concert reviews

[calimac]

Yes, I know it's Rosh Hashanah, and L'shanah tovah to you too. I went to services last night, and heard a nice sermon about expressions of love between an elderly couple. As my life goal is to be part of one, I listened carefully.

Meanwhile, I went to a couple of concerts last weekend. Symphony Silicon Valley began its season with a regular concert, reviewed by me here. The local paper's reviewer was annoyed that it wasn't a fancy gala, but I go to concerts for the music, not the glitter, nor am I afraid of hearing Beethoven's Fifth again. It got put on the canon of masterworks for a reason.

However: Beethoven also proved the occasion for Patrick Flynn to demonstrate how deeply eccentric a conductor he is at heart. One reason I like reviewing the standard symphonic repertoire is that I know this music: I've heard these works dozens, even hundreds, of times live and in recordings, I can discern the subtle differences between performances, I can tell without looking at a score if the repeats are being taken, and if you remove an entire bar of the music and replace it with something newly composed, I will bloody well notice this.

I nearly jumped out of my seat, and took the opportunity when I got home to e-mail a handy, and known to be friendly, member of the orchestra to ask, "What the heck was going on here?" Answer in the review.

This concert also convinced me that a Leonard Bernstein work I'd never really liked very much is a masterpiece. This may have been because it was played and conducted as if it were by Aaron Copland instead of as if it were by George Gershwin. One guess as to which of those two guys I prefer.

Also attended, a piano recital by Richard Goode, reviewed (not by me) here. I couldn't be that subtle in reviewing pianism. All I can say is that Goode is a pianist who lives up to his name. He played three Beethoven sonatas, two of which I knew, and a Schubert sonata as long as the three others put together. I've never really gotten the hang of Schubert's piano music: somehow the languid note-spinning which sounds so beautiful when played by an orchestra (think: Great C Major Symphony) or a string quintet doesn't do it for me on piano. But this was a good case nonetheless.

Comments

[kip-w.livejournal.com]

Schubert's D-major sonata (op 53) is the one I listen to. Two of the movements were favorites of mine before I'd ever heard the whole sonata -- the jesting Scherzo, and the singing Rondo. I used to wish he hadn't varied the theme of the rondo, because I just wanted to hear it as stated, over and over. Repeated listenings have helped me accept it the way he wrote it. Heifetz, incidentally, recorded an arrangement of the rondo -- twice, I think. I guess this is a recommendation. I listened to the whole thing enough times that the first two movements are now familiar friends.

Thanks for that review. I wish I'd heard the concert -- all of it. I guess I'd have enjoyed the recital as well, though I often don't get a lot out of a work the first time I hear it (there have been exceptions). I remember it was only about the third or fourth time I listened to Ravel's "left hand" that I started to get it, and soon after that I couldn't live without it.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the recommendation: I'm now listening again to the Andsnes performance out of the library. A brighter, more taut work than D.960, that's for sure.

[voidampersand.livejournal.com]

Good review. I guess this means I need to see Symphony Silicon Valley. Having a venue other than the Perverse Acoustics, ahem Performing Arts Center means I'm willing to consider seeing them. If they are playing well too, then it becomes a must.

[kalimac.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, a totally different venue. If it has flaws, they're at least the opposite kind of flaws. See my earlier reviews.