Day 1091: Symphony night
Mar. 16th, 2023 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve_primeToday I woke feeling pretty energetic, which was useful because tonight was symphony night and J. wanted to come with me. I drove downtown to trade in one of my vouchers (from symphony happy hour trivia - I've got four more vouchers with only two concerts left) for a ticket for the seat beside me. I came home, worked a bit and ate, then the two of us drove back downtown for the concert. We listened to the preconcert talk - tonight's pianist, Daniel Hsu, was very funny! Then we went to our seats and waited for the music.
First was Brahms, "Academic Festival Overture," a piece with an amusing backstory, which I'll tell below. Then we heard a piece our symphony had co-commissioned as the first symphony by Gabriella Smith, who's becoming very highly sought-after. It was named "ONE" and featured all sorts of unusual noises from the instruments, evoking sounds of nature - birds, drops of water, elephants, etc. J heard a snake. I heard a heartbeat that went on for quite a while. The quiet parts, and the fourth movement, were cool, but there was a lot that was too loud.
Before the concert I said hi to a guy I know named Scott and chatted a bit with a woman named Connie whom I'd met in the fall. During the intermission I chatted with J a bit then went to introduce myself to a guy I've seen at concerts for years, including three within the past week. His partner had wandered off, unfortunately, as I wanted to tell her how pretty her dress was. Then I saw my friend DO and talked with her a while and introduced her to J.
Then came the best part of the concert - Daniel Hsu and the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto. It has a reputation as being the most difficult piano concerto. I wasn't familiar with it, but it turned out to also be quite lovely. I'm always impressed by the concerto soloists, totally memorizing these complicated pieces. We stood and clapped so long that he played an encore, something else pretty, and I haven't any idea what it was. And then we left and drove home.
So the story of the "Academic Festival Overture" is this. Brahms was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Breslau, and he wrote back with a nice thank-you note. But then he heard that they were annoyed - they had assumed that as a thank-you he would compose something for them! So he did - and it's got the full Brahms orchestral treatment, but the melodies he uses were the popular student drinking songs of the day... something to shock the university's administrators and that the students would find hilarious. It was pretty good!
Oh, also our recently retired congressman (for 34 years) was in one of the balcony boxes, and he took a bow before the show, to considerable applause.
First was Brahms, "Academic Festival Overture," a piece with an amusing backstory, which I'll tell below. Then we heard a piece our symphony had co-commissioned as the first symphony by Gabriella Smith, who's becoming very highly sought-after. It was named "ONE" and featured all sorts of unusual noises from the instruments, evoking sounds of nature - birds, drops of water, elephants, etc. J heard a snake. I heard a heartbeat that went on for quite a while. The quiet parts, and the fourth movement, were cool, but there was a lot that was too loud.
Before the concert I said hi to a guy I know named Scott and chatted a bit with a woman named Connie whom I'd met in the fall. During the intermission I chatted with J a bit then went to introduce myself to a guy I've seen at concerts for years, including three within the past week. His partner had wandered off, unfortunately, as I wanted to tell her how pretty her dress was. Then I saw my friend DO and talked with her a while and introduced her to J.
Then came the best part of the concert - Daniel Hsu and the Rachmaninoff Third Piano Concerto. It has a reputation as being the most difficult piano concerto. I wasn't familiar with it, but it turned out to also be quite lovely. I'm always impressed by the concerto soloists, totally memorizing these complicated pieces. We stood and clapped so long that he played an encore, something else pretty, and I haven't any idea what it was. And then we left and drove home.
So the story of the "Academic Festival Overture" is this. Brahms was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Breslau, and he wrote back with a nice thank-you note. But then he heard that they were annoyed - they had assumed that as a thank-you he would compose something for them! So he did - and it's got the full Brahms orchestral treatment, but the melodies he uses were the popular student drinking songs of the day... something to shock the university's administrators and that the students would find hilarious. It was pretty good!
Oh, also our recently retired congressman (for 34 years) was in one of the balcony boxes, and he took a bow before the show, to considerable applause.