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| Concert Notes | |
| August 10, 2002 | The music was cool today! They played Ride of the Valkyries (Wagner), Jupiter, Harry Potter, and Lord of the Rings. The concert was called Musical Mythologies. Unfortunately, it was the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra with John Mauceri instead of the Phil. Mr. Mauceri is extremely talkative. First he goes on about how the Valkyries was a story about an ancient ring and then went on to explain the story of Prometheus and the chain that became Zeus' ring in order to explain the rationale behind playing Jupiter. I just think it's a cool song. You know the balls they have at the top of the bowl, they did this cool lighting thing where they made the biggest one look like Jupiter. They lit it a pale yellow color, with red/brown streaks; it actually looked like it and I thought they had painted it or something. Next they played Harry Potter and Mauceri explained each movement and the story behind it. The concertmaster played Alex's solo (the weird one in the Diagon Alley movement) and it sounded exactly the same! :-) Then there was a movement with only a contrabassoon and a harp; it was supposed to depict Fluffy and the enchanted harp. I like the last movement, a very John Williams-ish melody; grand, reminds me a bit of Jurassic Park. Throughout the piece, the lighted bands would keep returning to, what else, Gryffindor scarlet and gold. There was a really big and noisy group of Lord of the Rings fans up in Prom 3 or 4. When Mr. Mauceri was telling the story of the Fellowship of the Ring, that group would randomly erupt into cheers every two sentences or so. In the very beginning when Mr. Mauceri introduced himself and the orchestra first in English then in Elvish, that group up there started cheering wildly. The funny thing was that all the people in the boxes were completely silent and you could tell they were going, "Huh? What the heck is Elvish?" in the their minds. The Lord of the Rings sounded quite good. It's movie music... I could tell how the different parts of the story corresponded with the music; I guess it did help that Mr. Mauceri went over the entire thing first. They had this wooden flute during the Shire part that would slide into its notes, kind of like an erhu is to a violin. Two choirs performed along with them also, one being a boy's choir. The boy soloist needs to work on his intonation. And they were all singing in languages that JRR Tolkien made up like Elvish. Zach and Jennifer came; they bought tickets up in T, but I got them to come sit with me in E after intermission. I clocked out about 20 minutes late today because I got permission from Anthony to stay and listen. Diana is very funny. She likes this waiter guy and was trying to get the guts to ask him out today. She and Mari kept putting their heads together and whispering. They amuse me. Anyway, good concert tonight. Starting today, a week off from work! Yay!! |
| August 23, 2002 | First day back from the Violin House and also my second to last day of work for this season. Tonight was the Russian National Orchestra playing excerpts from operas. Alex and I were disappointed that we missed Tuesday's concert because the Russians were playing Firebird, but the CYMO barbecue was great. Everyone's leaving...that makes me sad. The Russian National Orchestra is really good. I think they're better than the Phil. I met these two funny guys named Mike and Joe after I got off from work. Mike has been going to the Bowl for 24 years and tonight was his 257th concert. He knows a lot about music and music history. He was telling about the concert in 1942 (he wasn't actually there; he's not that old, his kids are in college) when Rachmaninoff performed his own 2nd concerto. And then a year later, Rachmaninoff came to listen to Horowitz play his third (he sat in the back and nobody knew he was here) and after the concert, went down to the stage and hugged Horowitz telling him that that when he wrote that concerto that was what he envisioned it to sound like. Anyway, the music was pretty good, but I'm not all that into singing. They played a lot of Russian stuff as well as Verdi and Puccini. I'm quite impressed with the quality of the Russian Orchestra. Oh, and I finally got a Hollywood Bowl lanyard today. |
| August 24, 2002 | Last day of work for the season today. The Tchaikovsky Spectacular! Normally, Rachmaninoff's second and Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto are equal in my mind, but right now, it's definitely the Tchaikovsky. The pianist, Peter Donohoe, was crazy good! He could play octaves and chords so fast. I'm glad I decided to work today. They also played Romeo and Juliet, which was ok, though in general I'm not overly fond of the piece. Then of course, they played their signature 1812 overture with fireworks. I like 1812 a lot and not just the fireworks part. I think it's cool that he incorporated the French national anthem in the piece. They decorated the Bowl with silouhettes of the Russian skyline along the sides and two old fashioned canons on each side of the stage. Mr. Mauceri told the story of the War of 1812 and how Russians burned their own homes while they retreated. Near the end of the overture, they lit up the silouhettes with red and orange lights and made smoke come out as if the buildings were on fire. The fireworks were awesome, too. They played two encores and it was funny because they were both from the Nutcracker Suite. Mr. Mauceri was like, "This is a reminder that there are only 124 days remaining until Christmas." They lit up the balls on top with snowflakes and made red and white bands along the side during the encores. All in all, a great way to end my season! |
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