Roy Barnett Recital Hall

Renovated and smells like a sauna, without the heat.
You know the smell. Wood. Lots of it. That’s what it smells like. I’ve come here in the past to see other performances but this was before the renos.
I came here for a cello master class on Friday evening
This is what a master class is:
I’ve seen lots of master classes on youtube, but this is the first time I’ve seen one live, and for a cello. I typically enjoy piano, but I do also like cello sometimes.
The second thing I notice about this hall is that the acoustics are very nice. Very, very nice. The cello sound travels very well inside this hall. It is small, 255 seats. There are huge organ pipes on the wall behind the stage.
I looked at the program of pieces to be performed and I was a bit worried. From the look of the composers, I was concerned that the pieces would be in a Minor key. The keys weren’t listed but my suspicions were verified, for 3 out of the 4. I’m not the biggest fan of minor keys, especially when they are towards the «modern period» or «Post Romantic» periods. Depending on the piece, they can put me to sleep. Zzzzzzzzzz… I had to Google all of them to confirm.
The first performer did Elgar’s Cello concerto Op. 85. fourth movement Allegro, ma non troppo. I Google and sure enough, E minor. It was OK, a little boring for me. I thought the student played it OK. I’m no cello expert, but it didn’t sound like she had a lot of emotion to the piece. The critique from the teacher, sort of confirmed my thoughts. He mainly gave her pointers on hand and arm position and bow stroke technique. He did not go over much of the piece she played and how she could have interpreted differently. She is what you would call an «immature» player.
The second student played a piece by Ernest Bloch. 2 movements, the Prelude and Allegro. I have no idea who this composer is. This was the piece that does not have a listed key when I Googled. I ended up liking this one quite a bit. Likely the most out of all of them. This student was good. He had quite a bit of emotion in the piece. The critique of his playing from the teacher was quite a bit of praise. He offered him some suggestions on how certain passages could be inproved and interpreted differently. He had very good technique according to the teacher.
The third student played Lalo’s Prelude: Lento — Allegro maestoso, D minor. This one was a bit of a yawner to me, and the student played it with moderate emotion and bow stroke density. The teacher spent quite a bit of time with him. His critique was that he didn’t have much emotion and it looked like he was only going through the motions. The student didn’t have any «anger» in the piece. He talked about the student’s fingering technique and offered him suggestions on how to improve and play differently. He also talked to him about his bow technique namely the bow stroke and bow change, and bow position relative to the bridge.
The last student performed Dvorak’s Op 104 Allegro movement, B minor. This was also a nice piece and more towards the Romantic style of composition that I prefer. I also liked this piece as well as this student performer. She played it quite well and the teacher liked how she interpreted certain passages. Again, he offered her suggestions on bow technique, fingering and alternate interpretations of certain passages.
This was an overall enjoyable evening. Not often that I get to go to master classes since they are usually during my work hours and I can’t make it out.
There is one more master class that I will be attending in March of 2013. It is a piano master class. It will be in this building, but from the scheduling, it looks like it will be in a classroom. Grrrrrrrrr…