Mahler Symphony No. 3

Mahler Symphony No. 3

Saturday, June 20, 2015

8 PM

Symphony No. 3 in D minor - Gustav Mahler

Kräftig, Entschieden

Tempo di menuetto: Sehr mässig

Comodo, scherzando, ohno Hast

Sehr langsam, misterioso

Lustig im Tempo und keck im Ausdruck

Sehr langsam und durchaus mit inningster Empfindung

Christianne Stotjin, mezzo-soprano

Northwest Boychoir

Women of the Seattle Symphony Corale

This was my final concert for the 2014-2015 season, and needless to say I was excited heading into the concert, as it's not every day someone performs a Mahler symphony. Most are marathon affairs, and the third symphony is no exception, with the performance clocking in a shade under 2 hours from start to finish. I was impressed by the overall body of work , but as usual, I was not blown away by the performance. Most of the piece was technically sound and everything was together for the most part (and they even sent the trumpet player up high into the balcony for the 3rd[?] movement), but there were some things that stuck out (including the dude two rows in front of me and the guy next to me who were both using their phones during the performance).  Firstly, it is my belief that no one individual should stand out during the performance, but at every performance, there is one guy in the first violin section who sticks out like a sore thumb. He is much more animated than the rest of the section (and by a long shot), and it's always a little unnerving for me to see a head (and the musician) not quite in sync with the rest of the section, bobbing and swaying excessively to a point where I feel it is distracting. Additionally I didn't feel that the soloist was able to project into the hall, as I had some difficulty hearing her in the middle of the orchestra-level seating.

As the season has concluded, you are now free from hearing me write about my Seattle Symphony performances until September! Rejoice!

End of a Musician

Before I went to college, playing music wasn't about playing for fun, but instead music was about being the best musician possible (and hopefully the fun would follow). I had started to take the violin very seriously and I was even considering it as a career option. To that point I even attended Interlochen Arts Camp in high school in addition to the standard high school orchestra festivals. Outside of my academics, playing the violin was probably the endeavor I took most seriously.

To that point I ended up electing to study to become an engineer and, after high school, music became a much lower priority. There was no longer time for me to be able to continue playing at the level that I had become accustomed to playing, and playing music primarily turned into an outlet for stress relief. While I was able to play in the orchestra for two years and play chamber music all four years, I didn't receive the same fulfillment as I previously had. I wasn't thrilled that I was playing at a decreased ability, and the stress relief outlet didn't quite compensate for the lack of enjoyment. My motivation was greatly reduced, along with my desire to play music. At that point music was no longer an immensely integral part of my life. This culminated with one last hurrah-playing Brahms' String Quartet No. 1 in C minor and walking off into the proverbial musical sunset.

It has now been a little over two years since I've picked up my violin, and I'm not sure when I will next bring it out of its case and play it again. Now there is no end goal of becoming a better musician, and I find it difficult to play music without direction.

Brahms Symphony No. 1

Brahms Symphony No. 1

Thursday, June 11, 2015

7:30 PM

Egmont Overture - Ludwig van Beethoven

In lieblicher Bläue for Violin and Orchestra (US Premiere) - Julian Anderson

Carolin Widmann, Violin

-Intermission-

Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68 - Johannes Brahms

Un poco sostenuto - Allegro

Andante sostenuto

Un poco allegretto e grazioso

Adagio - Più andante - Allegro non troppo, ma con brio

Originally I wasn't planning on going to this performance, but I had a change in plans and I was unable to attend Pinchas Zukerman's performance. I was able to exchange that ticket for this one, as subscribers are allowed to have free exchanges. I have always been a fan of the Egmont Overture and the Brahms symphony, but I'm always skeptical of anything recent, and Anderson's work did nothing to dissuade me from my dislike of contemporary music, where I feel that the composers are so obsessed with following rules that the choose these rules over the music itself. The work began with the soloist offstage before the soloist emerges and begins playing from the side of the orchestra. The white noise continued, and the piece concluded with the soloist turning away from the audience. Interestingly, this performance was the first time I had heard the conductor speak before a Seattle Symphony performance (another no-no in my book). Barring another change in travel plans I'm hoping to avoid any more performances featuring anything contemporary.

Cities: Skylines

Cities: Skylines has been out for a while now, and I've been having a lot of fun playing the game. It's basically almost everything you wanted the Sim City franchise to be, and it's much more addicting than any previous Sim City game.

My favorite part of Cities: Skylines is how you can turn the game into a sandbox for whatever your creativity comes up with. The game allows the build of custom assets so that you can supplement the stock assets the game provides. Additionally, the game allows for modding, allowing for amazing user-generated content. If you can imagine it and build the mod, it's available for your use. For example, the Traffic++ mod can be used to create bus lanes in the road and can restrict turns at intersections for better traffic control. One of the built-in mods allows for infinite money so that you can be completely free to do whatever your heart desires without having to make your city viable at all.

Cities: Skylines also improves upon a lot of other things that were wrong with Sim City. When you start building the city, it becomes very evident that the Cities: Skylines road-building tool is much better, allowing for customized curved roads, and roads at different heights (and trying to create crazy interchanges as a result). In addition, the engine itself for Cities: Skylines would simulate every individual and assign them to jobs at specific locations and to specific residences, instead of the nearest location. The traffic simulation is also much better, with Cities: Skylines providing a detailed simulation, leading to emergent puzzles where players will have to adjust how the build their road system to better cope with how traffic develops (and this is easily one of the most challenging things with the game-developing a smart road system that can handle high traffic without huge backlogs). With the detail in the simulation, you can see where each person is going, where they work, and where they live. The same works for vehicles, such that each person/car/building/etc actually serves a purpose instead of just being there, which is what Sim City does.

What's also great is that Colossal Order, the minds behind the game, continue to develop the game. For example, the first big update included the use of tunnels for roads and trains and multi-levels underground in addition to controlling the height of the roads in the base release.

Naturally, playing the game doesn't mean I'm any good at traffic simulation, and I often continue to create huge traffic messes. However, the dynamic nature of the game prevents me from settling on anything and provides an ongoing challenge to keep me interested long after I stopped playing other games.