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November 9, 2015:

HAPPY HAINESHISWAY.COM ANNIVERSARY

Bruce Kimmel Photograph bk's notes

Well, dear readers, I do love a good piano concerto. Yes, you heard it here, dear readers, I do love a good piano concerto and I’ve been listening to a whole slew of them prior to writing these here notes. In fact, I’m listening to one as I write these here notes – Gershwin’s Concerto in F in the key of F and a concerto. This is one of the greatest of all piano concertos in my uneducated opinion. It is filled with gloriously glorious melodies, brilliant orchestrations and it is profoundly exciting and beautiful and even breathtaking, especially as performed by Mr. Philippe Entremont with Mr. Eugene Ormandy conducting. That was my introduction to the piece (on a two-LP Gershwin set back in the early 1970s) and I have never heard a finer performance either in interpretation or sound. I also love the Ravel Concerto in G in the key of G and I love all four of the Rachmaninov concertos. However, one of my all-time favorites is not really known to many – it’s an American concerto by Mr. Robert Ward, and it was the very first Bay Cities release and it was that release that got me to finally meet Mr. Ward, who’d been a huge musical influence on my life, with his brilliant opera of The Crucible. Issuing multiple CDs by him, hanging out with him, was an incredible thing for me back in the late 1980s. But oh that piano concerto – it is blissfully sublime and sublimely blissful. It is achingly beautiful and when I hear it there is not a dry eye in my head – all two eyes are wet as wet can be. If you can find the CD, get it – it has the concerto and his symphonies two and three, in great sound. I even think it was reissued on another label, but you want the Bay Cities version. It was the CD that taught me all about what to listen for in mastering, it was the CD that taught me I knew I could trust my ears – it began everything, really, in terms of what I’d be doing from then on. I just pulled out my CD (autographed to me by Mr. Ward, with a very sweet inscription) and am loading it into iTunes so I can play it whenever I damn well please. There are many other piano concertos I love, but I do have some notes to write.

And let me being them by saying we have us a big ol’ anniversary this very day.  Yes, it was this very day back in 2001 that this here site was born out of evil and pain, but from day one it turned into a joyous place that has thrived ever since.  We’re entering our 15th year today, and the notes portion of this site is, of course, the longest-running daily blog in the history of the Internet.  We’ve had an amazing bunch of dear readers over the years.  Some we’ve lost to Facebook, some we’ve lost to silly misunderstandings, we’ve gained some wonderful new folks and on we go, and I do feel that soon we will be the most popular site on all the Internet.  So, a happy haineshisway.com anniversary to all of us – the best bunch of folks anywhere on all the Internet and that includes most of our lurkers.  Of course, we occasionally have lurkers lurking and looking to cause whatever problems they can – thus it has been, thus it will always be.  That kind of thing has actually gone on from the very beginning.  But, for me, something born out of absolute evil that could blossom and bloom into something so beautiful is the true miracle.

Yesterday was a Sunday kind of Sunday. I got about eight-and-a-half hours of sleep and then moseyed on over to my noon o’clock lunch meeting at the Coral Café, with a mom and her fourteen-year-old daughter. We talked about the daughter’s desire to perform, I asked my usual questions to see how passionate that desire was, and so we’ll begin working with her with an aim to putting her into the all-kids Kritzerland show in February. I had some eggs benedict whilst mom and daughter both had waffles with strawberries, whipped cream, and some vile looking substance called Nutella.

After that, I came home, finally finished the epic song, although I’m sure I’ll finesse it over the next few days, but it’s finally done, did some other work on the computer, proofed the last of the music, then got all the fixed copies and made sure all the fixes were now correct, which they were, and so we’ll be taking the book version of the sheet music to the printers this week. For anyone who’s interested, drop me a private message here at haineshisway.com so I can give you details. You’ll understand why when I respond. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.

Last night, I finished watching a motion picture entitled Jade, directed by William Friedkin. It’s a pretty mediocre script (the original script by the not so hot Joe Ezsterhas, he of Showgirls and Basic Instinct, sold for a huge amount of money and yet was almost completely rewritten by Mr. Friedkin, who should stop thinking of himself as a writer). Even thought it’s a bit of a dud, it is extremely well directed. The actors aren’t great, save for Linda Fiorentino, who’s fine. It looks very good, and the score by James Horner is odd, but kind of works.

Then I watched another motion picture from this year, entitled Return to Sender, starring Rosamund Pike, the star of Gone Girl. You’d have to wonder why after that breakout role Ms. Pike would choose this as her follow-up, but she didn’t. This film was, in fact, shot prior to Gone Girl. I’m guessing it sat on the shelf and got dusted off once Gone Girl came out. It’s a peculiar film about a woman who’s viciously raped, then in order to find closure, visits her violator in prison and when he’s paroled she lets him do some carpentry work, much to the chagrin of her father, played by Nick Nolte. Of course, everything is not quite as it seems. It’s not very good, but I watched it anyway.

Then I began listening to piano concertos and that made me very happy. As I type, the Robert Ward concerto is playing and it is just as beautiful as ever – his harmonic language is music to my ears. Just buy the damn thing already.

Today, I must finish getting singers their music, I must eat something, one of the helpers is coming by at one, I shall hopefully pick up some packages, and then I have some writing to attend to and I have to figure out a show order, as well.

The rest of the week is meetings and meals and seeing things. The LACC workshop has been pushed to the twenty-third, which is much better for me.

Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, get singers their music, eat, have a helper visit, hopefully pick up packages, write, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite piano concertos? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I continue listening to these lovely piano concertos.

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