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  • MoTab Christmas Concert starts tomorrow

    Guesting Natalie Cole. Anyone going? I shall be reviewing it,for the 5th straight year now. I shall be mostly positive, as I got my butt chewed by the CB masses for my critical review two years ago.

    I was at the CC a few days ago when they were practicing the stage lighting, and although the set design is sparer than the last few years, the lighting is wilder:


  • #2
    I shall be mostly positive, as I got my butt chewed by the CB masses for my critical review two years ago.
    You've entered a whole new world now. Feel free to be honest.
    So Russell...what do you love about music? To begin with, everything.

    Comment


    • #3
      We've tried to get tickets for a few years now, but have never lucked out. That is probably one of reasons I don't play the lottery

      I may be small, but I'm slow.

      A veteran - whether active duty, retired, or national guard or reserve is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to, "The United States of America ", for an amount of "up to and including my life - it's an honor."

      Comment


      • #4
        The concert was mediocre so I havent had the heart to write a review of it. I peeked at the SL Trib and the reviewer there was kind but honest enough to admit basically the same thing. Yes, I know it was free, and I still had a lot of fun, so I will concentrate on random observations.

        Sherri Dew gave the invocation. She has man hands.

        Mack Wilberg has lost weight and now instead of looking like a jolly santa, he looked like a kindly wizened gnome.

        Hey look! Natalie Cole has man hands too! Her speaking voice is very high and breathy. If I were Paula Abdul, I'd complain that she's too pitchy. Nice phrasing, though. She's a consumate pro. She's no Sissel, though.

        Processional: Come O Come, a MWilberg composition that takes a musical strain and winds it into O Come All Ye Faithful toward the end of the song. It starts thin with the children's choir (They were fab) and Wilberg layers on the women's voices and climaxes with a strong male vocal line. Nice tune.

        Arrrgh! I am sick of Carol Iwasaki's choreography! She's done it 5 years in a row, give her a rest already. Call up Odyssey and ask their choreographer to think up something more fresh.

        Grown-Up Christmas List, by David Foster: Looks on its way to being a modern christmas classic. Cole does well with this song, it is personal and intimate and she pulls it off.

        O Holy Night: Normally this song is done on autopilot. Take a soloist with a magnificent voice, and have them kill it in huge vocal power, with the MoTab as the rising chorus surrounding the soloist voice. Here, MW had a problem because there was no way Natalie Cole could pull this off. But bringing in a soloist for this song is a tacit admission that Cole could not do it. MW solves the problem by performing it as a chorus, which I have never heard before. Like Come O Come, it starts small, then MW layers in section after section of adult voices. When they hit the money phrase (verse 3, "Christ is the Lord... O Praise his name forever...") I was disappointed becaue the Orchestra drowns out the choir. Not to worry, Wilberg reprises the money phrase, this time bringing the full throttle power of the choir, especially the male voices. Here was the resolution I was looking for. The song ends small, quietly, like a prayer.

        Organ Solo by Richard Elliott: This was the kick-ass climax of the concert. The absolute best number of the night. I knew from last year that Elliott puts on a good show, with the camera showing him playing the bass keyboard with his feet at the same time as he plays two other keyboards-one with each hand. The song is Good King Wenceslas and the first time he plays it pretty much straight through. The second stanza, he begins to sneak in some other phrasing that sounds suspiciously familiar until you realize he is playing The Dance of the Flutes, from the Nutcracker Suite, winding that melody in with Good King Wenceslas. The third stanza he throws in the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, all the while returning intermittently to Wenceslas, before adding the Russian Dance to end the whole thing. Before this performance, I did not realize that the Tabernacle Organ could mimic so many instruments. I thought it always sounded... well... organy. I discovered that it can pretty much mimic the entire orchestra. Elliott got a standing O for this one.

        The celebration of christmases around the world: ummmm, not that great. It included a spanish carol that featured a horrid pas de deux complete with clicking castanets, and for the Jamaican carol, a bunch of white classical dancers dressed like Carmen Miranda tried to dance with a Jamaican rhythmn. Cringing. The Russian song was very good, but I wish they had performed the dancing with men only; it looked odd to see the women doing the same steps.

        In The Bleak Midwinter: Nice little understated tune with the lights low and a dappled, mottled light cast over the faces of the choir. Nothing gives me chills like the MoTab singing a capella. MW wrings every last bit of emotion from the song in quiet intensity.

        The Christmas Concert is the closest thing to the apex of the LDS Social Season, and it is always fun to see everyone dressed to the nines and in a convivial mood.

        Comment


        • #5
          My mom enlists all her kids, friends, casual acquaintances and strangers to enter the lottery so she can score tickets every year. Having attended way back when it was in the old tabernacle, I've never quite understood the over the top passion she has for attending this every year.
          Everything in life is an approximation.

          http://twitter.com/CougarStats

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by Katy Lied View Post
            The concert was mediocre so I havent had the heart to write a review of it. I peeked at the SL Trib and the reviewer there was kind but honest enough to admit basically the same thing. Yes, I know it was free, and I still had a lot of fun, so I will concentrate on random observations.

            Sherri Dew gave the invocation. She has man hands.

            Mack Wilberg has lost weight and now instead of looking like a jolly santa, he looked like a kindly wizened gnome.

            Hey look! Natalie Cole has man hands too! Her speaking voice is very high and breathy. If I were Paula Abdul, I'd complain that she's too pitchy. Nice phrasing, though. She's a consumate pro. She's no Sissel, though.

            Processional: Come O Come, a MWilberg composition that takes a musical strain and winds it into O Come All Ye Faithful toward the end of the song. It starts thin with the children's choir (They were fab) and Wilberg layers on the women's voices and climaxes with a strong male vocal line. Nice tune.

            Arrrgh! I am sick of Carol Iwasaki's choreography! She's done it 5 years in a row, give her a rest already. Call up Odyssey and ask their choreographer to think up something more fresh.

            Grown-Up Christmas List, by David Foster: Looks on its way to being a modern christmas classic. Cole does well with this song, it is personal and intimate and she pulls it off.

            O Holy Night: Normally this song is done on autopilot. Take a soloist with a magnificent voice, and have them kill it in huge vocal power, with the MoTab as the rising chorus surrounding the soloist voice. Here, MW had a problem because there was no way Natalie Cole could pull this off. But bringing in a soloist for this song is a tacit admission that Cole could not do it. MW solves the problem by performing it as a chorus, which I have never heard before. Like Come O Come, it starts small, then MW layers in section after section of adult voices. When they hit the money phrase (verse 3, "Christ is the Lord... O Praise his name forever...") I was disappointed becaue the Orchestra drowns out the choir. Not to worry, Wilberg reprises the money phrase, this time bringing the full throttle power of the choir, especially the male voices. Here was the resolution I was looking for. The song ends small, quietly, like a prayer.

            Organ Solo by Richard Elliott: This was the kick-ass climax of the concert. The absolute best number of the night. I knew from last year that Elliott puts on a good show, with the camera showing him playing the bass keyboard with his feet at the same time as he plays two other keyboards-one with each hand. The song is Good King Wenceslas and the first time he plays it pretty much straight through. The second stanza, he begins to sneak in some other phrasing that sounds suspiciously familiar until you realize he is playing The Dance of the Flutes, from the Nutcracker Suite, winding that melody in with Good King Wenceslas. The third stanza he throws in the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, all the while returning intermittently to Wenceslas, before adding the Russian Dance to end the whole thing. Before this performance, I did not realize that the Tabernacle Organ could mimic so many instruments. I thought it always sounded... well... organy. I discovered that it can pretty much mimic the entire orchestra. Elliott got a standing O for this one.

            The celebration of christmases around the world: ummmm, not that great. It included a spanish carol that featured a horrid pas de deux complete with clicking castanets, and for the Jamaican carol, a bunch of white classical dancers dressed like Carmen Miranda tried to dance with a Jamaican rhythmn. Cringing. The Russian song was very good, but I wish they had performed the dancing with men only; it looked odd to see the women doing the same steps.

            In The Bleak Midwinter: Nice little understated tune with the lights low and a dappled, mottled light cast over the faces of the choir. Nothing gives me chills like the MoTab singing a capella. MW wrings every last bit of emotion from the song in quiet intensity.

            The Christmas Concert is the closest thing to the apex of the LDS Social Season, and it is always fun to see everyone dressed to the nines and in a convivial mood.
            Grown up Christmas List and the organ solo were easily my favorites. I don't know that Natalie Cole's and the MoTab's styles really match very well. I think Natalie Cole's voice lends better to Jazz than the opera voices we typically hear from MoTab soloists. I think that's part of the reason Christmas List sounded so good. My says she still likes the Michael Buble version more. Or at least better than the other numbers. I also didn't enjoy the lady sitting behind me singing along with the choir. I realize they are free tickets, but I didn't come to hear the lady behind me singing. Overall it was a fun evening for me and my wife.
            "To the man who only has a hammer, everything he encounters begins to look like a nail."
            —Abraham Maslow

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Indy Coug View Post
              My mom enlists all her kids, friends, casual acquaintances and strangers to enter the lottery so she can score tickets every year. Having attended way back when it was in the old tabernacle, I've never quite understood the over the top passion she has for attending this every year.
              I have never even heard of this event. I assumed people were talking about that First Presidency Christmas thing.
              Fitter. Happier. More Productive.

              sigpic

              Comment


              • #8
                My wife and I attended. Natalie Cole was disappointing - and why did she need a teleprompter? First time I've seen karaoke at the Conference Center.
                "It's devastating, because we lost to a team that's not even in the Pac-12. To lose to Utah State is horrible." - John White IV

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by Katy Lied View Post
                  Guesting Natalie Cole. Anyone going? I shall be reviewing it,for the 5th straight year now. I shall be mostly positive, as I got my butt chewed by the CB masses for my critical review two years ago.
                  How do you get tickets 5 yrs in a row?

                  I may be small, but I'm slow.

                  A veteran - whether active duty, retired, or national guard or reserve is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to, "The United States of America ", for an amount of "up to and including my life - it's an honor."

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by happyone View Post
                    How do you get tickets 5 yrs in a row?
                    http://www.cougaruteforum.com/showpo...35&postcount=5
                    Everything in life is an approximation.

                    http://twitter.com/CougarStats

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by Katy Lied View Post
                      O Holy Night: Normally this song is done on autopilot. Take a soloist with a magnificent voice, and have them kill it in huge vocal power, with the MoTab as the rising chorus surrounding the soloist voice. Here, MW had a problem because there was no way Natalie Cole could pull this off. But bringing in a soloist for this song is a tacit admission that Cole could not do it. MW solves the problem by performing it as a chorus, which I have never heard before. Like Come O Come, it starts small, then MW layers in section after section of adult voices. When they hit the money phrase (verse 3, "Christ is the Lord... O Praise his name forever...") I was disappointed becaue the Orchestra drowns out the choir. Not to worry, Wilberg reprises the money phrase, this time bringing the full throttle power of the choir, especially the male voices. Here was the resolution I was looking for. The song ends small, quietly, like a prayer.

                      Organ Solo by Richard Elliott: This was the kick-ass climax of the concert. The absolute best number of the night. I knew from last year that Elliott puts on a good show, with the camera showing him playing the bass keyboard with his feet at the same time as he plays two other keyboards-one with each hand. The song is Good King Wenceslas and the first time he plays it pretty much straight through. The second stanza, he begins to sneak in some other phrasing that sounds suspiciously familiar until you realize he is playing The Dance of the Flutes, from the Nutcracker Suite, winding that melody in with Good King Wenceslas. The third stanza he throws in the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, all the while returning intermittently to Wenceslas, before adding the Russian Dance to end the whole thing. Before this performance, I did not realize that the Tabernacle Organ could mimic so many instruments. I thought it always sounded... well... organy. I discovered that it can pretty much mimic the entire orchestra. Elliott got a standing O for this one.
                      I'm jealous you got to see these. I've never been to the concert but would have loved to attend. Alas, I no longer live in Utah.

                      That organ solo sounds amazing. Will this concert be broadcast anywhere or at least is the organ solo available on youtube?
                      "Discipleship is not a spectator sport. We cannot expect to experience the blessing of faith by standing inactive on the sidelines any more than we can experience the benefits of health by sitting on a sofa watching sporting events on television and giving advice to the athletes. And yet for some, “spectator discipleship” is a preferred if not primary way of worshipping." -Pres. Uchtdorf

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Eddie Jones View Post
                        I'm jealous you got to see these. I've never been to the concert but would have loved to attend. Alas, I no longer live in Utah.

                        That organ solo sounds amazing. Will this concert be broadcast anywhere or at least is the organ solo available on youtube?
                        Friday night's performance was recorded for later rebroadcast on PBS.
                        "It's devastating, because we lost to a team that's not even in the Pac-12. To lose to Utah State is horrible." - John White IV

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by Eddie Jones View Post
                          I'm jealous you got to see these. I've never been to the concert but would have loved to attend. Alas, I no longer live in Utah.

                          That organ solo sounds amazing. Will this concert be broadcast anywhere or at least is the organ solo available on youtube?
                          They normally broadcast this yrs concert next yr on PBS. They also put out a DVD of it the next yr.

                          I may be small, but I'm slow.

                          A veteran - whether active duty, retired, or national guard or reserve is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to, "The United States of America ", for an amount of "up to and including my life - it's an honor."

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            This year's 2010 concert will feature David Archuleta. I have no doubt he has the power and talent to hit the dramatic notes, but I wonder if he will be able to hold the audience in the palm of his hand during the talky sections where he relates personal anecdotes. We will see. He is sort of the anti-Natalie Cole of last year. Her voice was shot, but she could still tell stories to you in the pseudo intimate way that's just between her and 22,000 of her closest friends.

                            Signup for random drawing for tickets starts this Saturday at midnight.

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by happyone View Post
                              How do you get tickets 5 yrs in a row?
                              Yeah, thanks. My streak has come to an end. I could not get tickets this year, and I didn't want to buy them. So I am sitting here listening to the abbreviated performance on Music and the Spoken Word, broadcast now on BYUtv.

                              The narrator/reader part is by Michael York this year. I think he's marvelous, and is doing more than simply reading. Harkening back to his days as a dramatic actor in British Theatre, he is gesticulating madly and pronouncing "Bernard" in that indomitable british way, "BERN-erd."

                              In the first Archuleta piece, he is quite restrained. It is an arrangement of Joy to the World, written by Sam Cardon, who I suspect has ties to some CUFfers. His last piece is Angels from the Realms of Glory, arranged by Mack, which I am expecting to be a tour de force. And it is, except for his voice cracking and flattening at the very end of the last note.

                              Can't wait to see this when it is released next year.

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