Symphony night
Sep. 26th, 2024 11:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eve_primeToday was opening night for the new season for our local symphony. It's going to be an interesting season, because five of the concerts will be the auditions for the five new candidates for music director (which also includes being the conductor). Francesco Lecce-Chong is transitioning to his next big career move, but he's still conducting here for several concerts this year, including tonight's, which featured Smetana's "Die Moldau," Jennifer Higdon's violin concerto, and Stravinski's "Rite of Spring."
Unfortunately, I woke up with a sinus headache and feeling generally rather unwell. I drank a bunch of water and showered, and that mostly fixed my sinuses, but when I went for a very short walk to check the mail, I discovered that I'm actually pretty queasy, which I couldn't tell while lying down or showering. I figure it's a vestibular migraine. I took things easy all afternoon then drove downtown for the concert, skipping the pre-concert talk. The only problem came after I had parked and walked three blocks and was about to cross 7th Avenue, which has lots of one-way traffic, which was visually just too much. I shut my eyes and stood there among the others who were waiting until the traffic had stopped, then went on across the street and into the concert hall.
I had a nice time socially! I went up to the symphony desk and was greeted by name by the woman who runs the community events, and I confirmed that they're not doing symphony happy hour this year. Then when I went to my seat, not only was our youth orchestra board member Scott in his usual seat in the row in front of me, but board member Melissa and her husband were directly two rows in front of me, in the seats that JS and BS had used when I started attending the symphony; they'd been Melissa and her husband's many years ago too. We all talked during the intermission, and I exchanged waves with SDH, up in her seat. After the concert, I waited for SDH to tell her I probably won't attend Tuesday's Delgani concert in person, and she introduced me to her usual concert companion, a woman with a very long Italian name that I didn't catch. I also said hi to SG, who had been sitting with his dad, and after I had said good night and parted ways with all of them outside, my friend DO called out to me (SG's wife) - she'd gone separately from them and was parked nearer to me. So, lots of fun!
I didn't seem to be the worse for going, overall. The one thing that I hadn't expected was that during "Die Moldau," which is a very familiar and popular work about a Czech river, I had to be very careful not to visualize the river's flowing, swirling, and overall turbulence, because that conflicted with my queasiness. I discovered that it was helpful to fix my gaze on the ceiling and walls behind the orchestra, because they were most definitely stationary.
Unfortunately, I woke up with a sinus headache and feeling generally rather unwell. I drank a bunch of water and showered, and that mostly fixed my sinuses, but when I went for a very short walk to check the mail, I discovered that I'm actually pretty queasy, which I couldn't tell while lying down or showering. I figure it's a vestibular migraine. I took things easy all afternoon then drove downtown for the concert, skipping the pre-concert talk. The only problem came after I had parked and walked three blocks and was about to cross 7th Avenue, which has lots of one-way traffic, which was visually just too much. I shut my eyes and stood there among the others who were waiting until the traffic had stopped, then went on across the street and into the concert hall.
I had a nice time socially! I went up to the symphony desk and was greeted by name by the woman who runs the community events, and I confirmed that they're not doing symphony happy hour this year. Then when I went to my seat, not only was our youth orchestra board member Scott in his usual seat in the row in front of me, but board member Melissa and her husband were directly two rows in front of me, in the seats that JS and BS had used when I started attending the symphony; they'd been Melissa and her husband's many years ago too. We all talked during the intermission, and I exchanged waves with SDH, up in her seat. After the concert, I waited for SDH to tell her I probably won't attend Tuesday's Delgani concert in person, and she introduced me to her usual concert companion, a woman with a very long Italian name that I didn't catch. I also said hi to SG, who had been sitting with his dad, and after I had said good night and parted ways with all of them outside, my friend DO called out to me (SG's wife) - she'd gone separately from them and was parked nearer to me. So, lots of fun!
I didn't seem to be the worse for going, overall. The one thing that I hadn't expected was that during "Die Moldau," which is a very familiar and popular work about a Czech river, I had to be very careful not to visualize the river's flowing, swirling, and overall turbulence, because that conflicted with my queasiness. I discovered that it was helpful to fix my gaze on the ceiling and walls behind the orchestra, because they were most definitely stationary.
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Date: 2024-09-27 01:49 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2024-09-27 09:34 pm (UTC)