ah, the symphony.
Met W at Jade bar for a cocktail ($2 happy hour!) before the concert.
The conductor was David Robertson, who I really like. He is shorter than MTT, and not as willowy; but like MTT he knows how to get good sound from the orchestra.
I also like the happy, snappy way he takes bows after the concert.
The appetizer this week was by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. ‘La noche de los Mayas’ is a setting of a eponymous film score, released in 1939.
It is a loud, charming, and entertaining piece: with lots of rhythms and melodies from hispanic songs. The final movement has some fantastic percussive stretches. At one point, I counted 15 percussionists all banging away at once.
At the half, I went up to the first tier exhibit commemorating the 25th anniversary of the opening of the concert hall. For some reason, I got really excited to see and touch one of the big plexiglas panels which are suspended from the ceiling above the orchestra to shape the sound.
It was like a science museum exhibit, sandwiched between two concerts. Fun!
The main event was Carmina Burana. I swear I’ve heard this piece in conceet at Davies Symphony Hall sometime in the last two years; but the program says that it hasn’t been performwd by the symphony since 98. Which means it would have had to have been a guest orchestra and chorus; which is unlikely given the number of instruments and singers, or I’m dreaming.
I’m about 100 percent sure I heard this recently.
Anyway, it is a great piece of music, and the crowd loved it. A huge chorus, so the sound was big and full and throaty. The soprano had a strange throaty sound, and for such a small lady could really open her mouth. Picture the people singing on schoolhouse rock, or Lucy tilting her had back to laugh at Charlie Brown.
Anyway. a meat and potatoes kind of night, musically. You can’t live on pop alone.