguises, and no one has recognized me yet, in my many venerable years of concert-going and reviewing. As a result, some are naturally curious about my identity, and others have gone so far as to speculate that I am not a man at all but might be a female. What a ridiculous notion! What parent would name a daughter Gustav? Catch me, if you can….)

Yours,

Gustav Wind, E.C. (Eminent Critic), R.C. (Revered Critic) and

E.G. (Eminence Grise)

Copyright Gustav Wind 2009. This copyrighted work is the property of the author and may not be reproduced or used without permission of the author.

REVIEW OF THE LYRIC CHAMBER MUSIC SOCIETY OF NEW YORK’S CONCERTS: MAY 20, 2009 Mendelssohn: What’s New?
JUNE 8,2009 All-Star Tribute to 50 Years of Music by Judy Collins

BY GUSTAV WIND

For those of you who did not attend the May and June concerts of the Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York, my heart goes out to you. Unbeknownst to you, you have suffered a great loss and deprivation! I don’t want you to feel terrible, so it is my humble hope that you can live vicariously through my narrative.

What an enthusiastic crowd streamed into the intimate, beautiful setting of the turn-of-the–century mansion at the Kosciuszko Foundation, on May 20, flowing up the curving marble staircase and racing to get the best seats. Actually, there are no “bad” seats in the wood-paneled former living room, whose walls are lined with original oil paintings I enjoyed, in between the movements and during the intermission, when I was not riveted by the superb music-making. With 120 seats, you are as close to the musicians as is humanly possible, without sitting on them! Apparently it is possible to squeeze a few more music lovers in. I heard an usher whisper that there were actually 128 seated, plus a few devotees at the top of the staircase; but I did not feel crowded.

The audience was filled with a broad spectrum of ages, including a large proportion of young people in their twenties and thirties - - not your usual “graying groupies” for classical music. Heartwarming to a cynic like myself, who is always bemoaning the paucity of music education in our schools.

One aspect of the Society’s mission is to broaden the audience for music. A Board Member suggested that the Lyric Chamber Music Society of New York stage a ticket-buying-event, to call the press to witness young people fighting to buy seats. A new version of the classic marketing textbook case of the Cabbage Patch Dolls, when mothers fought over the toys, and members of the media flocked to record their interaction.

From what I saw in May and June, such imaginative and extreme measures may not be necessary, Lyric! The next generation is coming without P.T. Barnum-like schemes! I intend to investigate this aberration for my loyal readers and to report to those who care about handing the torch down to the next generation, classically-musically-speaking.

The May program consisted of two Piano Trios in d minor by brother and sister, Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn Hensel, plus selections from Fanny’s “Das Jahr.” The event was part of an ongoing series exploring the works of the Mendelssohns. Tatiana Goncharova, piano, and Anna Rabinova, Violin, and Sophie Shao, played beautifully.

On June 8, a similarly enthusiastic crowd assembled to hear Judy Collins perform with pianist Russell Walden and Ned Rorem in a tribute by the Lyric to her at the New York Society for Ethical Culture. Judy has many admirers and friends, as she should, in her 50 years of memorable music-making. She sang with elegance, passion, and grace, in great voice, as did Jimmy Webb, Suzanne Vega, and Amy Speace. Others performing magnificently were MaD Fusion (David Rozenblatt, percussion; Matt Herskowitz, Piano, Lyric’s Artist in Residence; and Mat Fields, Bass), Rufus Cappadocia, Cello, and Kenny White, Piano.

I could go on and on, praising the performers to the skies, but I must limit myself, because of my busy summer schedule. So many concerts to attend; so little time in the day.

Please remember my customary caveat: writing about music is a very difficult task, even for a most experienced critic like me. Many of my colleagues don’t seem to notice the inherent problem in trying to describe a series of sounds which evaporated long ago. They usually chatter on and on, wielding their carving sets, making mincemeat out of the sincere, hardworking, well-intentioned mortals who set themselves the Herculean task of trying to recreate what they think the composer wanted. To complicate the issue, the musicians are always expected to give note-perfect, memorable performances in public.

Who can really tell you how a symphony orchestra or a single musician sounded last week? I say: no one! I would like to bring their sounds to life, to place them in your ear and mind, to revive the emotions they ellicited. Telling you that someone played fast, slow, loud, soft, in English, Italian, or any other language, simply does not achieve the intrinsically impossible goal. Yet we critics must go on, lest we be outdated like the covered wagon and replaced by recordings. I try to report in ways that may make you feel as if you were there, but you weren’t; and you can’t really know what happened. And if you were there, most often, when you read a review, you wonder if you and the critic were really in the same room at the same time.

I can only give you a hint of the soulful tones that emerged from the musicians and surrounded us. You simply have to make every effort to hear the concerts for yourself. For after all, isn’t that what reviews are about? Reports to help you to decide what to hear and what to miss, in your busy life, with limited time? Or is a review a field day for psyche destruction?

Mellifluous, rich, a palette of nuanced sounds - -all vast understatements! There certainly were exciting emotional contrasts and a variety of musical colors, from whispering pianissimos(softs) to full-bodied fortissimo’s (louds). (Please forgive me for using what may be mere gibberish to many readers, i.e. the requisite critical terms, which I must occasionally interject, lest I be laughed out of the current world of criticism.)

I was happy to learn that all the Lyric concerts are recorded and often aired on American Public Radio, and that Lyric donors can acquire a copy, or many copies, for gifts.

Please let me know your opinion of the concert and/or my review. You can write to me at GUSTAVWIND@LYRICNY.ORG. I love getting attention! Please remember to use only the loftiest terms and the most elevated thoughts. Lyric's website and a person of my stature cannot and will not respond to inappropriate language which is so disgustingly prevalent in our society at this time.

Looking forward to hearing from you (and to seeing you, if you can find me. I am known for my varied disguises, and no one has recognized me yet, in my many venerable years of concert-going and reviewing. As a result, some are naturally curious about my identity, and others have gone so far as to speculate that I am not a man at all but might be a female. What a ridiculous notion! What parent would name a daughter Gustav? Catch me, if you can….)

Yours,
Gustav Wind, E.C. (Eminent Critic), R.C. (Revered Critic) and
E.G. (Eminence Grise)

Copyright Gustav Wind 2009. This copyrighted work is the property of the author and may not be reproduced or used without permission of the author.