Thanks to my wife, I got tickets to the opening concert of New Century Chamber Orchestra's new season, featuring double bassist Edgar Meyer. I have seen many great jazz bassist but this was the first time I saw a classical concert featuring bassist as soloist. Meyer definitely has the dazzling chops for that. He was not only exciting to listen to (making use of the whole range of the instrument from the booming bottom all the way up to the highs using harmonics) but also to watch: his fingers moving up and down and across the fingerboard is not unlike heavy metal guitar shredder at work. It turned out the piece he played was written by Giovanni Bottesini, aka "The Paganini of the double bass"
I was also the first time I heard Adagietto from Mahler's 5th live. I didn't know it could be performed by a chamber orchestra!
In addition to performing, Meyer is also a prolific composer. I am listening to his quintet right now(performed by Emerson String Quartet and himself. I find a bit unusual to listen to Emerson playing contemporary music. You would think this should have been a Kronos Quartet album!)
Friday, September 24, 2010
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