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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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In Reply to: Coming Up - Yet Another Night at the Indy Symphony posted by Rockethead26 on June 2, 2012 at 07:01:24:
So the place is sold out, packed to the rafters last night. A fellow sits down on the other side of my wife and we exchange brief greetings. He takes out a small pair of binoculars and offers us their use during the show.
My wife's first comment to him was, "I hope you can't see boogers in the musicians noses"! He cracked up and said, "No, I don't think they're that powerful".
Later, on the ride home, I said, "Geez, you know the guy for 30 seconds and you use the word "boogers""??? We started laughing so hard, I almost had to pull over.
She did another one after the show, but I'll save that for later...
Well, on to the show.
The staging was different tonight and stayed that way for all three pieces, except, of course, for the absence of the woodwinds, horns and tympani for the first piece.
Here was the setup.
It was kinda cool seeing the 8 beautiful double basses spread out across the rear platform normally used for the percussion section. I have only seen one other "different" arrangement of the musicians seating, and that was for a Tchaikovsky symphony. I had gotten used to where sounds were "supposed" to come from, so it took a while to re-orient. This probably explains why I get confused listening to some orchestral pieces at home.
The performances:
1)Threnody
It's true, you can make a bunch of ugly noises with beautiful instruments. Sorry, but I don't get this one at all and I did try to put the sounds in the context of the piece's subject. It was just a mess of noise, although it was most fun watching some of the contortions of the musicians doing the most unusual things to their stringed instruments. Slaps, exagerated plucks, bowing below the bridges of the double basses. Even the musicians looked like they were in pain.
I won't ask for recommended recordings of this one, thank you.
2) Brahms Violin Concerto with Joshua Bell
Well played and simply beautiful. Joshua is an Indiana boy and this was a huge homecoming. He played for the crowds and did it extremely well. Full house standing ovation until he came out the 5th time and played a really fun, humorous version of Yankee Doodle Dandee. During his playing of this piece, laughs erupted from the audience several times. I give him 5-Stars.
3) Beethoven's "Eroica"
As well played as anything I've heard on any recording. I have recordings of Beethoven's 3rd with Toscanini, Klemperer, Solti and Van Karajan. Granted, I an a newbie and many, if not most nuances of performance are lost on me. It was still, simply outstanding.
Before the performance we bought two of Joshua Bell's CDs and were told he would be available after the evening's performance for autographs. I was going to buy only one, but another had a great picture of him on the cover and my wife says, "buy this one, too". I looked at her and before I could say anything, she commented on my fascination with violin and piano babes and that she could have her violin "hunk". Sold!
So, at the end of the show, we go downstairs and get in line for the autograph session. Joshua is signing really fast, only pausing really to talk to young kids and ask their name to add to the signing. Otherwise it's sign, next, sign, next, sign...
Well, my wife steps up for her turn and says, "You're playing was wonderful, would you do me a favor and sign it to "a hot babe""?
He looked up quickly with a laughing grin and said, "No way, you have no idea the trouble I can get into. I've seen marriages fail for stuff I've written on a CD."
My wife pleads, to no avail. We laughed our asses off as we left the theater. Jeez, the stuff she come up with. This added to the tear filled laughter we had on the way home.
Overall, another great night!
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Follow Ups
- An interesting and funny night... - Rockethead26 05:42:32 06/03/12 (3)
- Thanks for the review - jult52 12:37:46 06/07/12 (1)
- RE: Thanks for the review - Rockethead26 14:16:22 06/10/12 (0)
- Funny! Your wife sounds like a character! [nt] ;-) - Chris from Lafayette 10:02:51 06/03/12 (0)
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