June 8th Apocryphonia will present a concert at Heliconian Hall titled “A Cabinet Full of Curiosities 2”.

As the program says “an eclectic mix of classical music from around the world performed entirely at random!”

Alex Cappellazzo, and his Apocryphonia team are following up on a concert that I reviewed roughly two years ago, on Friday May 24th 2023. You will see the magic adjective near the bottom right of the poster when it declares that the music was to be “presented entirely in a random order by the audience.”

I’m going to quote from my 2023 review, when I explain how that random order was accomplished:

Instead of giving us the usual series all by one composer, we accomplished a kind of shuffle, as you might get from your electronic device. We were asked upon entry to pick from a jar, and then our picks would be constructed into a set list. I cheated because of whom I wanted to hear (Eisler), although that likely had no impact. Alexander joked that this made us complicit, that we helped create the program.

I also took a picture of our “curator”, the person who assembled our picks, gluing them onto a page.

I don’t know how the magic of the random picks will be accomplished this time.

I should explain that when I said “Inside the Cabinet” in the headline I meant that I’m literally inside that cabinet. Alex asked for musicians to volunteer as participants back on May 3rd: and I did so. Here’s what it looked like on Facebook.

CALLING ALL GTA CLASSICAL MUSICIANS!

Want to take part in the most fun vocal/chamber concert this June 2025? Here’s your chance!

It is an entirely randomized setlist with an entirely randomized set of musicians. I relinquish all control over the curation process and leave it up to fate.

Please spread the word and share this call; this is a really chill and fun way to network with other musicians, to show off your music to your friends and family, to workshop pieces you’re practicing, or victory lap pieces you’ve mastered!

And I cheated. I went to the form, which asked for a video. I pondered whether I should create a youtube channel, which might be fun. When I contacted Alex to ask him whether I needed to bother sending him a video he decided to take it on faith that I can play. In fact I think he’s taking a safe route in having me play a single item rather than a series (as I proposed to him), but he thought it’s uncommon for a critic to play at a concert he’ll write about.

I joked that I’m like an embedded journalist, except there’s no war.

My idea of rare classical music? Orchestral music in transcription, which is a bit of an obsession of mine. My piano has quite a few such scores sitting on it right now. Some came from the Edward Johnson Bldg Library such as transcriptions of Richard Strauss tone poems (Till Eulenspiegel, Also Sprach Zarathustra & Ein Heldenleben), Mahler’s 5th Symphony, Debussy’s Orchestral Nocturnes. Some are scores I own that I’ve had for a long time such as Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. While this is a piece that’s played frequently by orchestras it becomes rare & unfamiliar when transcribed.

It’s exciting to play something at the piano that otherwise requires an orchestra. Indeed this is how music used to be popularized before the era of recordings. Franz Liszt played piano paraphrases (sometimes going off on tangents) that helped promote the music of Berlioz or Wagner and of course, promoted himself in the process.

And I enjoy playing extracts from opera scores, particularly famous passages from Wagner operas such as the Liebestod or Siegfried’s Rhine- Journey.

What I proposed to Alex was Debussy’s first Nocturne, Nuages (or “Clouds”), and the Liebestod, although Alex figured the Debussy would suffice. I will bring the Wagner and the other Debussy along just in case somebody can’t perform for some reason (flat tire? snow storm? okay maybe not in June).

Nuages is an extraordinary piece, suggestive of clouds & a moody atmosphere, one of the works Debussy composed that have me thinking of him as one of the godfathers of minimalism. There’s such a small amount of music there, but I feel it’s very influential. It’s very cool to be able to play an orchestral piece in a reduced form at the piano.

I heard a piece tonight by Arvo Pärt that is one of many works that Debussy seems to have influenced. If you watch the film Psycho, the music we hear at the beginning after the credits as the camera gradually pans across buildings to find the first scene, across a kind of dry cloudless skyscape, you’ll hear composer Bernard Herrmann making something that is like a twisted version of Debussy’s Nuages, as this sky is not a happy one perhaps because the characters we’re about to meet are not happy.

I’m intrigued to find out how Alex will get the randomized order this time. Perhaps the attendees will again select a piece that is glued to a page. Or maybe it will be something entirely different.

And I’ll be one of the performers 7:30 pm on Sunday June 8th at the Heliconian Hall. Please don’t let this poster throw you, I’m the least significant of the performers, feeling privileged to be there. Alex made one of these posters for each participant to employ in promoting the event.

Maybe I’ll see you there(…?)