Landgrove writeup is online

Posted last Friday, actually, and forgot to note here.

I went a little nuts on this one. It includes several threads: the town history, history of the Town Hall building and the piano, reflections on old uprights in general and on playing Ives on this piano in particular, even an investigation into the roll-down map of Europe...in addition to the usual concert description, clips, and photos.

My assistant Gideon had mentioned that social media postings which included interesting B-roll video that my wife Annelies had taken in South Hero (our dog Stella dreaming of running while I played) and Warren (an outdoor-to-indoor walking clip where the sound of the rushing Freeman Brook, swollen with the historic July rains, gradually gives way to my rendition of James P. Johnson’s also stormy “Jungle Drums”) generated an above-average number of likes. So in Landgrove I asked Annelies to look for interesting side stories, which resulted in two posted videos: another outdoor-to-indoor clip, this one of the Maple Leaf Rag, and host Sally Ogden recounting her husband’s experience when the Town Hall venue was Landgrove’s one-room schoolhouse. 

Gideon put both of the videos on social media as teasers in a scheduled lead-up to the posting of the Landgrove writeup. It was all a bit of a production. In particular, producing every additional video (these were besides the four pieces from the concert that I included in the writeup) takes a fair bit of my time.

All in all I’m pleased with the result. It was worth the effort: the B-roll videos were compelling enough, as was the overall energy of the Landgrove concert, that I felt they called for a fancy concert report. But it took three solid workdays, which I can’t do for every concert; some have to be more minimal. Still have 10 to catch up on! 

It’s tempting to go all in on all of them though. Which is an indication that what I say at concert after concert is true. Every one is really distinctive: the locale, the village, the community, the venue, the collaborators, the program, the audience. And that you really don’t have to go far to travel.