concert review: Mozart or the moon

[calimac]

I missed the entire bleedin' eclipse.

I was out walking in the City for much of the hour of totality, 19:00+ our time, and I kept looking around the sky, but whether it was behind a building or a cloud or something else, they hadn't got a Moon, not anywhere there!

I'd gone up for an SFS concert. An all-Mozart concert. Listen, I have had so much Mozart stuffed at me over the past few years that the only all-Mozart concert that would excite me today would be a triple-decker of his entire final symphonic trilogy. (Which I have gotten, a couple of times.) I only went to this one because I already had a ticket anyway, and because Herbert Blomstedt, who's always good, was conducting.

For my pains I got one of Mozart's more tedious divertimenti (K. 251), one of his less interesting piano concerti (K. 482), and - at least - one of his better symphonies (the Prague, K. 504 - if it'd been the Haffner I'd have split). Blomstedt took all the repeats in the symphony.

The divertimento was telling. This performance included the final march that's usually omitted, and the audience hadn't read the program book saying so, but they sure did know the piece, so they started giving their final applause after the previous movement even though Blomstedt hadn't lowered his arms.

Before the concert I'd eaten at a restaurant in the upper Tenderloin, of all places, whose gourmet pho I'd seen touted somewhere. It was gourmet pho, all right, but I think I'll stick to regular pho. The meat in pho shouldn't be too thick and rich, and the broth - I've had better.

Comments

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

I missed the eclipse too, because I forgot all about it -- I was too busy watching episode 3 of the terrific HBO miniseries From the Earth to the Moon!

As for an all-Mozart concert, I'd only be interested if the three works featured came from the following list: the string trio K. 563, the first two of the "Haydn" quartets, the last five string quintets, the oboe quartet, the "Kagelstatt" trio, or the clarinet quintet. The late piano trios don't cut it (too boring), and though I like the piano quartets okay, I've heard them live and have trouble getting fired up about them. But as far as I'm concerned, that list of eleven works are where Mozart's greatest instrumental masterpieces are to be found. That said, I did once write a program note about the last symphony for Northwest Sinfonietta, of which I am still proud.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

I kept checking that miniseries out of the library; finally I said the heck with it, and found a cheap copy to buy.

Those are all great Mozart works, but I still think I'd find a whole concert of three of them a bit wearying. At least right now. Ban Mozart from my ears for five years, and after that I'd be eager to go.

Those are good program notes. You have a real flair for fascinating summarized biography, and for describing the emotional effect of the music. You also make Gluck seem like the 18th-century equivalent of Rodgers and Hammerstein.

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

Thanks for your kind words, David, they mean a lot to me, more than I can say.

As for listening to Mozart, your point is well taken -- I'd be ready for such an all-Mozart concert precisely because I've barely heard a note of his music in the last five years.

[ron-drummond.livejournal.com]

I kept checking that miniseries out of the library; finally I said the heck with it, and found a cheap copy to buy.

Gosh I'm sure enjoying it! Found a new copy dirt cheap a few months ago, got it thinking it was a documentary, was disappointed at first when I found out it was a dramatization, but then I finally started watching it after seeing the great documentary In the Shadow of the Moon last week, and wow! Really superb, despite a few chronic problems like depicting sound in space -- but generally very much appreciate excellent writing and the diversity of its approaches to the variosu missions.

And then the other day I discovered Spacecraft Films, which has been systematically remastering NASA's complete or nearly complete film, television, and audio records of every Apollo mission and releasing them on DVD -- so that for example their Apollo 17 set is 6 DVDs with over 24 hours of material, complete EVA films along with everything else, flight training, rollout, multiple launch views, all onboard film and television transmissions, splashdown, etc. etc. -- I have to admit it practically made me drool just to think about it!

So, question, since I suspect you know the moon missions better than I: eliminating Apollo 11's natural advantage over the other moonlandings for being the first, all other things being equal, which was your favorite moon mission and why? Or heck, if you feel inclined, I'd welcome any thoughts you'd like to share about the things you liked most about the various missions.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

"Favorite moon mission" is not a trivia question I've thought of being asked. Well, I've always felt sorry for Apollo 10 because it usually gets overlooked - a dress rehearsal doesn't fit well in the dramatic narrative.

But if I have a favorite Apollo flight, it may be one that didn't go to the moon at all: Apollo 9, the Earth-orbit test of the lunar module. One might consider that to be disappointing, but what appeals to me about this one is Jim McDivitt's attitude towards it: he was a test pilot, and here he was getting to take an entirely new kind of vehicle on its first flight ever. What a dream!

Of the moon landings, I think the one best treated in the miniseries is Apollo 15, where the astronauts first learned to be geologists rather than tourists on the surface. Most of the astronauts had not found geology training very interesting, with a few exceptions like Roger Chaffee, who sadly never got the chance to do anything about it.