(no subject)
So, it is officially winter in NYC. Today it is cold. For that matter, it is winter in New Jersey as well. I know, I happened to spend the evening there. I went to a concert tonight of the New Jersey symphony.
They were playing Scandinavian works, Sibelius and Nielsen. Three pieces in all. I need to preface my comments with the information that I know just slightly above nothing about classical music. I don't have much to say about the first piece, I felt it was beautiful and animated. E insists it is melancholy, the true sounds of Scandinavian composers. Whatever. What does melancholy sound like anyway. The second was the Violin Concerto in D minor by Sibelius. This young (24 year old) Finnish virtuoso played the piece. The piece begs for a showman, and a showman he was. I sat in the second row, so perhaps my view was skewed, but watching him seemed almost voyeuristic to me. He was so intimately connected with the music he was playing, and his face showed as much. The last piece was also by Sibelius, but about Finnish mythology, their version of Beowulf. Crazy story, what I got from it was there is this hero Lemminkainen who goes to a remote land, in true hero fashion sleeps with all the maidens, widows and such, but the one he truly wants comes with a condition. Her mother says in order for him to have her, he must slay this mystical swan, who swims in the black river. He goes to do just that, and the one person in the land who was not under Lemminkainen's spell stops him by cutting him into 8 pieces and throwing his remains into the river. The story doesn't end there, Lemminkainen's mother sews him back together, giving him back his life. I am unsure of weather or not he got the girl. But just imagine the music to set to that story. Beautiful, at times dark, and I suppose maybe even melancholy.
So, that is how I spent my evening. Then we went outside to the bitter cold to walk to the train and my feet froze. Now it is 3 and I am not tired, but have not got anything to do so suppose I might fill out some more application for a Masters program. Maybe.
They were playing Scandinavian works, Sibelius and Nielsen. Three pieces in all. I need to preface my comments with the information that I know just slightly above nothing about classical music. I don't have much to say about the first piece, I felt it was beautiful and animated. E insists it is melancholy, the true sounds of Scandinavian composers. Whatever. What does melancholy sound like anyway. The second was the Violin Concerto in D minor by Sibelius. This young (24 year old) Finnish virtuoso played the piece. The piece begs for a showman, and a showman he was. I sat in the second row, so perhaps my view was skewed, but watching him seemed almost voyeuristic to me. He was so intimately connected with the music he was playing, and his face showed as much. The last piece was also by Sibelius, but about Finnish mythology, their version of Beowulf. Crazy story, what I got from it was there is this hero Lemminkainen who goes to a remote land, in true hero fashion sleeps with all the maidens, widows and such, but the one he truly wants comes with a condition. Her mother says in order for him to have her, he must slay this mystical swan, who swims in the black river. He goes to do just that, and the one person in the land who was not under Lemminkainen's spell stops him by cutting him into 8 pieces and throwing his remains into the river. The story doesn't end there, Lemminkainen's mother sews him back together, giving him back his life. I am unsure of weather or not he got the girl. But just imagine the music to set to that story. Beautiful, at times dark, and I suppose maybe even melancholy.
So, that is how I spent my evening. Then we went outside to the bitter cold to walk to the train and my feet froze. Now it is 3 and I am not tired, but have not got anything to do so suppose I might fill out some more application for a Masters program. Maybe.