On The Record – Diane Kitzman
WITH SARAH KIENLE
For this episode, Sarah speaks with Principal Violin Diane Kitzman about her time with the orchestra (since 1981!), her incredible sense of style and her award for Best Actress at Interlochen.
HOWARD HANSON: SYMPHONY NO. 2
II. ANDANTE CON TENEREZZA
“The tradition [at Interlochen] is that after every orchestra concert we play, we play the theme from Howard Hanson’s Second Symphony. About halfway through the moment, there’s a horn solo that emerges and the strings take over, and it’s just a gorgeous minute long selection…
It’s a long, long tradition and I think all of us have a special place in our hearts for this music.”
RESPIGHI: PINES OF ROME
IV. I PINI DELLA VIA APPIA (THE PINES OF THE APPIAN WAY)
“I remember going into Rome, going up the Appian Way and actually seeing what it looked like and seeing the pine trees on the sides of the road because that’s what this is supposed to depict. The fourth movement is about the Roman soldiers marching into Rome… it was supposed to be at dawn, a misty dawn. When you hear the beginning of this movement, it’s very ominous, and the timpani and the harp are playing this solid marching beat that goes through the entire movement, and as the movement builds, the sun is coming up and you get this triumphant return of the soldiers going into Rome. It’s very dramatic and incredible.”
PUCCINI: TOSCA
TE DEUM
“Scarpia, who is the villain in the opera is in love with Tosca, and it’s in a church, and he’s singing about his love for Tosca. It starts out as a chant and there’s a choir behind him and as the aria goes along, it gets more involved and more dramatic, and I think one of the words in the libretto is ‘I would denounce God for your love’… and then it builds and builds and the violins are just playing this simple melody underneath all of the brass again, and it comes to this Te Deum that he sings at the end of it and it’s just spectacular. And if you have a great Scarpia it’s another one of these hair-raising things.”
JAMES TAYLOR
SWEET BABY JAMES
SHOWER THE PEOPLE
“For me, James Taylor is this sort of complex simplicity. His music embodies jazz, it embodies bluegrass, folk. You can hear all of that in his music. His lyrics are simple but extremely meaningful if you know anything about his life. He’s had a tough life, and you can sense the melancholy in a lot of his songs. I don’t know… it’s just something that connects with me. It’s like Americana. His melodies are all just simply refined. I just love them. Every time when I have to go play a solo performance somewhere, on my way to the concert, I’ll put on James Taylor.”
