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Peter Schickele’s Concert Appearances
Here is a list of concert halls and
performing groups who have graciously invited Peter Schickele or Prof.
Schickele to present concerts in the near future, along with dates and times
and helpful or informative links. Peter Schickele’s usual touring season runs
from January through May, with a few scattered concerts showing up at other
times of the year. The 2010-11 concert season is an exception; see
the News From the Prof below for details.
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Note: It is always wise to check things
out before arriving at the concert hall five minutes before curtain time;
concerts sometimes materialize, or evaporate out of, or into, respectively, thin
air. To find out about the latest materializations and evaporations, when
and if they happen, sign up for our mailing list.
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Date
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Program
(link to description)
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Location
(link to venue site if available)
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| May 23, 2010,
Sunday at 3:00 p.m. |
P.D.Q. Bach: An
Afternoon of Musical Mayhem |
Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Symphony Center
220 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois
312-294-3000
http://www.cso.org/ |
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News From the Prof
In the middle of May, I had an epiphany. It was a few days before
the last concert of 2009-10 P.D.Q Bach touring season, which was, by
the way, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra—what an unmitigated
high! (Everybody knows how good they are, but they were also
such a pleasure to work with, and ready for anything that P.D.Q.
threw at them.)
I suddenly realized that that concert would be, probably almost to
the day, the fiftieth anniversary of the first time that the name
P.D.Q. Bach appeared on a concert program. Naturally, since it
concerns P.D.Q. Bach, it’s a little complicated, and does not follow
the straight line that is usually associated with the unvarnished
truth.
Here’s how it works: Although the name P.D.Q. Bach arose in
1953, the “Sanka” Cantata, to which it was attached, was not
on a program; it was simply a tape that my brother and our
friend Ernie Lloyd and I played for friends.
In May of 1959 Jorge Mester and I (and a few others) put on a
humorous concert at Juilliard. Although a radically different
version of the Concerto for Horn and Hardart was on the
program, it was listed as being by Johann Peter Schickele. A
somewhat different version of the Quodlibet was also on the
program, attributed to the various composers quoted.
In August of 1959 Jorge and I put on a similar program in Aspen.
Unfortunately, I can't find that program, but I remember that the
Sinfonia Concertante that’s on the first Vanguard album was done
for that concert and attributed to Giovanni Taschentuch-fils. I
think that the program also featured the Tombeau de P.D.Q. Bach
(now by Peter Schickele), called at that time Sonata for Violin
and Piano, by P.D.Q. Bach; it was another couple of years
before I realized that the Sonata was not consistently funny enough
to be P.D.Q. Bach but a bit too funny to be Peter Schickele, hence
the disarmingly clever title by which it is now known.
By 1960, when it became clear that the humorous concerts at
Juilliard (and Aspen) were going to become an annual tradition, I
decided that these pieces I was coming up with must all be by the
same composer, and the name P.D.Q. Bach took over. Thus,
although some of the music appeared in 1959, and the name was once
incorrectly (the Peter Schickele Tombeau de P.D.Q. Bach) used
in 1959, it is true enough that the first P.D.Q. Bach concert took
place in May of 1960 at Juilliard, making 2010 the 50th anniversary
of P.D.Q. Bach concerts. Besides, it didn’t occur to me in
2009, so that’s another good reason to celebrate in 2010.
As it happens, this anniversary coincides with the seventy-fifth
anniversary of my time on this earth, and I’ve decided to celebrate
in truly contrarian fashion by taking the 2010-11 season off.
From performing, I mean; there’s lots of music to be written
and a couple of health issues (non life-threatening) to be dealt
with, but I’m ready for a year of kicking back. The one
exception is the already-scheduled annual concert with Mikhail
Horowitz and Gilles Malkine in Bearsville, New York on December 11,
2010.
Peter Schickele
June 21, 2010 |
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| December 11,
2010, Saturday. |
Peter Schickele will again join
Mikhail Horowitz and Gilles Malkine in the fifth annual holiday show
at the Bearsville Theatre. Time, repertoire, additional
performers and just about all the details will be announced as soon
as they are worked out. |
Bearsville Theater
291 Tinker Street
Woodstock, New York
845-679-4406
http://www.bearsvilletheater.com/ |
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Other Concert Information
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Concert Tours
For more information about the concerts,
including:
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descriptions of the music
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biographies of the performers
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information on how to book a concert |
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