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silverflight8) wrote2012-09-28 03:27 pm
silverflight8) wrote2012-09-28 03:27 pm
Entry tags:
symphony
I guess I should talk about the concert, since yesterday I didn't get round to it (I had to dissect the post-concert fallout first).
At any rate, it was performed the symphony orchestra in conjunction with a guest pianist, playing Rachmanioff's second concerto as the main concert draw. First, though, we heard a symphony piece by a Canadian composer, who apparently took lyrics from the east coast's reels and dances. It was a very, very dissonant piece. She (the composer) said that in some chords "[she used] all twelve tones"...one of the nice things about concerts is the visual, and seeing all the violinists playing one chord (lots of staccato) and then just pausing, in perfect synchronicity but sounding the most dissonant note, was definitely a contrast.
Ah, I think Rachmanioff is not my thing, because while the pianist was brilliant, his concerto is so - so - volatile. It went from one extreme to the other (actually that was one of the things I liked especially about the pianist - she made the transitions between so quiet it was almost no sound, to a full-bodied sound rivalling the orchestra, and did so beautifully). It just felt very unstable, though both symphony and piano were marvellous and pulled off the drama.
Intermission. Then after was the Pictures at the Exhibition, which is personally one of my favourite pieces - it's such a programmatic piece, and the brass section gets to shine, which is fun. Also it is unabashedly dramatic near the end - it kept pulling back from the final cadence (aughhh!) and going off on quieter tangents, before finally cumulating in this huge, cymbal-clashing massive cadence. It was so much fun! And I think there's a quality that gets lost in recordings. You just can't hear the different instruments so well, and - assuming that your audience is quiet - there's such a massive dynamic range you can't get with a computer, because you would so blow your speakers if you tried! Here's a nice clip of the Promenade, the first part of the work, by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
At any rate, it was performed the symphony orchestra in conjunction with a guest pianist, playing Rachmanioff's second concerto as the main concert draw. First, though, we heard a symphony piece by a Canadian composer, who apparently took lyrics from the east coast's reels and dances. It was a very, very dissonant piece. She (the composer) said that in some chords "[she used] all twelve tones"...one of the nice things about concerts is the visual, and seeing all the violinists playing one chord (lots of staccato) and then just pausing, in perfect synchronicity but sounding the most dissonant note, was definitely a contrast.
Ah, I think Rachmanioff is not my thing, because while the pianist was brilliant, his concerto is so - so - volatile. It went from one extreme to the other (actually that was one of the things I liked especially about the pianist - she made the transitions between so quiet it was almost no sound, to a full-bodied sound rivalling the orchestra, and did so beautifully). It just felt very unstable, though both symphony and piano were marvellous and pulled off the drama.
Intermission. Then after was the Pictures at the Exhibition, which is personally one of my favourite pieces - it's such a programmatic piece, and the brass section gets to shine, which is fun. Also it is unabashedly dramatic near the end - it kept pulling back from the final cadence (aughhh!) and going off on quieter tangents, before finally cumulating in this huge, cymbal-clashing massive cadence. It was so much fun! And I think there's a quality that gets lost in recordings. You just can't hear the different instruments so well, and - assuming that your audience is quiet - there's such a massive dynamic range you can't get with a computer, because you would so blow your speakers if you tried! Here's a nice clip of the Promenade, the first part of the work, by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.
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It was originally SGA (John/Rodney), I'm 70k into that part of it, and now there's an offshoot Losers universe (which is Cougar/Jensen). There are lots of other references in there, though, so it's sort of... My Big Music AU.
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Ohh, neat! That sounds like it's shaping into a project of epic length though.
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I don't even remember the tests anymore - I mostly remember getting reamed out by my band director (who was the one that organized the trip). He was a bit of a dick.