Pubdate: Sat, 10 May 2014
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2014 The New York Times Company
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Author: Michael Cooper

PASS THE BONG, AND TUNE UP THE BERLIOZ

Proposing Selections for Colorado's Cannabis Concerts

When the Colorado Symphony announced recently that it would hold a
series of bring-your-own-marijuana fund-raisers, called "Classically
Cannabis: The High Note Series," sponsored by the state's newly legal
cannabis industry, the orchestra got laughs on late-night talk shows
and was featured in publications that rarely cover classical music,
including High Times.

Now the city of Denver is asking the orchestra to call off the events,
arguing that they would run afoul of laws prohibiting the public
consumption of marijuana. The symphony, which planned the fund-raisers
as private events in an effort to comply with the law, is mulling
whether it can go ahead with the first one, scheduled for May 23.

With the fund-raiser concerts now in legal limbo, the time seems ripe
to consider some of the artistic possibilities of cannabis-friendly
classical concerts. Before the city raised its objections to the
Colorado Symphony's plans, The New York Times asked several prominent
conductors, composers and musicians what they would program to appeal
to concertgoers taking advantage of Colorado's recent referendum
legalizing the recreational use of marijuana.

Alan Gilbert, the music director of the New York Philharmonic,
suggested Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique," which musically depicts
an opium dream in parts, and "The Poem of Ecstasy," by the Russian
composer Scriabin, who became fascinated by mysticism late in his
life. "Does Scriabin's 'Poem of Ecstasy' really need an explanation?"
he asked in an email.

Scriabin was also one of the choices suggested by Jeremy Denk, the
pianist and author, who will be the music director of next month's
Ojai Music Festival in California.

"Messiaen, Scriabin - things where the composer claims certain chords
have certain colors, and that have rapturous, endless clouds of notes"
were Mr. Denk's suggestions in an email. "In that same vein, but
perhaps a bit more austere," he said, he would recommend late works by
Liszt and pieces by Charles-Valentin Alkan, a virtuosic 19th-century
French pianist and composer, and Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, a
20th-century English pianist and composer.

"Probably some of the more 'out there' madrigal rep would be good,
too," he said, recommending the work of Gesualdo, an Italian nobleman
famous for a murderous personal life, who wrote madrigals around the
turn of the 17th century. "It's very whoa-inducing," he said.

The composer John Adams, whose oratorio "The Gospel According to the
Other Mary" was recently released by Deutsche Grammophon and whose
1991 opera, "The Death of Klinghoffer," will get its Metropolitan
Opera premiere next season, offered an entire playlist by email.His
recommendations, along with his annotations: Bruckner's Symphony No. 8
("that adagio will last for a mere six hours"); Stockhausen's
"Helicopter String Quartet" ("won't seem so high after all");
Messiaen's "Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum" ("the saints will
REALLY go marching in"); Milton Babbitt's "Relata II" for orchestra
("will suddenly make perfect sense"); the Minimalist composer Terry
Riley's "A Rainbow in Curved Air" ("will come in all colors"); and his
own "The Dharma at Big Sur" ("I swear I didn't inhale").

This kind of cannabis-inspired programming for the concert hall may be
some time off, even if the Colorado Symphony prevails over the city's
objections. The symphony's plans, which its lawyers are still
weighing, are on a considerably smaller scale.

Its first event, sponsored by several companies in the cannabis
industry, was to be a fund-raiser. People donating a minimum of $75
would get to attend a fund-raiser at a local gallery, featuring a
small ensemble from the orchestra playing a program that has yet to be
announced. Any smoking would be restricted to a private patio, away
from the musicians.

"Cannabis will NOT be sold at any 'Classically Cannabis' event," the
orchestra notes at its website, adding that guests would be encouraged
to find alternatives to driving, with discounts for car services
available. The symphony's regular concert venues and programming, it
adds, would "remain cannabis-free."

In a letter objecting to the proposed fund-raisers, the city's
Department of Excise and Licenses wrote that it was advising "that you
cancel the effort to use your business to provide an event for the
public consumption of marijuana in violation of local and state laws."
It warned that "failure to follow the law may result in civil and
criminal penalties."

The letter also cautioned that the cannabis-themed events could
endanger the symphony's contract with the city for the use of
Boettcher Concert Hall.

Jerome H. Kern, the chief executive of the Colorado Symphony and
co-chairman of its board of trustees, said in a statement that the
orchestra took the issues raised by the city very seriously and was
reviewing them with its legal team.

"When the Colorado Symphony accepted support from the legal cannabis
industry - as a means of supporting our financial operations and
connecting with a culturally diverse audience - we believed we did so
in full compliance with the law," he said in a statement. "We're
confident that any questions can be resolved quickly."
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MAP posted-by: Matt