Dias Irae
Lot'sa music this weekend.
Yestidday we attended the Rainier Symphony's season opener.
The game pitted Tchaikovsky against Berlioz.
"Pete" as no one ever calls him, Tchaikovsky brought his venerable
Piano Concerto #1.
And "Hec" Berlioz stacked the deck by bringing his barn-burner
Symphony Fantastique.
No contest as far as I'm concerned.
Regina Yeh was the pianist. She wore a black gown that gave a good view of the workings of her biceps, triceps, and deltoids, humerus, radius, ulna, carpals and digits as she belted out all the thick openhanded chords.
That kind of practice could lead to a good basketball handling technique.
But can she hit 8 out of 10 from downtown?
I don't actually like that piece much, nice tunes and all, but....ah...who cares why?
Symphony Fantastique's second movement has one of the most beautiful waltzes, nearly bringing a tear due to it's heartbreaking loveliness.
Which is it's point, actually.
SF has a story that goes along with the music.
An artist falls in love with a heartbreakingly lovely girl and lets his obsession get the better of him.
(It's better to practice these kind of things in the privacy of your own home. Bringing them out into the public just causes unpleasant misunderstandings)
When she rejects him he takes a not quite lethal dose of opium and in a dream imagines killing her and being sent to hell for his trouble.
I thought to myself, what the hell, why not try some of that along with the music.
So I picked out the best looking violist and imagined she was playing just for me.
I tried to get her to look at me by projecting esp messages, but she just kept looking at this guy who was threatening her with a stick.
Go figger 'em
The story sort of parallels Berlioz' own experience with a Shakespearian actress names Smithson (related to the institute?)
She originally rejected him but later they got together and had a truly horrible time of it for a while
Anyway the orchestra played it brilliantly and Meredith and I were both mightily invigorated.
They nailed it!
Today it was Seattle Philharmonic.
Who programed three pieces,
This time Pete won, so I guess he's still in the running.
Oh yeah, Both the Symphonie Fantastique and the Tchaikovsky suite make use of the "Dies Irae" hymn.
Something that gave me and Meredith a bit of a chuckle.
I've never been in the Meany hall in it's latest configuration and I was at first intimidated by all the money that the UW has to spread around.
Lots of art by well known artists on the walls, including several photographs of
Antelope Canyon and other places we just visited in Arizona.
Check out the archives around May or June.
Yestidday we attended the Rainier Symphony's season opener.
The game pitted Tchaikovsky against Berlioz.
"Pete" as no one ever calls him, Tchaikovsky brought his venerable
Piano Concerto #1.
And "Hec" Berlioz stacked the deck by bringing his barn-burner
Symphony Fantastique.
No contest as far as I'm concerned.
Regina Yeh was the pianist. She wore a black gown that gave a good view of the workings of her biceps, triceps, and deltoids, humerus, radius, ulna, carpals and digits as she belted out all the thick openhanded chords.
That kind of practice could lead to a good basketball handling technique.
But can she hit 8 out of 10 from downtown?
I don't actually like that piece much, nice tunes and all, but....ah...who cares why?
Symphony Fantastique's second movement has one of the most beautiful waltzes, nearly bringing a tear due to it's heartbreaking loveliness.
Which is it's point, actually.
SF has a story that goes along with the music.
An artist falls in love with a heartbreakingly lovely girl and lets his obsession get the better of him.
(It's better to practice these kind of things in the privacy of your own home. Bringing them out into the public just causes unpleasant misunderstandings)
When she rejects him he takes a not quite lethal dose of opium and in a dream imagines killing her and being sent to hell for his trouble.
I thought to myself, what the hell, why not try some of that along with the music.
So I picked out the best looking violist and imagined she was playing just for me.
I tried to get her to look at me by projecting esp messages, but she just kept looking at this guy who was threatening her with a stick.
Go figger 'em
The story sort of parallels Berlioz' own experience with a Shakespearian actress names Smithson (related to the institute?)
She originally rejected him but later they got together and had a truly horrible time of it for a while
Anyway the orchestra played it brilliantly and Meredith and I were both mightily invigorated.
They nailed it!
Today it was Seattle Philharmonic.
Who programed three pieces,
"Three Intradas for Brass by Vaclav Nelhybel (it cant be pronounced, don't try)
Symphony #36 the "Linz" by Joe Mozart.
And Suite #3 for Orchestra by Tchaikovsky.
This time Pete won, so I guess he's still in the running.
Oh yeah, Both the Symphonie Fantastique and the Tchaikovsky suite make use of the "Dies Irae" hymn.
Something that gave me and Meredith a bit of a chuckle.
I've never been in the Meany hall in it's latest configuration and I was at first intimidated by all the money that the UW has to spread around.
Lots of art by well known artists on the walls, including several photographs of
Antelope Canyon and other places we just visited in Arizona.
Check out the archives around May or June.
Labels: Ophelia
posted by Lane Savant at 5:35 PM
7 Comments:
You're right. I was playing just for you..
Wow, I go out of town for a few days to attend Melva's Pac Beach birthday bash, which was wonderful by the way, and FFTL becomes a buzz with commentors. That's great! Sometimes it gets a little lonely on the comments pages. Over the weekend it was low tide clamming season and the clammers lined up by the hundreds working up to midnight on the beach. From the bluff where we rented a great house, we have a 180 degree view of the many miles of lanterns burning, like a serpent of fire, like a living Japanese lantern. It was cool to see night after night.
Hello, Anonomann; nice to have you back in the Northwest.
Glenn
Our absentee ballots arrived last night, and Obama received our votes promptly. It will be in the mail by today. Those two votes might make the difference. The GOP, the Great Oil Party...that's rich, clever, punerific, sir. Was it your own creation?
CNN and the media seem to imply that Obama is a shoe-in. That worries the hell out of me. The Republicans have some kind of fascist tricks up their oily sleeves--I can just feel it.
Hallo, Lane et al:
I'm back for jury duty, but had none today, so I'm stopping by the Central Library to check your Blogsite, Lane.
Today, 20 October, is Charles Ives' birthday; someday music lovers will be alerting eachother:
Today is Lane Savant's birthday (whenever that is). Many composers are not famous in their lifetime; it takes the musicworld a long time to get to appreciate them, some what like a fine wine.
Tschuess,
Anonomann
Hallo, Lane, nochmals:
So: Marjorie Kransberg-Talvi was locked on to you and you to her; what were Meredith and Ilkka doing??
Tschuess,
Anonomann
Hallo, Seattle-Area musiclovers!
The best "game" in town is "Elektra" at the McCaw; an excellent production (does Chris Alexander produce anything sub-excellent??), forcefully, but sensitively conducted by Lawrence Renes (hopefully the next MD of the SSO!!!), with some excellent singing, especially the "silver" cast Elektra, Ms. Castleman (sp.??)!!
Tschuess,
Anonomann
Hallo, Glenn!!
Thanks for welcoming me back, despite my ignorant failure to appreciate your poetry; you arer a true gentleman!!!!
Tschuess,
Anonomann
Anono, I've never met her. This affair is an ethereal one.
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