Halloween concert
Nov. 1st, 2010 02:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacHaving had virtually no trick-or-treaters our first two years here, we decided to cease risking having so much candy in the house on the morning after and have adopted just shutting up the place for Halloween instead. B. was at work; I stayed inside with all the externally visible lights off, watching a movie. (The Wronged Man, one of those true-life films about a guy spending 20 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. He alternates wildly between being furiously angry when there's no real cause for it, and being so saintly patient when he ought to be angry that by the end of the film he becomes the Magic Negro, sprouts wings, and floats off into the sky on his release. Or something like that.)
But I did have a Halloween celebration, having been sent by my editor over the hill on Saturday to cover this holiday-themed concert. The singers were fully professional musicians; the instrumentalists, not so much. I didn't mind the violist with the wobbly pitch in the lyrical Glazunov elegy so much, but the guy venturing a dazzling violin showpiece was so far out of his depth he should never have tried going into it. I don't like to criticize amateurs for being amateurs, but there was nothing in these musicians' bios to indicate that they didn't meet basic professional standards. So I caved. I wrote that the violinist "did not have [the music's] technical wizardry under his control," which was the kindest possible way of putting it, really, because he fumbled, had an irksome tone quality, and couldn't control his pitch either, but I also wrote that the concert was enjoyable throughout, which was not untrue. It's professionals who phone it in over a bad line who rouse my ire and deserve unmixed boos.
My experience with musicians is that they'll only read the critical comments you make of them and ignore any praise, so maybe I shouldn't have bothered. But I did, to the point of almost denying that I know the difference between a professionally competent performance and one that isn't when I hear one. But then I can't go into a lot of detail either way, because reviews are expected to be short. Am I being dishonest? Because if I let it be thought the concert was hideous and I had a terrible time, that'd be untrue also.
As the concert was out in the uncharted boonies somewhere between Aptos and Watsonville, I drove around the long way and stopped for dinner at Central Texas BBQ in Castroville, which I rarely get to. The pork shoulder is much juicier and tenderer than the ribs I've previously had there. Naturally there were big-screen TVs and naturally the game was on, so I have actually been exposed to the World Series this year, to the extent of a couple innings of the Giants hitting ground out after ground out and otherwise being shellacked by the Texans, but I gather that Saturday's game was atypical of the series so far. Then they started to sing "God Bless America" (in the middle of a game? "Stand beside her, and guide her / Through the night with the light from a bulb") and I was fortunate enough to be done and get out of there, because I hate that song a lot more than I hate baseball.
But I did have a Halloween celebration, having been sent by my editor over the hill on Saturday to cover this holiday-themed concert. The singers were fully professional musicians; the instrumentalists, not so much. I didn't mind the violist with the wobbly pitch in the lyrical Glazunov elegy so much, but the guy venturing a dazzling violin showpiece was so far out of his depth he should never have tried going into it. I don't like to criticize amateurs for being amateurs, but there was nothing in these musicians' bios to indicate that they didn't meet basic professional standards. So I caved. I wrote that the violinist "did not have [the music's] technical wizardry under his control," which was the kindest possible way of putting it, really, because he fumbled, had an irksome tone quality, and couldn't control his pitch either, but I also wrote that the concert was enjoyable throughout, which was not untrue. It's professionals who phone it in over a bad line who rouse my ire and deserve unmixed boos.
My experience with musicians is that they'll only read the critical comments you make of them and ignore any praise, so maybe I shouldn't have bothered. But I did, to the point of almost denying that I know the difference between a professionally competent performance and one that isn't when I hear one. But then I can't go into a lot of detail either way, because reviews are expected to be short. Am I being dishonest? Because if I let it be thought the concert was hideous and I had a terrible time, that'd be untrue also.
As the concert was out in the uncharted boonies somewhere between Aptos and Watsonville, I drove around the long way and stopped for dinner at Central Texas BBQ in Castroville, which I rarely get to. The pork shoulder is much juicier and tenderer than the ribs I've previously had there. Naturally there were big-screen TVs and naturally the game was on, so I have actually been exposed to the World Series this year, to the extent of a couple innings of the Giants hitting ground out after ground out and otherwise being shellacked by the Texans, but I gather that Saturday's game was atypical of the series so far. Then they started to sing "God Bless America" (in the middle of a game? "Stand beside her, and guide her / Through the night with the light from a bulb") and I was fortunate enough to be done and get out of there, because I hate that song a lot more than I hate baseball.
no subject
Date: 2010-11-02 07:25 pm (UTC)I can't stand the "God Bless America" tradition either. I always at least turn off the sound if not actually channel-surf away.
Don Keller
no subject
Date: 2010-11-02 07:32 pm (UTC)Yes, it seems there'll be a parade ... and I'm going to a concert that evening up there ... train wreck!