(no subject)
Saturday night's Symphony performance was excellent. Mostly, anyways. The evening's program opened with Haydn's 85th Symphony La Reine. Sweet and pretty, with depth, it was Haydn at his most essential. Doubly notable for being Marie Antoinette's favorite out of a set of six symphonies that Haydn had composed for the performance in Paris (hence its titles), it demonstrates that while she may have been the late 18th c. equivalent of Paris Hilton, she had vastly superior musical taste.
The middle piece of the set was an commission for the evening and rather dull. It was nice to see a contemporary performer being inspired by Debussy, as opposed to Schoenberg or Glass, for their modernist influences, but all the same, there was no melody to speak of. Lots of very pretty sonority, but no melody with which to communicate anything. The absurd use of, what appeared to be, every item of percussion in the NSO's possession led to the percussionists looking, and sounding, like foley artists instead of musicians in the second movement. I'll stop here since it would be easy to savage this composition for pages at length.
The final piece of both the night and of the 06-07 concert season was Mahler's 1st symphony. Well executed, and a fun composition to boot, it was the perfect send off for the performance season. The third movement is a mix of amusing and sombre as it is a funeral march that uses a minor key rendition of frere jacques as its first melody. The finale was pulled off with appropriate thunder and fury to bring the audience jumping to their feet at the end. All in all, a very good night.
This morning, looking at the 07-08 NSO season, I see that I will need to figure out a way to genetically engineer a tree that grows money, for next year's performances include several pieces that I simply must see. The season is opening with Beethoven's 9th symphony, on my birthday no less, and Mahler's 6th and Debussy's La Mer are performances later in the season. I have a full list of concerts that are of great interest to me below the cut, primarily for my own reference but also to see if any of you in the DC area would be interested in seeing them, as well.
Beethoven's 9th Symphony, October 6th
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSA
Bartok, Violin Concerto No 2, Schubert, Symphony in C Major, October 13th
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSB
Beethoven, Symphony No 5, November 3rd
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSD
Mahler, Kindertotenlieder, Symphony No 6 "Tragic", Feb 2nd
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSJ
Rachmaninoff, Symphony No 3, Mar 15th
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSL
Shostakovich, Symphony No 6, Mar 29th
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSM
Mahler, Symphony No 2 "Resurrection", April 5th
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSN
Rachmaninoff, Symphonic Dances, April 12th
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSO
Debussy, La Mer, April 26th
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSP
The middle piece of the set was an commission for the evening and rather dull. It was nice to see a contemporary performer being inspired by Debussy, as opposed to Schoenberg or Glass, for their modernist influences, but all the same, there was no melody to speak of. Lots of very pretty sonority, but no melody with which to communicate anything. The absurd use of, what appeared to be, every item of percussion in the NSO's possession led to the percussionists looking, and sounding, like foley artists instead of musicians in the second movement. I'll stop here since it would be easy to savage this composition for pages at length.
The final piece of both the night and of the 06-07 concert season was Mahler's 1st symphony. Well executed, and a fun composition to boot, it was the perfect send off for the performance season. The third movement is a mix of amusing and sombre as it is a funeral march that uses a minor key rendition of frere jacques as its first melody. The finale was pulled off with appropriate thunder and fury to bring the audience jumping to their feet at the end. All in all, a very good night.
This morning, looking at the 07-08 NSO season, I see that I will need to figure out a way to genetically engineer a tree that grows money, for next year's performances include several pieces that I simply must see. The season is opening with Beethoven's 9th symphony, on my birthday no less, and Mahler's 6th and Debussy's La Mer are performances later in the season. I have a full list of concerts that are of great interest to me below the cut, primarily for my own reference but also to see if any of you in the DC area would be interested in seeing them, as well.
Beethoven's 9th Symphony, October 6th
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSA
Bartok, Violin Concerto No 2, Schubert, Symphony in C Major, October 13th
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSB
Beethoven, Symphony No 5, November 3rd
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSD
Mahler, Kindertotenlieder, Symphony No 6 "Tragic", Feb 2nd
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSJ
Rachmaninoff, Symphony No 3, Mar 15th
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSL
Shostakovich, Symphony No 6, Mar 29th
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSM
Mahler, Symphony No 2 "Resurrection", April 5th
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSN
Rachmaninoff, Symphonic Dances, April 12th
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSO
Debussy, La Mer, April 26th
http://kennedy-center.org/calendar/index.cfm?fuseaction=showEvent&event=NICSP