calimac

Blomstedt, week 2.

Carl Nielsen's Third Symphony, an energetically muscular work I'd go a long way to hear. Some delightful shadings. The lower strings were propulsive, the violins and woodwinds sprightly. Blomstedt took the whole thing at a zipper of a tempo, though, as if he were in a hurry to finish up and catch a train. (The philistine in me was pleased by this, because I did have to catch a train.)

Contrast with Brahms's Violin Concerto, with Nikolaj Znaider as soloist. This was so relaxed and leisurely it felt like it was stretching into the next county. Some odd dissonances and grumbling sounds I don't associate with this concerto; probably the soloist's doing.

While waiting for the bus by the train station down in SoMa, I saw a cheerful-looking young black man who kept saying, to nobody in particular, "It's Obama time!" Yes, I replied in (I hope) a friendly fashion when he said it vaguely in my direction; it certainly is.