Skipping Intros

I attended a performance with the Seattle Symphony last night, but it originally was not a part of my concert-attending plans. I was invitedd to the concert by the symphony as a new subscriber in concert with their new donor and subscriber pre-concert reception. I think it was somewhat obvious why that concert was chosen given the program.

Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony

Saturday, November 8, 2014

8:00 PM

Second Essay for Orchestra, Op. 17 - Samuel Barber

Violin Concerto - Esa-Pekka Salonen

Mirage-

Pulse I

Pulse II

Adieu

Jennifer Koh, Violin

-Intermission-

Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 - Piotr Ilych Tchaikovsky

Andante sostenuto

Andantino in modo de canzona

Scherzo: Pizzicato ostinato

Finale: Allegro con fuoco

I personally am not a huge fan of contemporary music, though while the Barber is an acceptable piece, the violin concerto is a complete mess. Needless to say it would not have been very difficult to offer every new subscriber and donor two tickets to this concert. Incidentally, dinner before the concert ran a little long-I would highly recommend the Hibachi Supreme only if you have something similar to passport corporate (2 for $40), as the $45 price tag is very rich for one, even for the very nice chateaubriand and lobster tail.  We ended up arriving halfway through the violin concerto, which exemplified how I feel about modern music: obsessed with rules at the expense of actual music (and the soloist played with music!). Thank goodness the intermission quickly followed. Our seats were in the back of the third (and highest) balcony, and while the brass and percussion had no difficulty reaching the upper echelons of the hall, the strings sometimes struggled to fill the entire hall. The performance of the Tchaikovsky was pretty good, and there was no nervous feeling that the orchestra would fall apart, especially at the very fast sections involving a lot of back and forth eighth notes. I felt that parts of the symphony highlighted the symphony's ability to be loud and that other parts showed that the symphony isn't quite able to fill the entire venue on some of the more delicate and expressive sections.

Edit: I forgot to mention that Ludovic Morlot, the conductor, did his best Gustavo Dudamel and tried to conduct the Tchaikovsky without a score. Of course, he's not Dudamel and ended up exiting the stage between the first two movements (through for unknown reasons).