Openness

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Finally, A Memorable Performance

Once again, I'm ridiculously not on-time about writing about the Seattle Symphony performance I attended last Saturday. Initially I had my doubts about this concert, as Hillary Hahn had pulled out of the performance, citing a medical concern at the advice of her physician. In her stead was Philippe Quint, a Leningrad-born violinist who I had previously never head play, whether it be live or on a recording.

Dvořák and the New World
Saturday, October 4, 2014
8:00 PM

Lollapalooza - John Adams

Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 - Erich Korngold
Moderato nobile
Romance
Finale

Philippe Quint, Violin

-Intermission-

Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, "From the New World" - Anton Dvořák
Adagio-Allegro Molto
Largo
Scherzo: Molto vivace
Allegro con fuoco

My aversion to more modern works was not reduced by the performance of Lollapalooza. It seems to me just to be a bunch of noise, with the composer more concerned about following a set of rules than creating something people want to listen to. This was all put to rest with Quint's performance of the Korngold violin concerto. While I'm not a big fan of the particular piece, Quint's mastery of the violin, in both the technical and artistic sense, was phenomenal. It was the first time in recent memory where I couldn't sense any unnecessary nervousness or tension in the music. He was able to fill the auditorium with incredible warmth and his spiccato was both articulate and penetrating. If you get a chance to listen to him play I would take it and not look back. The New World Symphony saw the Seattle Symphony play its characteristic good, but not great style or seeming to play as a group of individuals instead of as one body.

A Slight Redemption, With A Twist

Two Thursdays ago (I know, I'm bad at this updating thing), I went to see a second performance of the Seattle Symphony. However, the adventures began before I even arrived at the concert hall.

I previously detailed my various bus adventures, including someone getting arrested and my poor luck involving the downtown tunnel station. This time both were combined when someone was arrested on the bus heading towards the downtown tunnel station. When the bus arrived, the driver wouldn't let anyone on, citing that the engine was overheating and needed to cool down. After about 10 minutes, we were allowed to board the bus, but the bus wasn't moving. Several minutes later, the police arrived to arrest a rider. Apparently he had been drinking and was verbally threatening other passengers. At this time, the bus driver then spoke to the officers and we disembarked from the bus to catch the next bus to the tunnel station. Needless to say, that bus was pretty packed with two busloads of riders, and I barely made it into the auditorium before the program began.

Tchaikovsky & Dvořák

Thursday, September 18, 2014

7:30 PM

Prelude to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg - Richard Wagner

Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat minor, Op. 23 - Pyotr Ilych Tchaikovsky

Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso – Allegro con spirito
Andantino semplice – Prestissimo
Allegro con fuoco

Daniil Trifonov, Piano

-Intermission-

Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70
Allegro Maestoso
Poco adagio
Schertzo: Vivace - poco meno moso
Finale: Allegro

This time I had orchestra level seating, which means I had a more "standard" view of the orchestra (sorry no pictures). Overall I felt that the orchestra played more as one cohesive unit, which was a nice improvement over the previous performance. I was pretty excited to see the Tchaikovsky piano concerto performed, though it would be difficult for anyone to match the legendary Van Cliburn. Trifonov is a very technically talented pianist, though he seemed to give off a nervous vibe, hurrying through certain passages; more concerned about finishing without a mistake than being expressive. His movements were a little jerky, and this was most evident when he was walking/bowing/etc. It seemed to reflect some lack of elegance and stage presence, reducing his ability to truly bring music to the audience. Overall the performance was pretty good, but definitely not great. My next date with the symphony is this Saturday, a performance that Hillary Hahn has pulled out of due to medical concerns. We'll see how that goes...

Returning to Concerts

This past Saturday was the first time I had attended a classical music concert in over a year, and I chose to attend the Seattle Symphony's opening concert of the 2014-2015 season. Program as follows:

Opening Night Concert & Gala

Saturday, September 13, 2014

4PM

Suite Symphonique "Paris" - Jacques Ibert

Le métro

Faubourgs

La mosquée de Paris

Restaurant au Bois de Boulogne

Le paquebot "île-de-France"

Parade foraine

Gymopédies Nos. 3 and 1 - Erik Satie (orch. Debussy)

Lent et grave

Lent et douloreux

Havanaise for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 83 - Camille Saint-Saëns

Gil Shaham, Violin

Méditation de Thaïs - Jules Massenet

Gil Shaham, Violin

-Intermission-

Selections from Suite No. 2 from Coppélia - Léo Delibes

Entr'acte and Waltz

Prelude and Mazurka

Carmen Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra, Op. 25

Gil Shaham, Violin

Selection from Orphée aux enfers - Jacques Offenbach

Ballet des mouches: Galop

Couplets des baisers

Duo de la mouche

Overture

Alexa Jarvis, Soprano

Charles Robert Stephens, Baritone

Ludovic Morlot, conductor

Flying Lufthansa Long-Haul (AKA United, Step Up Your Game)

Adapted from my trip review I wrote in Flyertalk

Firstly, I'm not one of those people who fly all the time, whether it be for work or pleasure. Nor do I generally fly premium cabins or have access to lounges. However, I have flown some and have achieved some low-level elite status (that doesn't really get me much), and now I understand the system much better thanks to places like Flyertalk. (I'm also not quite as smitten and exited when I do occasionally fly domestic first class on US-based airlines, unlike my other flight review, which was my first time in any premium cabin.)

This flight, as part of my trip to Norway, was a lot of firsts, which I will be highlighting. Beginning with: first long-haul flight on Lufthansa!

 Airbus 330-300 (Click to Enlarge)

On Perception

Oftentimes I observe those who ride public transportation with their bikes to garner clues about how far their commute is. I can understand if you live far enough from major public transportation (like a local train that travels across town) that biking is essential to reduce the commute to a reasonable time. What I don't understand, is, if you are one of my neighbors, you ride the bus with your bike to a workplace that's only a couple of blocks from the bus stop. It also takes me two minutes to walk from my apartment to the bus stop.

It's interesting how much we care about how other think of us and the lengths we go to try to change who we are on the outside. It's not really going to change who you are, and I feel that going out of your way to impress people just doesn't get you anywhere.

Just my two cents...

Norwegion Fjords

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The Downtown Tunnel Station and Murphy's Law

Early I wrote about how I see weird things on the bus, and I continue to chronicle my bus adventures. Recently, most of my trips that involve the downtown tunnel stations seem to result in some kind of issue/incident.

My Murphy's Law experiences began in May, when I was trying to go SEATAC airport. A bus had broken down at the first tunnel station (Westlake) going southbound, and the bus wasn't towed into the middle area of the tunnel (between the two lanes) for about 20 minutes. My bus going downtown showed up right after the bus had been moved out of the way and they were boarding passengers into the alternate bus. This meant that the light rail (train) that goes to the airport can't run, so the resulting fiasco resulted in three trips worth of commuters trying to cram into a single train. It also didn't help matters that we had to depart the train one stop away from the airport and board another train because the train was beginning to overheat. My return on that trip featured the "phantom bus" that never showed up.

More recently I ran into another similar incident coming home from downtown. In this case I didn't see any cause of an incident, but there were at least 3 full busloads of people waiting for the university express, which is not a normal sight. After the next university express bus arrived, only a small handful of individuals boarded the bus. Since this route is run every 15 minutes, it would have taken over an hour to board a bus. Instead I boarded a bus above the street to head back to campus. However, while we were going up Broadway in Capitol Hill, we were temporarily slowed by a small march speaking against the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, further delaying my return to campus (and work :P).

Granted I take the bus most days to and from work without incident (though today something happened which resulted in all the buses I could take home from the office between 6 and 7 to arrive at 7), but apparently I seem to attract mistakes when I take pubic transit downtown.

Pickleball

The first time I heard of pickleball was when I was in high school, where I was introduced to it during gym class. It felt like a weird combination of ping pong and tennis, though more like giant ping pong trying to be more like tennis. At the time I thought it would be the last I ever heard of the game (similar to when I played sproutball at Interlochen).

I first noticed the popularity of pickleball in the Seattle area when I saw a pickleball court at a public park while I was riding the bus to Northgate. I was further alerted to the activity's presence here when I moved into a new apartment and the swim and tennis club next door had a pickleball court. Every once in a while I can hear the unmistakable sounds of pickleball being played throughout the summer.

I did a little research and learned that the game was invented in (very) close-by Bainbridge Island. There are even local rec leagues and a good number of parks/community centers/etc have pickleball courts that are accessible to the public. This feels so random...

Frustration and Jehovah's Witnesses

Frustration is a funny thing. It can be as gnawing as anger, but tends to be much more subdued-until a breaking point is reached. As such:

Apparently Seattle was the host to an international Jehovah's Witness convention this past Friday through today (Sunday). The article states that the convention (not usually an international convention) is usually held in Tacoma, but was held in Seattle due to the sheer number (as can be seen here). Apparently over 38,000 (yes, thousand) of them from 4 states and 40 countries descended upon Seattle and the UW campus, taking over the football stadium and bringing traffic to a standstill on and around campus before and after their events each day, and that's where the frustration begins to set in.

Usually the drive from my place to the airport takes about 20-25 minutes. Instead, I got caught in the traffic leaving campus Friday evening and I was stuck in the same spot for 30 minutes before I somehow took a turn onto a side road and drove around the entire standstill to reach the airport. Needless to say the bad driving habits of many of these individuals (including but not limited to not signaling while trying to cross two lanes to make a right turn at the next intersection less than 10 feet in front of you...and doing the same thing at the next intersection). Also, it took me half an hour to drive to work today (usually a 10-minute drive) and it seems like they took every last parking space on campus. UW is not really well-designed to host any large event, including their own home football games...