Beethoven and Strauss

In my quest to hear all the Beethoven symphonies live, I attended the Toronto Symphony concert that included Symphony #4 on Nov. 20.  That was what I went for, but as usual found some other hidden gems.  The conductor for the occasion was Sir Andrew Davis, conductor laureate of the TSO.

The program opened with "Overture to The Consecration of the House".  The title struck me as familiar, yet I can't say I recognized any of the music.  Doing a bit of research I discovered I'd heard it as part of Jorma Elo's ballet Pur ti Miro performed by the National Ballet of Canada in 2010.  It's one of the few overtures Beethoven wrote that was meant to be a stand alone piece and is pretty impressive, not to mention great ballet music.

I can understand why Beethoven's 4th symphony doesn't seem to be performed all that often.   It doesn't have the same draw of #5 or scope of #9.  It's good music, but I think I needed to read more of the notes or know more about the form to deeply appreciate it.  I did like the opening where the rich chords jump keys and don't give you any idea where it's going.

Guest soprano Erin Wall joined the orchestra for "Seven Early Songs", by Alban Berg.  The songs had a nice variety with a love theme throughout.  The English translations were a welcome addition to the program.  I'm not usually a poetry person, but this series I actually read again.

Erin Wall (photo by Josh Clavir)

The evening ended with "Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche" (or "Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks") by Richard Strauss.  This was probably my favourite of the evening.  Till Eulenspiegel was a quick witted prankster, and apparently a real German peasant who died around 1350.  What jumped out at me  was the horn solo which I'm familiar with from its use in one of my favourite versions of the "12 Days of Christmas" by the Indianapolis Symphony.  There's a story in this piece of music as well that I should have read the notes for in advance to fully appreciate.  Lessons learned for the next concert.

Professional review of the concert can be found here.

Beethoven Symphony 9

Conductor Matthew Halls
(www.bach-cantatas.com)

I'm unsure where I heard it, but regarding conductors it was said that "the score needs to be in their head, not their head in the score".  Never was that more clearly demonstrated then at the Toronto Symphony concert Wed. Feb. 13 Beethoven Symphony 9.  Guest conductor Matthew Halls, conducted the entire evening from memory.  What a memory to contain not only Beethoven's longest symphony but his "Coriolan Overture" and "Serenade in E Minor for String Orchestra" by Elgar as well.

I really enjoyed the "Coriolan Overture".  It opened with a decisive series of chords and ended, in a way I don't expect from Beethoven, by literally fading away.  The orchestra did a fantastic disappearing act at the end, bringing the sound level ever so gradually to nothing.

Elgar's "Serenade" was just beautiful with lovely playing from the string section.

The meat of the evening and the reason everyone was there had to be Beethoven's Ninth Symphony!  It was my first time hearing it live and just the way the stage was set up indicated something was going to be different.  Rather than relegating the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir to the seats in the choir loft, the orchestra was pushed to the front of the stage and the choir seated on risers behind them.

http://www.musicaltoronto.org/

(Photo by John Terauds)

Obviously the part everyone knows is the "Ode to Joy" from the fourth movement, but I discovered there's so much more to the piece than that.  For example in the second movement there was a great melody that would start to develop and each time it reached a peak it would drop away into something else.  Not sure where he was going with that because I was anxious to hear it continue and to my ears it never did.  Even in the fourth movement the "Ode to Joy" theme is of course there, but it's expanded on and left then returned to.  All things I wasn't expecting.  It was truly an uplifting evening, and I hope to catch Beethoven 9 again sometime.  To top it all off, it was Mr. Halls first time conducting the Ninth Symphony.  No one ever would have guessed and I wonder how his approach may change as he conducts it in the future after such a successful first experience.  For a more detailed review check out the Toronto Star article.

TSO Allows the Audience to Pick

For many months the Toronto Symphony posted polls listing pieces of music and inviting potential  audience members to pick their favourites.  After several rounds and finals the six top pieces were combined into an Audience Choice concert.  Not a lot of the music I voted for made the final list, but I was getting excited just listening to the orchestra warm up and hearing snippets from Star Wars!

The "Main Title Theme from Star Wars" opened the evening with a soaring brass section that let loose to great effect.  There's nothing quite like John Williams.  I was left wondering if it's the first time anyone in attendance had heard that piece live given that there isn't always a lot of crossover between people who favour classical concerts and ones who prefer the Pops series.  Maybe programs like this will help in the promotion of each.

Next up was the "long, short, short, long" movement from Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 (ok, technically movement 2).  The theme was introduced so beautifully by the strings and then got even quieter.   Wow, just lovely.

Ms. Rizikov
(ttp://glenngouldvariations.tumblr.com)

Rachmaninoff's "Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini" is probably my favourite piano piece, and I'll admit to being cliche and name Variation 18 as my favourite within it.  That variation proved to be another winner and made the program.  We also helped to fulfill a dream of sorts for the young pianist.  Thirteen year old Anastasia Rizikov had told the conductor who announced to the audience that it was her dream to perform with the TSO.  She took to the stage looking every bit a polished young lady.  Raising off the piano bench at times to get the sound from the piano to counter the orchestra, she got the job done, and musically at that.  I expect this won't be her last time on the Roy Thomson Hall stage.

Next was Movement 4 from Dvorak's "Symphony No. 9: From the New World".  It was a good book end to the first half with the Jaws sounding opening and brass fanfare that could slip right into a John Williams movie score.

Resident Conductor
Shalom Bard (tso.ca)

The audience voting continued even during the concert as after intermission we were tasked with making a selection between "The Great Gate of Kiev" from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, or "Intermezzo" from the opera Cavalleria Rusticana by Mascangni.  The method of voting by was shouting the favourite phrase of the conductor for the evening, the TSO's new resident conductor, Shalom Bard.  No idea what it means but to me it sounded like "oy mon choi".  The brassy sounds of Kiev won.

Then a drastic change of pace for "Adagio for Strings", which was poignant as always.  I had forgotten this was in the movie Lorenzo's Oil, and while listening my mind wandered back to when I saw that movie in high school.

The evening concluded with the full "1812 Overture"!  Another smashingly exciting piece.  Particularly the finale that accompanies fireworks shows, yet I like hearing the whole thing in a concert setting, even if the real cannon fire is replaced with recorded shots.

But wait!  That ended up not being the end of the evening.  Letting those who lost the vote still be winners, "Intermezzo" was played as an encore.  It was my vote and I'm glad they played it.  The theme is likely to be known by many but it's not a piece I've ever heard in it's entirety and really had no idea where the melody that's so popular was from.  It was a wonderful conclusion.

I think the audience choice idea went over well and perhaps there will be more in the future.

Beethoven Triple Concerto

There's a wonderful magazine in Toronto about all things music called The WholeNote.  Each month they publish, there's a Music's Child feature.  On this page is a picture of a musician as a child, and a rhyme or short clue about them.  Readers then take their best guess as to who the person might be.  The remainder of the page contains an interview with the previous month's "child".  Very rarely do I have any idea who the person is, however September's was the new Toronto Symphony Concertmaster Jonathan Crow.  On a lark I sent in my guess.  I was surprised when I got an email saying that I had been one of the people to guess right and would I like tickets to the TSO concert that would feature Jonathan Crow in Beethoven's "Triple Concerto" for piano, violin and cello.  I readily accepted.  So thank you very much to The WholeNote for treating me to a night of music!

The concert on Nov. 15 was headed by TSO conductor Peter Oundjian and in addition to featuring Mr. Crow, had guest pianist Andre Laplante, and guest cellist Shauna Rolston, Canadian's all!  However, before the Beethoven, there was a piece by Pierre Mercure called "Triptyque".  Written in 1959 it was pretty good for contemporary music.  I'd like to see the score and actually compare the opening Adagio with the concluding Adagio since the final one is the exact reversal of the first, or retrograde in musical terms.

Soloists

Up next was the Beethoven.  It's an interesting choice of instruments to feature and the only concerto Beethoven wrote for multiple solo instruments.  The more prominent of the solo parts is also given to the cello, rather than the violin or piano.  The dynamic contrasts in the orchestra were exceptional, the pianissimos were barely heard.  Of the trio I think I liked the piano part the best, even if it was limited.  I heard the piece described as having some of the bubbliest music Beethoven wrote, I'm not sure I'd go that far, but it was all pleasant with a fun trading/echoing of parts between the instruments.  It was also funny that even standing on the podium given to the cellist, Ms. Rolston was about the same height as Mr. Crow who was standing on the floor.  His violin looks so small in his hands.

The evening concluded with the not often played Shostakovich "Symphony No. 12" subtitled "The Year 1917".  I've heard recordings of Symphony No. 11 and found it emotionally exhausting with the heavy and sad subject matter.  No. 12 used a few of the same themes and while the slow movements were smooth and mesmerizing I liked the finale.  The power that crashed over you with 8 basses, 5 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, 3 oboes, 3 bassoons, loud timpani and cymbals, and a full compliment of violins, violas, and celli all playing at the same time was thrilling.  It also woke me up enough for the drive back home.  It was a great conclusion to a long day.    Thanks WholeNote!

Full stage and full house, great to see
(http://thereckoner.ca)

A Whirlwind of Music

Shamefully this is being written in November and back dated a month (wow, so behind) so it shows in the correct month drop down menu.  So way back on Oct. 14 the Toronto Symphony offered a Whirlwind of Music program.  We started in Germany with the first movement of Mendelssohn's "Italian Symphony No. 4", then moved on to Italy for Vivaldi's "Concerto for Bassoon in F Major" and Rossini's "Overture to William Tell".  After intermission we went to Austria for the "Overture to the Magic Flute" by Mozart, then back to Germany for Mendelssohn's "Konzertstuck No. 1 for Two Clarinets", before finishing the trip with the second and fourth movements of Beethoven's "Symphony No. 7".

Joshua Weilerstein

The concert was conducted by the incredibly energetic (ah, the joys of youth) Joshua Weilerstein.  He's accomplished a lot in his 24 years, completing graduate studies in conducting and violin, assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic, and has had conducting gigs all over the world with orchestras such as the BBC Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and Danish National Symphony to name a few.  He had an excellent rapport with the audience, provided interesting tidbits about the pieces and added humour by defining an intellectual as one who can "list to the William Tell Overture without thinking of The Lone Ranger".  True not a quote created by him (wikipedia credits it to Jack Guin of the Denver Post) but fun nonetheless.

Michael Sweeney

Highlights of the concert for me started with the bassoon concerto.  I enjoy the sound of the bassoon, but often find it difficult to pick out from the full orchestra unless it has an obvious melodic line.  So it was really nice to hear principal bassoonist Michael Sweeney take centre stage.  In fact it was an embellished version of the concerto that Mr. Sweeney created himself.  A rather prolific concerto writer with over 500 to his credit and more than three dozen for the bassoon, I've always liked that Vivaldi probably wrote most of these works for the female students at the Venetian orphanage where he worked.

L: Valdepenas, R: Zhai

The spotlight continued to be on principal players when new TSO clarinetist YaoGuang Zhai joined the veteran Joaquin Valdepenas for the "Konzertstuck (or Concert Piece) for Two Clarinets".  What impeccable tone, articulation and ability they both have that showed off the versatility of this wonderful instrument (sorry, I'm biased since that's my instrument too).

Clearly I'm no intellectual because I thought of The Lone Ranger, but I had no idea the "Overture to William Tell" had four sections and is 12 minutes long!  As a whole it's a great piece, and a shame so much gets forgotten about because of the popularity of the final gallop.  It opens with a section called Prelude: Dawn featuring only the cellos and basses, then the full orchestra joins for the Storm.  The third section, Call to the Cows, is the pastorale calm after the storm and features the English horn, before  transitioning to the brass filled finale.

It was a lot of variety packed into an fun filled afternoon concert.

TSO's High Profile Guest Artist

thestar.com

Lang Lang began a two week stay in Toronto on Nov. 9, where he performed all five Beethoven Piano Concerti linked in concerts with Beethoven symphonies.  In addition to his performing, he engaged in outreach concerts and teaching opportunities with many groups of local school children.

I attended the concert which featured Beethoven's Piano Concerto 2, and Symphony 7 on Nov. 17.  It was quite an exciting evening, beginning with the first time I've seen Jonathan Crow as concert master since it was first announced at a concert I attended last season.  The young, handsome gentlemen are taking over the seating along the edge of the stage.  Crow is quite tall and the violin almost seemed small in his hands.

The first piece on the program was "Tibetan Swing" by Bright Sheng a Chinese-American who was in the audience for the Canadian premiere of his work.  It started off minimalistic then added groups of instruments until there was a cacophony of sound.  I didn't particularly enjoy this part, but preferred when it quieted down again.  For me there was too much going on to understand much of anything.  The trombones (particularly Gord Wolfe) were fun to watch though.  While muted they were engaged in very quick full slide motions, which sounded like ducks quacking at times.  Probably not the effect the composer was going for, however he was welcomed up on stage for a series of bows at the conclusion of the piece.

www.whatsonxiamen.com

After a brief break for a stage shift and musician swap, Lang Lang arrived to start off the Beethoven portion of the evening.  He has a somewhat flamboyant style, moving with the music and sweeping his arms at times as if joining in the conducting while he waited for the orchestra to finish the introduction.  At the moment I don't remember much about the actual piece.  The second movement, the Adagio, particularly near the end was sleep inducing, although I'll blame this on my tired state and the lyrical beauty.  It was not boring.  His pianissimos are remarkably quiet giving him the ability to produce a wide dynamic range without having to pound it out of the piano.  The bouncy-ness returned in the 3rd movement, which was followed by an almost full house standing ovation.  Although it wasn't an instantaneous jumping of the crowd to their feet.  One lady from the audience passed a bouquet of flowers to Lang Lang who kissed her hand in thank you.  He then pulled one bloom from the group and presented it to Peter Oundjian.  With no end to the applause in sight Lang Lang passed the bouquet to Teng Li (I think), the principal violist, and returned to the piano for an encore.  But not before Oundjian attempted to hand him back the single flower.  A funny gesture that showed the rapport they have developed over the years.  I have no idea what the encore was.  I'll guess Liszt because that's what Lang Lang's most recent CD consists of, but it really is a pure guess.

Next up was the real reason I wanted to attend this concert.  I'm working at seeing all the Beethoven Symphonies, and this crossed off number 7.  Perhaps I said this before, but whatever one I see last becomes my favourite and this was no exception.  There's a very energetic "amsterdam" rhythm in the first movement that keeps the piece motoring along.  Then the gorgeous yet simple theme in the second movement.  Beethoven did a lot with 4 note patterns, case in point Symphony 5, and it created some very memorable and emotional music.  The fourth movement was almost a frenzy but held together and built to a brilliant finish.  In fact the audience was faster in rising to their feet at the conclusion of the symphony than for the piano concerto!  Myself included.  I was wide awake again for the trip home humming the first movement theme the whole way.

As an added bonus, there was in intermission chat with principal keyboardist Patricia Krueger.  A few interesting tidbits: her favourite instrument to play is the triangle (which she does quite enthusiastically), and the Roy Thomson Hall organ has 5000 pipes!

What Makes it Great?

The second in my week of TSO evenings was What Makes it Great?  Beethoven Symphony 1.  Part of the Exposed Concert series, the concert takes a piece of music, dissects it in the first half by taking the audience inside the music, and then the orchestra performs the full piece in the second half.  The whole idea I think is incredible, there's always so much going on in music that I wonder what I'm missing.  This idea is obviously something that guest conductor Rob Kapilow believes in, and his enthusiasm is infectious.  Interestingly enough, the latest (March 29, 2011) NACOcast interview is with him!  I'm an avid follower of the NACOcast, although a bit behind at the moment.  When I first saw that a new episode was posted, the name of the interviewee didn't mean anything.  However, when I saw it again today, it clicked and I listened right away.  His insights and ability to throw out quotations is impressive.

As for the concert, things were somewhat different as soon as you walked into the hall.  The usual conductors podium was a larger platform with a keyboard set up off to the side.  The orchestra was also noticeably smaller than Wednesday night, given that Beethoven didn't have as much to work with.  The only percussion used is the timpani and since trumpets didn't have valves when Symphony 1 was written their note range was limited, so they are used sparingly.

www.robkapilow.com

Mr. Kapilow (having listened to the NACOcast, he doesn't like the title "maestro"), walked out on stage to standard applause and quickly began an introduction to himself and Beethoven.  He has a rapid fire way of speaking, and the difficulty of keeping up with note taking were I a student in his lecture hall struck me.  He never slowed down and everything he demonstrated had meaning.  One quotation (courtesy of his former composition teacher Nadia Boulanger) that would be repeated multiple times throughout the evening was, "A genius can not help but be original.  Therefore a genius need only attempt to imitate to be original."  Given that this was Beethoven's first symphony, there's some throw back to Haydn tendencies that audiences of 1800 would have recognized.  But in Beethoven's genius, he can't help but be original through the imitation.

Beethoven was about what an idea could become, rather than what it currently was and his ideas and developments are laid out on top of the music, not hidden.  Mr. Kapilow described this as Beethoven's music "becoming, not being".   He explained the history of what audiences would have expected to hear at the debut of the symphony by incorporating his own "boring" segments of music for the purpose of counteracting the surprises in what Beethoven actually wrote.  He made everything completely understandable and easy to follow for a general audience, while not alienating those with more musical background.  Quite honestly, I don't think I stopped smiling the entire evening.

The decomposition started with the third movement, technically a scherzo given the tempo, but called a Minuet and Trio in homage to the Haydn and Mozart symphonies which came before.  He took the first few bars, a theme of 4 notes (hmm, seems like a theme with Beethoven, opening of Symphony 5 anyone?), and demonstrated how Beethoven condensed it naming the rhythms "short long, short long, short short short short long" so everyone totally "got it".

Another example of condensation, is in the second movement; the second violins start with fugue type theme, then cellos take over with 6 notes, followed by the basses playing only the first 4 notes.  But now it's determined to not be a fugue but has developed to a full theme.

The evening was not without humour either.  The first movement begins with two chords (not in C major, the key of the piece, incidentally) which sounds like an ending.  Indeed the orchestra played the 2 chords, stood up and bowed :)  The start of the fourth movement has the strings playing a scale, adding an extra note each time which Mr. Kapilow explained as them searching for the right note but not being able to find it.  The cellos (ok, technically celli) then try to "help" in the search.

These are just small demonstrations that I recall, hopefully correctly.  As enthralled as I was with the presentation, most examples have slipped through the recesses of my mind already.  Too much information...I should have taken notes :)

To close, I leave you with this thought from Mr. Kapilow, there's a great difference between hearing and listening.  To make classical music exciting, "all you have to do listen".

NAC Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall

The annual trip for the National Arts Centre Orchestra, under the direction of Pinkus Zukerman, to Toronto was Feb. 5 where they performed an almost all Beethoven program.  The pieces performed were Peter Paul Koprowski's "In Memoriam Karol Szymanowski", and the Beethoven's: "Symphony Number 2", and Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat Major "Emperor".  Jonathan Biss was the guest pianist.

Personally I went for the Beethoven Symphony, and that really was the piece I enjoyed most of the evening.  I did appreciate the introductions by CBC Radio personality Eric Friesen, and Maestro Zukerman was enthusiastic and personable in a way I had not expected.

The first piece demonstrated the composer's protest against war and oppression.  Being written in 1963, I classify it as modern music, which is an area I'm still working to appreciate.  It had its moments, but was not my cup of tea.

Then the Beethoven!  The introduction by Mr.'s Friesen and Zukerman were enthusiastic and engaging.  Asking for Maestro Zukerman's take on the piece, Eric (and the audience) were treated to a quick demonstration of why the fourth bar (apparently typically the weakest) was the strongest, as he cued the orchestra and the strings played from the start to about bar 5.  Looking to reference something at the end, Mr. Zukerman had to look at the music of concertmaster Yosuke Kawasaki, since the conductor music stand was empty.  He conducted without a score, so it's obviously a piece he knows well.  An interesting side note, they brought their own conductors podium, complete with what in Southam Hall is complementary red carpeting.  Given Roy Thomson Hall's primarily wood and beige tones, it was an interesting, but not completely out of place, accent.

The section I know best of Beethoven's 2nd is the opening of the fourth movement.  This contains the "back flip" theme, so named by Rick Phillips in his pre-concert chat.  It is used as the theme for the NACOcast, so I found it quite fitting it was the NAC orchestra performing the piece.  I believe the host of the podcast, Christopher Millard, was indeed playing first bassoon.  But in addition to the familiar theme, I quite enjoyed the entire symphony.

Some of the names I know

At intermission while chatting with the girl next to me, who had also come alone, I learned she was there for the final piece, the "Emperor" piano concerto.  She mentioned that her piano professor had said she needed more power to play Beethoven, and personally she preferred playing Mozart.  I'd have to say power was not a problem from the young guest artist.  Jonathan Biss comes from a very musical family and it turns out that Mr. Zukerman knew both his parents before they were married.   Some of the tunes throughout the concerto had a passing familiarity to them, but nothing really jumped out at me.  The second movement is beautiful and I can see why it could be used as a funeral song.

Post concert there was a group playing in the lobby for the "after party".  They were quite enjoyable, although completely different from the classical music just experienced.  It was a great evening, even if I didn't see Christopher Millard at said party to tell him how much I enjoy his podcasts.  I can tick another Beethoven Symphony off my list as well.  I'm not sure I have a favourite, the latest one I've heard seems to hold that position for a while.

Thanks for coming to Toronto NACO, hope to see you again next year!

Beethoven at his Pleasant Best

Since I'm behind again, the Yuletide Celebration posts that will follow this one are sure to be long, and this was short concert, here's the highlights.

Who:
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra Afterworks Concert
Nicholas McGegan conducting
Tom Allen hosting

What:

courtesy of TSO

Camille Saint-Saens-Cello Concerto #1 in A minor, performed by new principal cellist Joseph Johnson.
In a brief chat with the host following his performance he mentioned this is a piece most cellists start with, and indeed when he asked the cello section how many had begun with it, all raised their bows.  It hasn't been done with the TSO in 15 years, but is a very beautiful piece of music.  Mr. Johnson is starting to grow on me, and I do like how he seems happy at the end of a performance and smiles!  The orchestra gave him (and the guest conductor) a rousing applause when he finished, so they obviously liked them both.

Beethoven-Symphony #8 in F major
The very personable conductor and host gave some background on this piece prior to playing it and the orchestra even played snippets from each of the 4 movements.  I really like that, since the jokes that only serious musicians and students of Beethoven might get, are made accessible to the general music lover.  Turns out there are lots in this piece.  

The first movement begins with no introduction, it's right into the first theme, and ends rather abruptly with a restatement of the tune, but that's it.  Unlike the final movement which has several false endings.  You think he's ramping up for a big finale, and suddenly the tune reappears and he plays with it a bit more.  Apparently the recapitulation is almost as long as the main statement in that movement.

The second movement is shortest and jokes about the recently invented metronome.  The woodwinds have this incessant "tick" throughout, and I'm sure are very glad it's less than 4 minutes long.  As described by Bramwell Tovey in his CBC podcast on this symphony the break in of the double basses gives the feeling "oh turn this darn thing off".  The third movement is Beethoven's final ode to a minuet and trio with a hard French horn part, but a really nice mix of it with the clarinet, and whatever other instrument makes up the trio.  I was too busy watching the clarinet to notice :)

When:
Nov 24 (see I told you I was behind :) )

Where:
As usual, Roy Thomson Hall

Why:
I'm working on seeing all of Beethoven's symphonies performed.  There are 9 and I've now seen 3 (#5-with the famous "da da da duh" opening, #6-the Pastoral, and now #8-short, pleasant, concise, and funny!)

How:
tsoundcheck, is there any better way?

Beethoven and Another Premiere

December 12th marked my second TSO trip of the month. A performance of Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony (#6), and a world premiere of a new violin piece commissioned by Robert McDuffie and the TSO from Philip Glass. It's a modern take on Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Technically it was the third time it was performed, since the TSO had done in at the Wednesday concert, then Thursday at my other favourite place, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. According to a few reviews the Glass piece stopped the show. Which is perhaps why they reversed the order and played the Beethoven first.

It was the first casual concert that I'd attended...half hour earlier start, no intermission, and a party in the lobby afterwards. We didn't really stay for the party, but the straight through performance worked well. It was also the first time I saw Peter Oundjian conduct. He's ok, certainly not boring to watch or bad, and he shared with the audience a bit of history on how he knew McDuffie (back when they were both at Julliard and recognized each other while wanting to purchase the same steak at a grocery store...who knows if it's true or not). I always like it when conductors interact with the audience.

As for the music, well you'd have to mess up Beethoven a lot for me to dislike it. I think Symphony 6 is my favourite. It's just so lyrical and really gives the feeling of the countryside. Not being a huge fan of violin solo works, I'll admit to finding the Glass piece a little long. Amazingly played though. How someone can memorize a 45 minute piece is beyond me! The style is repetitive, although there were enough new themes to keep it mostly interesting. I do like the combination of solo "songs" and then the orchestra movements. Perhaps a bit more guidance as to what theme might be winter, spring, summer, fall is needed for me. Although part of the point I expect is that the audience decides for themselves. The double stops were great! Something I'd never heard before.

All in all an enjoyable evening out.

More later, as my December with the TSO continues.