# My new blog of concert reports.



## macgeek2005

Here is my first major post in my new blog. It tells of my outing to the Seattle Symphony last night. I will be posting about all the concerts I attend on there. The next one is January 18th.

http://seattleclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/2013/01/january-12th-2013-mendelssohn-and.html


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## samurai

@ Macgeek, I read your blog and found it very interesting and perceptive, for your social as well as your musical observations. I was just wondering what you meant by saying that much of Mozart's music is "exposed" and difficult to perform? Or am I misunderstanding what you wrote/meant to say?


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## macgeek2005

samurai said:


> @ Macgeek, I read your blog and found it very interesting and perceptive, for your social as well as your musical observations. I was just wondering what you meant by saying that much of Mozart's music is "exposed" and difficult to perform? Or am I misunderstanding what you wrote/meant to say?


Well, the quality of the string section, as the most obvious example, is much more exposed in a Mozart symphony than in a Mahler or Dvorak symphony. It takes more subtlety, technical skill and musical maturity to properly execute Mozart, compared to composers of the big romantic symphonies. The latter can ride more on fancy orchestration, acoustical effects, loudness and flamboyant gestures, masking the true quality of the players in the ensemble.

And it is similar for the winds and brass, particularly the winds. In Tchaikovsky they're often doubled/tripled/etc, and in the midst of a lot of loud noise and effect, and a positive impact on the audience is not so dependent on musical mastery from each and every player.


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## Vaneyes

Hi macgeek2005. Though it sounds like this Seattle paper's reviewer (link provided) attended a different evening than you, the encore mystery may be solved. A Korean folksong?

http://seattletimes.com/html/thearts/2020110444_mendelssohnreviewxml.html

I generally enjoyed your review. My only suggestion during this on-the-job-training, is to try putting aside your composer preferences and perceptions. For instance, more playing skill required for Mozart doesn't cut it.

A real test, if you're serious about reviewing, and I have no doubt that you are...is to pick a concert that in your "former world" you would have absolutely no interest in attending.

Happy trails. Good luck. :tiphat:


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## Cavaradossi

macgeek2005 said:


> Well, the quality of the string section, as the most obvious example, is much more exposed in a Mozart symphony than in a Mahler or Dvorak symphony. It takes more subtlety, technical skill and musical maturity to properly execute Mozart, compared to composers of the big romantic symphonies. The latter can ride more on fancy orchestration, acoustical effects, loudness and flamboyant gestures, masking the true quality of the players in the ensemble.
> 
> And it is similar for the winds and brass, particularly the winds. In Tchaikovsky they're often doubled/tripled/etc, and in the midst of a lot of loud noise and effect, and a positive impact on the audience is not so dependent on musical mastery from each and every player.


Well said. Ask any vocalist and they will say exactly the same thing about his vocal music.


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## aliceblair

Very interesting and useful blog. It is good to read the reviews on music & theatre. Bookmarked your blog and will look forward for more updates.


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## OboeKnight

I enjoyed this . Funny, I was actually listening to the Pulcinella while reading haha.


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## macgeek2005

http://seattleclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/2013/02/february-9th-2013-brahms-4th-symphony.html


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## Mahlerian

macgeek2005 said:


> Well, the quality of the string section, as the most obvious example, is much more exposed in a Mozart symphony than in a Mahler or Dvorak symphony. It takes more subtlety, technical skill and musical maturity to properly execute Mozart, compared to composers of the big romantic symphonies. The latter can ride more on fancy orchestration, acoustical effects, loudness and flamboyant gestures, masking the true quality of the players in the ensemble.


This may be true of many Romantics, but not Mahler, who constantly splits sections and calls for individual solos from the various players. If there are weak links anywhere, they will be heard, even in tuttis, because there are so few doublings.


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## macgeek2005

http://seattleclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/2013/02/february-16th-2013-love-stories.html


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## hreichgott

macgeek2005 said:


> Well, the quality of the string section, as the most obvious example, is much more exposed in a Mozart symphony than in a Mahler or Dvorak symphony. It takes more subtlety, technical skill and musical maturity to properly execute Mozart, compared to composers of the big romantic symphonies. The latter can ride more on fancy orchestration, acoustical effects, loudness and flamboyant gestures, masking the true quality of the players in the ensemble.
> 
> And it is similar for the winds and brass, particularly the winds. In Tchaikovsky they're often doubled/tripled/etc, and in the midst of a lot of loud noise and effect, and a positive impact on the audience is not so dependent on musical mastery from each and every player.


I've often felt that in Romantic-era piano music it's relatively easy to cover the occasional flub, but in Mozart's piano music there is nowhere to hide. I suppose the same is true for orchestral music!

(Although.... I have been at performances of the Dvorak 9 in which the winds were not in tune ... that is a pretty exposed problem.)


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## macgeek2005

http://seattleclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/2013/03/march-2nd-2013-mozarts-flute-concerto.html


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## Avey

@macgeek2005 Very much enjoyed the reviews thus far.


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## Sid James

I enjoyed your blog of the first concert you reviewed. I agree with you not liking "pretentious" body language of soloists. That puts me off as well. Absolutely loathe when they 'act' every note. If you wanna act, become an actor or at least an opera singer. I think it tends to spoil a performance for me, even a very good one, I end up not wanting to look at the soloist.

But a thing I disagree with is what you said about declining dress code. I actually like a more relaxed dress code. I think as long as one is in some sort of acceptable attire - eg. clean and reasonably neat - I don't have a problem with it. I think dressing up is ok if people want to do it, but so is the 'neat casual' trend more prevalent nowadays. 

I'm also dismayed of people leaving the concert at interval. I think its basically rude. I'm surprised they left before the Mozart symphony. Here they tend to do it if something modern is coming up in the second half (eg. a Shostakovich symphony). So you got the classic programmers 'captive audience' trick. Do the wig or some innocuous piece to start off, then the modern piece before interval (so they can't escape), then a warhorse to finish off. Works every time - but this just screams to me the fact that classical is now museum piece, fossilised. But that's another issue.

Keep up the good work!


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## Sid James

LOL, I read your second blog briefly just now. Said that the short Carter piece started off the concert, before the Brahms symphony. There's that programmer's trick! Or a variation of it...


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## macgeek2005

I'm glad some of you are enjoying my reviews! I'm enjoying reading your responses in here as well. 

http://seattleclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/2013/03/march-8th-2013-vivaldis-four-seasons.html


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## macgeek2005

My review of La Bohème from last night. It was incredible!

http://seattleclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/2013/03/march-9th-2013-la-boheme-at-seattle.html


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## Sonata

Glad you had such a good time. I'm anxious to get to a live opera soon.

By the way, enjoyed reading the blog so far. My husband laughed out loud when I read him your review of HJ Lim :lol:


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## macgeek2005

Last night's concert of Bruch and Elgar was absolutely splendid!

http://seattleclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/2013/03/march-16th-2013-bruchs-violin-concerto.html


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## macgeek2005

http://seattleclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/2013/04/march-30th-2013-rimsky-korsakovs.html


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## macgeek2005

http://seattleclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/2013/04/april-13th-2013-gerard-schwarz-conducts.html


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## Mahlerian

The audience around me at the Bruckner 4th I attended in Boston a few months ago (also, curiously enough, paired with a Mozart Piano Concerto) did not seem the least bit bored. Of course, my attention never really drifted even once (I love every moment of the work), so maybe I just didn't notice, but I was smack dab in the middle of the orchestra section.


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## macgeek2005

http://seattleclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/2013/04/april-20th-2013-stravinskys-firebird.html


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## Cavaradossi

Mahlerian said:


> The audience around me at the Bruckner 4th I attended in Boston a few months ago (also, curiously enough, paired with a Mozart Piano Concerto) did not seem the least bit bored. Of course, my attention never really drifted even once (I love every moment of the work), so maybe I just didn't notice, but I was smack dab in the middle of the orchestra section.


I saw no bored faces during the Bruckner 8th concert I attended last week either from my dress circle vantage point - nor did it seem a minute too long. Of course, this was a Carnegie Hall audience listening to the Dresden Staatskappele under Christian Thielemann. One of the music student types in the row in front of me even went into head banger mode during the more rhythmic sections of the finale. Normally that kind of stuff seriously distracts and annoys me, but somehow it seemed eminently appropriate.


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## Mahlerian

Cavaradossi said:


> I saw no bored faces during the Bruckner 8th concert I attended last week either from my dress circle vantage point - nor did it seem a minute too long. Of course, this was a Carnegie Hall audience listening to the Dresden Staatskappele under Christian Thielemann. One of the music student types in the row in front of me even went into head banger mode during the more rhythmic sections of the finale. Normally that kind of stuff seriously distracts and annoys me, but somehow it seemed eminently appropriate.


Agreed. I'd also like to add that the writer's argument that "It's not surprising that there is no Bruckner at all in the 2013-2014 season. Bruckner just isn't in right now." is apropos of absolutely nothing, as the schedule was probably decided pretty far in advance, and certainly not in response to the audience reaction to one particular concert series.

If you want to know where Bruckner is performed _every single season_, look no further than Japan, where his works feature regularly on concert programs.

This season, the NHK performed the 4th, the Sapporo Symphony the 7th, and the Osaka Symphony the 8th. Those were just the first three I checked. Then I looked at the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, their second tier after the NHK, which programmed not one, but two of the symphonies: the 9th and the 1st.


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## Cavaradossi

Mahlerian said:


> Agreed. I'd also like to add that the writer's argument that "It's not surprising that there is no Bruckner at all in the 2013-2014 season. Bruckner just isn't in right now." is apropos of absolutely nothing, as the schedule was probably decided pretty far in advance, and certainly not in response to the audience reaction to one particular concert series.
> 
> If you want to know where Bruckner is performed _every single season_, look no further than Japan, where his works feature regularly on concert programs.
> 
> This season, the NHK performed the 4th, the Sapporo Symphony the 7th, and the Osaka Symphony the 8th. Those were just the first three I checked. Then I looked at the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra, their second tier after the NHK, which programmed not one, but two of the symphonies: the 9th and the 1st.


Japan? Heck, look no further than Chicago. I guess we must be a Bruckner kind of town. In the upcoming year we can look forward to the better part of an entire Bruckner cycle:

1st (CSO/Muti)
2nd (Grant Park Music Festival - yes, it's summer festival fare for us!)
4th (CSO/Haitink, paired yet again with Mozart concerto)
9th (CSO/Eschenbach)
8th (Israel Philharmonic tour/Mehta)


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## macgeek2005

Interesting. Well, in any case around here I had gotten the impression that Bruckner isn't very popular, at least not compared to Mahler at the moment.

Here is my latest review. Hilary Hahn performs Sibelius, plus Beethoven's 7th Symphony.

http://seattleclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/2013/04/april-25th-2013-hilary-hahn-plays.html


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## macgeek2005

http://seattleclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/2013/05/may-9th-2013-tchaikovskys-symphony-no-4.html


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## macgeek2005

Incredible performance of Shostakovich's 11th symphony!

http://seattleclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/2013/05/may-17th-2013-shostakovichs-cello.html


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## macgeek2005

Yesterday was Opening Night at the Seattle Symphony!

Anybody who isn't a fan of Lang Lang is going to find this review very entertaining.

http://seattleclassicalmusic.blogspot.com/2013/09/september-15th-2013-opening-night.html


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