concert reviews
Oct. 4th, 2005 10:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacYes, 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.
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.
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Date: 2005-10-04 07:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-10-05 05:14 am (UTC)