Rachmaninoff

The name alone makes me sigh.

*sigh

See! This weekend, the Utah Symphony is performing his Piano Concerto No. 2 in C minor and Beethoven's Symphony No. 4 in B-flat Major. Am I a little excited for this concert? No. I'm very, VERY, VERY excited for this concert. I have loved Rachy's No. 2 ever since I was 14. The summer between 9th and 10th grades, I played the violin in a disctrict-wide youth symphony made up of high school musicians. We went on tour to, hold your breath in anticipation, the exotic locale of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Yes, yes, that vast expanse of, well, lakes and trees. The trip was a blast. I "fell in love" for the first time (tour crushes were so common), and one of the cellists soloed on the first movement of this amazing piece of music. It's been a dream of mine ever since to learn it. So here I am, 40-something, and I still haven't tackled it.

*sigh

That's a different kind of sigh from the first one.

Anyway, tomorrow night we will be traveling to the symphony with Mom & Dad P to hear the entire piece (all three movements) played by André Watts and the Utah Symphony. (It's Dad P's favorite piano piece, too.) It makes me smile just to think about it.

I can't wait for Mr. Perfect to be entranced as well.

Du du du DUNNNN!!!!!

Ah, Beethoven, you beautiful man. Okay, maybe not beautiful physically (he is dead and quite possibly reduced to nothing but dust by now), but the music he composed is wonderful.

This weekend, the Utah Symphony delighted us with Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 in C minor. It is probably the most well-known piece of music in all of classical musicdom. All you have to do is chant "Du du du dun!" and most people in the Western World can tell you it's name. This is my favorite Beethoven symphony, but not for the famous opening phrase. I love the final movement. It's rousing; it's inspiring. I also played it every year while I was in a district-wide youth symphony in high school. It is just fun to play. There is no break between the third and fourth movements, and both movements are Allegro, so it's suddenly there in all of it's glory before you know what's happened to you. The entire symphony is only 31 minutes long, so it was over before I was ready for it to be du du du done!

It was an interesting concert. Also on the program were some beautiful Fauré pieces and a new commission by Michael Jarrell. I must admit that I am not a big fan of atonal music. I love a good melody and interesting chord structure. And I like music to make sense, so I was not all that thrilled with the Jarrell piece. But, hey, I didn't ask him to write it, and I don't get to pick the symphony's playlist. The cellist, Jean-Guihen Queyras, played beautifully, especially on the final Fauré piece.

Mom and Dad M and Game Boy came with us. It was Game Boy's first live symphony performance, but not his first time to Abravanel Hall. He said that he's not opposed to coming with us again. Not a ringing endorsement, but also not a complete failure.

Back to the Utah Symphony we must go

In October 2010, we went to a Utah Symphony concert featuring a young American Pianist named Conrad Tao playing Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini. Well, he came back to play the Tchaikovsky Piano Concert #1 in B minor. You know we had to be there. So we were. Also on the program was Shostasovich's Symphony #5. Does it get any better than this? Well, in February, the symphony will be continuing their Beethoven Festival with Symphony #5 (dun dun dun DUUUUUUNNN), the Mendelssohn Violin Concert, and Rachmaninoff's Piano Concert #2 in C minor.

I'm in music heaven just thinking about it all. *happy sigh*

Ah, Beethoven

The Utah Symphony has an amazing schedule this year. Thierry Fischer will be conducting all nine symphonies by the master, Ludwig von Beethoven.

Last Saturday, we went with Psycho Exercise Sis, Mr. Doctor Man, and Mr. Doctor Man's Sweet Mama to hear #7 and an amazing violinist play an amazingly difficult violin concerto. This Friday, we heard #6 (The Pastoral) and a wildly fun percussion piece. Most Happy Girl most happily enjoyed Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, which ended the program. Beethoven and Wagner in the same concert; crazy, crazy times.

Beethoven's most famous symphony, the 5th, won't be performed until February, but fortunately it's early enough in the month that we won't miss Genius Child #1's wedding to Georgia's Sweetest Peach. Unlike most people, my favorite movement from this one isn't the opening (dun dun dun DUN) but the fourth movement. Ah, so glorious.

Hold on to your hats, ladies and gents; it's going to be a wild season of classical musical!

Day Eight

A song to go with my mood? That's a tricky one. I don't have a favorite song (really, there's just too much music out in the world for that). I suppose right now it's Also Sprach Zarathustra, which isn't a song, but it was part of the Utah Symphony concert last night. It's a tone poem by Richard Strauss. The opening theme was used in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which doesn't fit my mood right now, but the music does.

The big, booming tympani matches how I feel. I just bagged up a bunch of stuff left in a room for weeks on end; it was driving us nuts. We'll see how things go over when it's delivered to the owner. Needless to say, she has been warned in the past that this will happen. I did get 25 cents for my efforts. If you leave money on the floor in my house and I pick it up, it becomes mine. What a wicked stepmother I am.

There, the tympani are booming again...

What do Mendelssohn, Haydn, and Handel have in common?

Mr. Perfect and I attended the Utah Symphony a couple of weeks ago, and on the program were Haydn, Handel, and Mendelssohn. They performed the entire Midsummer Night's Dream incidental music with narration provided by staff from the Utah Shakespeare Festival. What a fun concert. They also performed Handel's Fire Suite and a Haydn symphony (unfortunately I don't remember which one, but it was wonderful).

Mendelssohn wrote his Midsummer Night's Dream Overture when he was only 17. The rest of the music was written for a performance of the play when he was in his thirties, and includes the famous Mendelssohn's Wedding March.

The whole evening was fun, though we almost missed the Haydn because we were running late. Literally running to Symphony Hall from the Gateway parking lot, and just making it into our seats with about 2 minutes to spare. If you're late to the symphony, you aren't seated until the first piece is finished. Not the first movement of the first piece; the entire first piece. Whew!

Random Utah Symphony concerts

About a month ago, Psycho Exercise Sis, offered us an extra ticket to the Utah Symphony to hear Brahms (Piano Concert) and Beethoven (Symphony #6, the Pastoral -- heavenly!) because they have season tickets and Mr. Doctor Man was out of town on his annual bike race between Logan and Jackson Hole. She also said that we could probably buy another ticket at her discounted season ticket holder price and exchange the other ticket so that they were together. This we did, and an obsession was born.

We noticed that the next major concert of the season was Hilary Hahn playing the Tchaikovsky Violin Concert. How could we miss that? So, once again we got tickets through Psycho Exercise Sis and away we went. Amazing!

Well, this time it was Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini. Now, anyone who knows me and my love of classical music will also know that Rachmaninoff is my favorite, especially of the 20th century composers. We asked if Sis and Doc were going. They weren't, but Sis offered to get us tickets, and two of Mr. Perfect's sisters came with us.

Before the concert, we met at our house for some Wasatch Pizza (highly, highly recommended), and off we went. I cannot begin to describe how truly wonderful the pianist, Conrad Tao, was. At only 16, this American-born musician plays with liquid strength and beautiful understanding of the music. If you get a chance to hear him play, go. Don't think about it. Just go.

Here we are in front of the The Olympic Tower sculpture, by renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly, at Abravanel Hall.