12 HOURS. NEVAR AGAIN.
I'm absolutely wiped. We had the concert today and it was so much fun. The weather in the harbour was slightly overcast but it didn't rain, so a lot of people came to watch. Our program was pretty light, but it had to be, it was a junior concert. You can't exactly give people a Shostakovich symphony.
1. Some pieces from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, including the famous Knights scene, but I've talked about that one approximately a dozen times so moving on...
2. Some really weird modern/country solo piece for violin by Loevendie. I thought the solo violinist was precious (and really good) but the music was just way weird. Also, he had bells on his feet, to add to... god, I don't know. I discovered a YouTube vid of the song, performed by our artist, so see for yourself. (Don't listen to it for long, though. >.>)
3. The third movement from Dvorák's eighth symphony. Talked about this one before.
4. A trombone concert by Nino Rota. Actually, this one was really awesome. In case you didn't know, Nino Rota composed the music for The Godfather and Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (♥). You can notice he's a score composer, because the music really sounds cinematic. Trombones are dang awesome instruments, especially in classical works. We did movement one and three. (But they were really short, which was a blessing because we only had yesterday to work on it >_>)
5. Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. I'm guessing just about everyone has heard it before. We did a shortened version because we already had three solo artists and we couldn't afford another (piano) artist. But our resident clarinet and trumpet really rocked their parts. Our conductor told us a funny story about this piece at the concert: Apparently Gershwin was really young when he was asked to compose something classical for a performance in Carnegie Hall (Which was unheard of because people were used to old stuffy classical music). He said yes and then he promptly forgot. Three weeks before the premiere he noticed the posters (spread all over town) with his name on it and went: "Shit, need to compose something quick D:" (and succeeded) And thus the era of American classical music began. I keep thinking of those really old Tom and Jerry cartoons when I hear this piece.
6. Zimba Zamba, a salsa-ish piece with a solo marimba (a sort of xylophone). The solo artist was/is THIRTEEN. I mean, just listen to that, so superfast (That's the kid playing in the YouTube vid, with another orchestra). The kid also opened the Prinsengrachtconcert and won basically every price you can win as a young classical performer in this country. Also, he's so tiny in RL. I just wanted to pat his head.
We may not be the best youth orchestra but we do know how to be funny. Our ex-concertmaster was this year's presenter (together with a famous Dutch person who is a classical music noob) and he truly asked/said the weirdest things. To which the orchestra replied with the weirdest answers :P ("So what did you think of when you were playing this piece?" "Nothing. I was too busy spazzing over flipping the page and playing the music. :|")
Sorry guys, for being a complete linkwhore, but I like being detailed. :P
And to achieve this we had to spend TWELVE HOURS (from 10 till 10) working on all the pieces yesterday (with 15 min. breaks every one and a half hours, plus some time for lunch and dinner). I was so dead when I came back home. X_X
Anyway, our new practice location is Rotterdam's oldest secondary school and it's always hilarious when you go to the girls restroom because they write the weirdest things on the toilet doors and it's entertaining to read. We never had this in our school. I guess it's because the doors in our school were too far away from the toilet so people weren't as motivated to write on it. They wrote things like "My best friend gave my boyfriend a blowjob, please give me advice????" and "I'm in love with my best friend's boyfriend, what do I do??" with following raucous replies. Also, there was some really random Hebrew graffiti, which seemed to be a [girl] ♥ [boy] thing. I wanted to write something underneath it in Farsi for the lulz (because writing graffiti in foreign alphabets is something I should've thought of before XD) but alas, no pen.
Re. ASOIAF and grrm's latest teaser posts. Apparently the hints point towards Rory McCann being the Hound. Guys, I couldn't stop laughing when I saw the face that goes with the name: It's Lurch from Hot Fuzz! Yaaaarrp.
And on a random note, this song. Done by a Dutch artist. It's pretty cool and almost makes up for hearing Jan Smit on Dutch radio all the time.
Uni starts tomorrow. D:/:D
1. Some pieces from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, including the famous Knights scene, but I've talked about that one approximately a dozen times so moving on...
2. Some really weird modern/country solo piece for violin by Loevendie. I thought the solo violinist was precious (and really good) but the music was just way weird. Also, he had bells on his feet, to add to... god, I don't know. I discovered a YouTube vid of the song, performed by our artist, so see for yourself. (Don't listen to it for long, though. >.>)
3. The third movement from Dvorák's eighth symphony. Talked about this one before.
4. A trombone concert by Nino Rota. Actually, this one was really awesome. In case you didn't know, Nino Rota composed the music for The Godfather and Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (♥). You can notice he's a score composer, because the music really sounds cinematic. Trombones are dang awesome instruments, especially in classical works. We did movement one and three. (But they were really short, which was a blessing because we only had yesterday to work on it >_>)
5. Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. I'm guessing just about everyone has heard it before. We did a shortened version because we already had three solo artists and we couldn't afford another (piano) artist. But our resident clarinet and trumpet really rocked their parts. Our conductor told us a funny story about this piece at the concert: Apparently Gershwin was really young when he was asked to compose something classical for a performance in Carnegie Hall (Which was unheard of because people were used to old stuffy classical music). He said yes and then he promptly forgot. Three weeks before the premiere he noticed the posters (spread all over town) with his name on it and went: "Shit, need to compose something quick D:" (and succeeded) And thus the era of American classical music began. I keep thinking of those really old Tom and Jerry cartoons when I hear this piece.
6. Zimba Zamba, a salsa-ish piece with a solo marimba (a sort of xylophone). The solo artist was/is THIRTEEN. I mean, just listen to that, so superfast (That's the kid playing in the YouTube vid, with another orchestra). The kid also opened the Prinsengrachtconcert and won basically every price you can win as a young classical performer in this country. Also, he's so tiny in RL. I just wanted to pat his head.
We may not be the best youth orchestra but we do know how to be funny. Our ex-concertmaster was this year's presenter (together with a famous Dutch person who is a classical music noob) and he truly asked/said the weirdest things. To which the orchestra replied with the weirdest answers :P ("So what did you think of when you were playing this piece?" "Nothing. I was too busy spazzing over flipping the page and playing the music. :|")
Sorry guys, for being a complete linkwhore, but I like being detailed. :P
And to achieve this we had to spend TWELVE HOURS (from 10 till 10) working on all the pieces yesterday (with 15 min. breaks every one and a half hours, plus some time for lunch and dinner). I was so dead when I came back home. X_X
Anyway, our new practice location is Rotterdam's oldest secondary school and it's always hilarious when you go to the girls restroom because they write the weirdest things on the toilet doors and it's entertaining to read. We never had this in our school. I guess it's because the doors in our school were too far away from the toilet so people weren't as motivated to write on it. They wrote things like "My best friend gave my boyfriend a blowjob, please give me advice????" and "I'm in love with my best friend's boyfriend, what do I do??" with following raucous replies. Also, there was some really random Hebrew graffiti, which seemed to be a [girl] ♥ [boy] thing. I wanted to write something underneath it in Farsi for the lulz (because writing graffiti in foreign alphabets is something I should've thought of before XD) but alas, no pen.
Re. ASOIAF and grrm's latest teaser posts. Apparently the hints point towards Rory McCann being the Hound. Guys, I couldn't stop laughing when I saw the face that goes with the name: It's Lurch from Hot Fuzz! Yaaaarrp.
And on a random note, this song. Done by a Dutch artist. It's pretty cool and almost makes up for hearing Jan Smit on Dutch radio all the time.
Uni starts tomorrow. D:/:D