the first show was downtown and ran on thurs-sat, i believe. the second was on monday in a difficult to get to place.
it would have started off with a short piece by a contemporary scandinanvian composer. this strikes me as sort of a period piece; it's in a style that is fairly dominant nowadays, especially in films, which is something that this orchestra seems to want to focus on. so, it's called drifts and that's more or less what it does, eventually building into a crescendo, when the kid is saved from certain death at the last minute, or something. lots of suspense, lots of development, yes - and admittedly fairly rich in detail - but, not much point, at the end. see, i'm going to say something like that for a large percentage of the music of this era, though; it is what it is, and if you like dramatic film music with abstract layers, you might like it...
beethoven's violin concerto is one of his pieces that i'm less familiar with. there is only one violin concerto by beethoven, and you can sort of tell why - while this is a violin concerto, beethoven's general use of strings is so intricate that it often seems like it's missing a lead instrument. maybe this could be somebody else's violin concerto, but for beethoven it just sounds like you forgot to mix the piano in. so, if you're like me, you just expect those romping pianos, and you're just not sure what to do without them.
beethoven was a master hook writer, though, and that little melody will get to you, if you let it. maybe you might want it to be bigger, more grandiose, more epic...but, if you give it a chance, it might grow on you.
so, it's a little light for beethoven, but it doesn't drag like his lightest works do. i have to say i wish i'd have checked this out sooner, but i can't listen to everything.
as an aside, i appreciate the dso's playlists. i'm not liking all of it, but it's helping me fill in gaps i should have filled in some time ago, even with some of my favourite composers.
and, we're back to brahms again, as though somebody is trying to get to me.
i put the first piano concerto halfway between beethoven and rachmaninov, but this symphonic piece is more like beethoven, as remixed by wagner. he's lifting melodies directly; it's shameless, really, because these are melodies that are so well known that you cannot for one second get away with it, and you'd think it was worse closer to the source. you get the guttural, beethoven-like attack in many parts, too, so it really is clear what he's starting with. but, he's also bringing in those proto-atonal string stabs that you'd get with wagner and then later with schoenberg, which i'm going to argue sort of drag down the piece. if you like the blunt attack of early romanticism, you could get frustrated by the way he draws this out; conversely, if you prefer the messier sound of the late romantic, you might interpret this as the best thing that beethoven never did.
but, it's also missing a lead instrument...
what do i think of brahms? well, i'm not reacting particularly badly to it, but, after exploring his first piano concerto and first symphony over the last few weeks, all i'm able to interpret it as is transitional. i guess i have to give him credit for his influence on rachmaninov, but i'm only ever going to get at that anachronistically. so, what does brahms sound like? i still don't really know, quite yet.
so, that was the first show, and if i could have made room for it, i would have likely attended. it's three moderately strong pieces that, together, strike me as worth experiencing.
but, i stayed inside and listened to it on youtube, instead.
