Note:  this concert has already taken place, but this original pre-concert promotional description is still being kept on this page for historical interest and to help people find the CD of the concert. After twelve peaceful years with absolutely no new P.D.Q. Bach recordings, Telarc International Corp. has bravely decided to venture back into uncharted territory and make a live recording of Prof. Peter Schickele and co-conspirators performing music of both P.D.Q. Bach and Peter Schickele.  The result of this never-before-attempted feat will be released on a Compact Disc that will look exactly like the illustration to the left in the unlikely event that Telarc’s designers don’t come up with a much better idea.  But before this mock “mock-up” can be replaced by a real live CD, the concert must be recorded, an historic event which will take place on June 16, 2007 at the Gordon Center for Performing Arts in Owings Mills, Maryland.  On hand to provide some of the sounds to be recorded will be off-coloratura soprano Michèle Eaton and tenor profundo David Düsing, singing songs and rounds by both Jekyll and Hyde (whichever one is which), plus recent P.D.Q. Bach discoveries such as Long Live The King and the Four Next-to-Last Songs. Also on hand will be the Armadillo String Quartet, who will bring to life the String Quartet in F major “The Moose”, proof that even the most refined and important forms in chamber music are not safe from the pen of P.D.Q. Bach.  The concert will close with one of the most often requested yet stubbornly unrecorded Peter Schickele pieces ever, Songs from Shakespeare, notorious rock ‘n’ roll settings of some of The Bard’s most famous speeches. The CD won’t be released for many months, but the music can be heard on June 16th, 2007, at 8:00 p.m. by anyone willing to travel to Maryland.  In fact, visitors to Maryland will be able to hear even more music than what will be on the CD, because a concert this jam-packed won’t all fit on an hour-long CD.  (In particular, it is unlikely that the CD will include the intermission, due to copyright issues with the John Cage estate.)  And you can hear all of the music from the CD, plus all of the outtakes and additional material that doesn’t make it to the CD, live and in person for the amazingly low price of $10 (plus $1 processing fee), which is even less than the price of a CD.  To order tickets, call 1-800-830-3976 or go to http://www.mooreatix.com. The above link for tickets no longer works.  Instead, now that everything described above has already taken place, you can buy the CD after all.

 

Works on the Program

Long Live the King, S. 1789 (P.D.Q. Bach) Four Next-To-Last Songs, S. Ω - 1 (P.D.Q. Bach)      1. Das kleines Birdie      2. Der Cowboykönig      3. Gretchen am Spincycle      4. Es war ein dark und shtormy Night String Quartet in F Major “The Moose”, S. Y2K (P.D.Q. Bach)      Allegro ma non troposphere      Largo alla Fargo      Menuetto no sweato      Grave e molto deepo; Allegro con brie —intermission—

Two Rounds (Peter Schickele)      Hedi McKinley      D’Indy’s Turkey Three Songs (Peter Schickele)      If Love Is Real      Happy Birthday, Beth      Cyndi Three P.D.Q. Bach Rounds (P.D.Q. Bach)      The Mule      P.D.Q. 3-Step Crab Dinner      O Serpent Songs From Shakespeare (Peter Schickele)      Macbeth’s Soliloquy      Hamlet’s Soliloquy      The Three Witches from “Macbeth”      Juliet’s Soliloquy      Funeral Oration from “Julius Caesar”

Audio Sample Songs From Shakespeare (excerpt) Although audio samples from the CD cannot possibly be posted on this page until after the concert has been performed and recorded, several of the pieces have been performed on Garrison Keillor’s radio program, including Cyndi and If Love Is Real, and much less recently Songs From Shakespeare, an excerpt from which is provided here.  We thank A Prairie Home Companion for permission to use this clip. Audio Samples can be played using the free RealAudio player.

Reviews Here are some excerpts from recent reviews describing the Jekyll and Hyde Tour: [The] audience was mightily and consistently entertained at this performance, billed as The Jekyll and Hyde Tour—the program is devoted half to P.D.Q.’s music, half to Schickele’s.  It is expertly executed by commentator-keyboardist-singer Schickele, still impersonating the unkempt professor, and assisted by two versatile singers, soprano Michèle Eaton and tenor David Düsing.  One laughed long and hard at the Schubertian Four Next-to-Last Songs....  Comedy-wise, all three performers hit the mark throughout, and all used their several and legitimate musical abilities sharply.   — Daniel Cariaga, Los Angeles Times     Peter Schickele, best known as the perpetrator of the oeuvre of P.D.Q. Bach, is a very funny man, gifted with both musical talent and a fine sense of the absurd.  The Jekyll and Hyde Tour combined the P.D.Q. Bach material (as much standup comedy as music) with songs written under his own name.  Schickele challenges his listeners to decide which is Jekyll and which is Hyde; by concert’s end, the identities were clear.  His co-dependents in the performance were Michèle Eaton, soprano (who spent the first half disguised as “Nurse Crumley”) and David Düsing, tenor.  Schickele, basso blotto, made his entrance in a wheelchair.  At 65, he no longer does his old descent-from-the-balcony routine, but he still wears his white tie (askew) with lumberjack boots — to unleash a splendid barrage of puns and jokes.   — Sarah Bryan Miller, St. Louis Post-Dispatch   Peter Schickele arrived in a wheelchair for his concert Thursday night at Severance Hall.  Pushed down the aisle at top speed by Nurse Crumley, he was unceremoniously dumped at the foot of the stage.  Picking himself up and brushing himself off, he lumbered on stage and launched into a nutty monologue.  For the next two hours, he kept the audience in stitches with his zany new show, The Jekyll and Hyde Tour.  In his absent-minded professor persona, Schickele lectured, sang and played the piano, tromboon (a hybrid instrument combining the worst features of trombone and bassoon) and lasso d’amore (a hollow tube that produced musical tones when whirled above the head).  He was assisted by soprano Michèle Eaton, who portrayed Nurse Crumley, and tenor David Düsing, who also functioned as keyboardist, percussionist and stage manager.  After intermission, Schickele departed from the printed program and launched into a delightful series of musical party games.  Among the clever tricks were three-part rounds with ridiculous words, canons in inversion and retrograde, musical greetings composed for family celebrations, a lampoon of French lyrics and a medley of ’60s-style songs in close harmony.   — Wilma Salisbury, The [Cleveland] Plain Dealer