The World As We Know It
I am a firm believer that nothing is boring. If I can become an avid basketball fan (which I really really did) for a game in which all they do is run from one end of the court to the other back and forth, then nothing is boring--it is simply a matter of getting beneath the surface and looking deeper.
It is in that spirit that I went to a concert at the new Walt Disney Concert Hall downtown. It was the Julliard String Quartet playing Beethoven Unbound. The concert hall is really fabulous inside and I found the gift shop with no trouble at all. They only sold pepsi, but I was there for the music. The fellow sitting next to me (I had a single ticket that Phil Jackson at my office couldn't use) was very knowledgeable and after I embarrassed myself clapping in the wrong place (I wasn't alone mind you), he shared his knowledge. You don't clap for the artists, you clap for the composer at the end of the entire piece, not at the end of the movement.
The first part was almost pleasant--there was a lot of repetition and false endings to trick us--that crafty Beethoven, but very well played. The first violinist had his back to me (I was sitting on the side--the theater goes all the way around behind the musicians) and even from the back you could tell that he was very expressive. The guy on the cello looked like a Marz Brother playing the cello--very expressive facial movements with moments of surprise--quite comical. Of course I'm pretty sure that I was the only one laughing on the inside--most everyone else there in the audience looked very serious.
In short order (after I had composed a very nice speech in my head about poetry and chocolate), it was time for intermission. My neighbor then regaled me with ten minutes or was it ten thousand seconds of information about the concert. The background was actually facinating and it was just the kind of inside information one must have to get beyond the "torture" in chamber music. So we heard Beethovan's String Quartet No. 1, but Beethovan probably renumbered it, because it is a stiring piece and his real number one was not as good. Later we were going to hear No. 16. No one played 14 through 17 for years because they were too dissident. They were ahead of Beethovan's time. Now the Bartok (which we were to hear next) was a 20th century composer and Beethovan's 16 was more like 20th century compositions. [Yea, I thought sarcastically, dissident music--my fav, well I won't fall asleep anyway.]
Bartok was pretty dissident--they plucked the stings and banged the stick against the violin in parts, but I mistook the last movement for Beethovan (trying to anticipate the end) and enjoyed that one--I thought I heard three bars from West Side Story. Then four movements of Beethovan's later work--the first was ok, then the second was good and the third was really good. The final one was amazing even--the musicians were so finely in tune with each other and the tone was so clear. At the end, I was on my feet clapping loudly and my neighbor said I'm not sure if they'll play an encore. Ooops, I forgot that's what happens when you stand up and clap--they think you want to hear more.
It is in that spirit that I went to a concert at the new Walt Disney Concert Hall downtown. It was the Julliard String Quartet playing Beethoven Unbound. The concert hall is really fabulous inside and I found the gift shop with no trouble at all. They only sold pepsi, but I was there for the music. The fellow sitting next to me (I had a single ticket that Phil Jackson at my office couldn't use) was very knowledgeable and after I embarrassed myself clapping in the wrong place (I wasn't alone mind you), he shared his knowledge. You don't clap for the artists, you clap for the composer at the end of the entire piece, not at the end of the movement.
The first part was almost pleasant--there was a lot of repetition and false endings to trick us--that crafty Beethoven, but very well played. The first violinist had his back to me (I was sitting on the side--the theater goes all the way around behind the musicians) and even from the back you could tell that he was very expressive. The guy on the cello looked like a Marz Brother playing the cello--very expressive facial movements with moments of surprise--quite comical. Of course I'm pretty sure that I was the only one laughing on the inside--most everyone else there in the audience looked very serious.
In short order (after I had composed a very nice speech in my head about poetry and chocolate), it was time for intermission. My neighbor then regaled me with ten minutes or was it ten thousand seconds of information about the concert. The background was actually facinating and it was just the kind of inside information one must have to get beyond the "torture" in chamber music. So we heard Beethovan's String Quartet No. 1, but Beethovan probably renumbered it, because it is a stiring piece and his real number one was not as good. Later we were going to hear No. 16. No one played 14 through 17 for years because they were too dissident. They were ahead of Beethovan's time. Now the Bartok (which we were to hear next) was a 20th century composer and Beethovan's 16 was more like 20th century compositions. [Yea, I thought sarcastically, dissident music--my fav, well I won't fall asleep anyway.]
Bartok was pretty dissident--they plucked the stings and banged the stick against the violin in parts, but I mistook the last movement for Beethovan (trying to anticipate the end) and enjoyed that one--I thought I heard three bars from West Side Story. Then four movements of Beethovan's later work--the first was ok, then the second was good and the third was really good. The final one was amazing even--the musicians were so finely in tune with each other and the tone was so clear. At the end, I was on my feet clapping loudly and my neighbor said I'm not sure if they'll play an encore. Ooops, I forgot that's what happens when you stand up and clap--they think you want to hear more.
posted by KathrynVH @ 9:58 AM
1 Comments:
At October 11, 2005 at 7:18 AM,
EZ Travel said…
No, sorry that was a standing ovation; we were all leaving. Yes, I am also a firm believer that almost anything live is worth seeing. But classical music, especially explained, can be trying. That and wrestling.
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