The Boerne Concert Band's second concert will be Thursday, October 18 at 7:00 p.m. at the Main Plaza in downtown Boerne. The New Braunfels Village Brass Band will also participate in the concert. Concertgoers are advised to bring lawn chairs and blankets. The band had a great premier concert in July. Don't miss this one!

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I've recently added a few updates to the Music Calendar, including a couple of concerts for the Boerne Concert Band.

Yesterday I went with a group of photographers to Old Tunnel Wildlife Management Area. The abandoned railroad tunnel was constructed in 1913 and is now home to over three million Mexican Free-tailed bats. There is an observation platform near the parking lot, but I highly recommend paying for admittance to the lower viewing area just outside the tunnel. Not only do you get a great view, but an educational presentation beginning about 30 minutes before the expected emergence will hold the interest of all ages. I took this video with a Canon ZR600 Mini DV camera.

Have you experienced sticker shock when buying sheet music? Have you ever wanted to try before you buy? Do you love to rummage through stacks of old music? If so, you should check out the growing treasure trove of public domain music available free online at International Music Score Library Project. The music is easily searchable by composer name, composer period and work genre (i.e., vocal, orchestral, chamber, etc). You can view the scores online or download a PDF version suitable for printing.

The site's servers are located in Canada. Canada appears to have more lenient copyright restrictions than the United States. One drawback of much public domain music is that the editions often have minimal if any annotation. You may not find much guidance for fingering. The site welcomes contributions, so check out the Contributor Portal if you have some old public domain music you can contribute.

In the generally staid and proper world of classical music it is rare that a scandal of monumental proportions is ever perpetrated. Joyce Hatto was a gifted but undistinguished British pianist who made a few recordings some decades ago. Then, beginning in the 1990's and into the early 2000's, Hatto's husband released dozens of recordings covering a considerable portion of the piano repertoire under Hatto's name. Collectors and reviewers praised the recordings as being among the best they had heard. The accomplishment was all the more amazing because Hatto was in her 70's and suffering from terminal cancer. It's a fascinating story. An encyclopedic overview can be found here. The best summary I have read is this recently published article from The New Yorker.

The San Antonio Opera performed Puccini's La Boheme last weekend. I attended the Saturday night performance. While the cavernous expanses of the Lila Cockrell Theater make for a "grander" opera experience, I find myself longing for the good old days when budgets were smaller, parking was easier (and free), and the whole experience seemed more joyous and exciting. But maybe it's just me.

La Boheme barely has a plot and there isn't much in the way of character development. But some of the music is supremely beautiful, amorous, and heartbreaking. In the present performance the leads (Mimi and Rodopho) gave adequate, but not compelling portrayals of the carefree poet and delicate young seamstress. Marcello and Musetta (especially Musetta) had more refined vocal skills and more convincing acting.

In many performances the chorus is all too often left to stand around, trying not to look too conspicuous. Not this time! The stage direction resulted in a flowing, very lifelike movement and interaction of the characters. As a result, the Cafe Momus scene was a joy to the eyes as well as the ears.

Perhaps the greatest performance Saturday night was not on the stage but in the orchestra pit. With Puccini the orchestra rose to new heights of expression in opera. There is often a chamber music texture, so delicate and so difficult to bring off just right. Conductor Enrique Patron de Rueda and the small orchestra deserve high praise for many moments of rapturous orchestral beauty.

The next opera will be Donizetti's Elixir of Love. It will have three performances starting Friday, January 25, 2008. When I was at Southwest Texas State University (many years ago) I played violin in the little chamber orchestra that accompanied the music department's production of Elixir of Love. It'll be nice seeing the opera this time! The story is utterly ridiculous, and the music is light and joyous in a warm Italian country way.

The Saltarelli String Orchestra will perform a program of light classical and popular selections at 7:30 at the First Mexican Baptist Church, 201 Meredith, San Antonio.

A highlight of the program is a very effective arrangement of the second movement of Gustav Mahler's First Symphony. Short works by Haydn, Gluck, and Lehar are included in the program. The concert concludes with Offenbach's spirited Can-Can.

July 26, 2007 was the premier performance of the Boerne Concert Band. A previously scheduled outdoor premier was rained out and the audience braved possible storms to attend the concert in the Boerne Middle School North Auditorium.

Director Larry Schmidt led the band in a varied program including traditional marches, Big Band tunes, movie soundtracks, and Mexican favorites. I was prepared to be forgiving of minor flaws and weaknesses in some sections. Such concerns were unwarranted! This is already a splendid organization, playing with precision and style. Even intonation, often a problem with community groups, was excellent.

It appears the preferred venue for the Band's concerts will be outdoors on Main Plaza in downtown Boerne. I think we were fortunate to hear the band in the good acoustics of the Boerne Middle School North Auditorium. Outdoors can provide plenty of "atmosphere", but isn't the best place to appreciate fine music-making.

The next concert is scheduled for Thursday, October 18 at 7:00 pm on Main Plaza.