Hazelwood blows his own trumpet

[french frank]

frenhie, any chance of you attending the first of the concerts, and reviewing it here. Perhaps Charlie wouild even grant you a comp. ;)

Well, if he - or you - were to pay me ... .

Well, I'll be perfectly open: what I really would fear is that there would be too much of Charlie communicating with his audience. I really, really, dislike this kind of concert, and since he even ventured to do it in his Carnegie Hall debut, to the baffled disapproval of at least two press reviewers, plus the way he describes his 'mission', it seems to me all too likely.

I'm a great attender of pre-concert talks, but once the music begins ... into another world.

[Uncle Monty]

There's now a hilarious comment after the article by Bristol conductor Tom Gauterin on Hazlewood and "his pick-up band" :cool2:

[Mr Pee]

to the baffled disapproval of at least two press reviewers

Like this one, French Frank? (From Classics Today):-

Last Friday’s Carnegie Hall program by the Orchestra of St. Luke’s was conceived around two important debuts, both of which fell flat. The first was the Carnegie Hall debut of conductor Charles Hazlewood, who, forgoing jacket and tie, felt compelled to deliver a pre-concert pitch before every work played, as though desperately peddling Florida real estate—or snake oil. Improbably channeling both Eric Idle (“Now listen to these first four notes, ladies and gentlemen, and listen to them very…carefully”) and Kermit the Frog (“Ladies-and-gentlemen-without-further-ado-please-welcome-to-the-stage-Ms.-Sumi-Jo-Yayy!!”), Hazlewood’s eagerness to educate and enthuse led him through endgames of didacticism that poached upon the dignity of even the most pedestrian Friday-night concertgoer while still managing to provide remarkably little insight that the literate could not have gleaned from the program notes already in custody.

[subcontrabass]

And I think bringing Schnittke to Bristol is a good thing!

I suppose a work for 13 strings with star part for conductor fits the attitude he shows.

[Simon]

Hazlewood’s eagerness to educate and enthuse...

And it's precisely this that makes me want to give him a fair hearing and not condemn him all the time like some people...

[french frank]

Mr Pee, I'd forgotten the subsidiary details. I think in future it could be offered as evidence of the fact that, however rude people are on this forum, it has nothing on the outspokenness of press hacks.

[subcontrabass]

Another piece of pure nonsense from his article:

Bristol, the capital of the West, is unique compared to any other city of equivalent size, for not having a full-time orchestra. Or opera company. Or dance company.

Sheffield is slightly larger than Bristol (whether you look at the city or include the conurbation), but seems to be in exactly the same situation with regard to orchestra, opera company and dance company.

[Bryn]

On the naming of parts:

In the cached version (the only one that seems to be accessible) of their website, The Army of Generals is said to have been formed to perform the music for the 2003 BBC films, the second of which is currently being rebroadcast on BBC4. However, on that website the films are given the name "The Genius of Mozart", whereas the schedule names them as "Mozart Uncovered". There is also some confusion regarding the name of the band. Its website says it's called "Army of Generals", but the film credits "The Mozart Collective". I therefore see no problem in renaming Charles Hazlewood as "Charles Hazelwood".

[Paul Sherratt]

>>And it's precisely this that makes me want to give him a fair hearing and not condemn him all the time like some people...


Simon,

I suspect that in your deep recesses that lost image of CH wearing those goggles á la thatcher* has had an undue influence ...



* I can't remember now if he was also on top of a Landrover or some such like.

[Bryn]

Looks like Andrew Sparling was the band's pricipal clarinetist in 2003. Indeed, quite a few well known musicians are to be seen in that there band.

[french frank]

Sheffield is slightly larger than Bristol (whether you look at the city or include the conurbation), but seems to be in exactly the same situation with regard to orchestra, opera company and dance company.

In terms of opera, it also loses out in being so close to Cardiff. Hard to compete there. The city also 'lost' the BSO to Poole when the Lighthouse was built. The Colston Hall was considered its home base until then. Various attempts at getting a first class concert venue have been thwarted (true, they have recently seemed more interested in getting huge 10,000-20,000 pop-type venues in which I have nil interest myself). But the new Trust was set up in December to find a way of financing and running the Colston Hall, and carrying out the proposed upgrade of the auditorium. Then it will be up to Charlie to do a Simon Rattle and get us a first class professional orchestra!

But there is also the other band, Excellent Device! ('Hazlewood's London-based symphony orchestra'): this also seems to be ad hoc. No website? no details of concerts? My conclusion is that Charlie is, first, entrepreneur, second, broadcaster. He is a performing musician in the same way that he is also a farmer. A man with many irons in his undoubted fire.

[Uncle Monty]

Incidentally, what's all this about "as someone who was born and raised in Somerset"?

A glance at the records on the official B M & D site confirms that Charles Matthew Egerton Hazlewood was born on 14 November 1966 in, er, St Albans. . .

[3rd Viennese School]

Well, we hardly get any Schnittke played on Radio 3, so maybe this will now happen?
3VS

[Bryn]

Incidentally, what's all this about "as someone who was born and raised in Somerset"?

A glance at the records on the official B M & D site confirms that Charles Matthew Egerton Hazlewood was born on 14 November 1966 in, er, St Albans. . .

Strictly, his turn phrase there could be read as a comparison, rather than as a claim to be a native of Somerset. The "raised" aspect clearly does not relate directly to him. Was he not pricipally raised, along with the welts from his claimed beatings, at Christ's Hospital School in Horsham, West Sussex?

[french frank]

Wikipedia has the phrase 'After adopting Somerset as his home', presumably when he bought his farm. A bit of googling discovers that his father was appointed vicar of Prestbury in Gloucestershire when the young Charles was seven, going on eight. A bit of creative reinvention here?

On the other hand, this states that he was born in Yeovil, and spent his first seven years there. And Yeovil is in Somerset ...