Seattle Times article ahead of Jones/Olka premier

[Mark]

This is a nice article. I hope to see many TubeNetters at the premiere on Thursday.

[pierre]

Does anyone know if this will be recorded or broadcast on the radio?

[Norm in Bellevue]

This is a nice article. I hope to see many TubeNetters at the premiere on Thursday.

I've a rehearsal on Thursday, but have tickets for the wife and I on Sat. After hearing the "real" world premiere with piano, I can scarcely wait to hear it with full orchestra.

[RyanSchultz]

Tonight is the big night! I know Chris is going to dazzle us all.

FYI there was another article in the paper today.

[Steve Marcus]

From OrchestraList:

I just got home (an hour late owing to Seattle's abominable bus system) from
a Seattle Symphony concert where I heard the premiere of Samuel Jones's tuba
concerto. It is a fine piece and magnificently played by Seattle's
extraordinary principal tubist, Chris Olka.
I would guess that when the word gets out, every serious tuba player in the
country will want to have a go at it. Keep your ears open!

David Lamb in Seattle

[Mark]

It was an extraordinary piece. Chris Olka played it perfectly.

Olka used a Yamaha 822 F tuba. The high sections (very high) sounded great. And the low notes... At one point there is a pedal Ab, the one just to the left of the piano keyboard, and it too sounded great.

The third movement represents a wind tunnel and the tuba part is incredibly fast. The orchestra accompaniment is very nice. There are some especially good brass parts.

The Seattle Symphony is playing it again on Saturday, if you are anywhere near Seattle, you should go.

[Mikelynch]

I second Mark's comments, above. Chris played beautifully, with a lovely clear sound at all times, and throughout the full (and extensive) range of the piece. It was truly a very impressive performance of a signifificant and extremely challenging new work.

Having now had the good fortune to hear Chris perform the piece with both piano reduction and orchestral accompaniment, the piece is excellent with either. But the complexity of Samuel Jones' accompaniment can only be fully realized with the full orchestra. I suspect that those of you who have heard Chris play with the piano reduction wil be impressed with the added context and depth to the piece when the full orchestra is behind him.

Chris and Sam Jones received an extended, and well-deserved, standing ovation last night. Any one in the area should clearly make the effort to hear Chris play Saturday night (and since I went from Austin to hear Thursday's performance, "in the area" should be construed pretty broadly).

Mike

[Mark]

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/classical ... so07q.html
...Yeah! What he said.

And for some more preliminaries:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/a ... onc06.html

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/classical ... uba05.html

[Peach]

Mark,
Is that an FBAT!?

That's a real 'Big Valve' set...

[jmanning]

From the Seattle Post Intelligencer review today:

"The Roman tuba was such an integral part of the civic life of the country -- battles, funerals, religious ceremonies -- its players, called tubicines sacrorum populi romani, often enjoyed the rank of priest.

After the Seattle Symphony premiere Thursday night at Benaroya Hall of Samuel Jones' virtuosic Tuba Concerto, Christopher Olka, SSO principal tuba, would have been among them: so accomplished his technique, so polished his musicality."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/classical ... so07q.html

I've been keeping track of the news on this on my new blog: http://tubahead.tubablogs.com/blog/

Congratulations Chris, I can't wait to hear this new work!

[cornholio]

SJSUW...

who dat?

http://www.am1090seattle.com/phpBB2/sea ... bc822958ab