National Symphony Orchestra

at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, 5/11/2006

Thanks to an online 75th anniversary promotion, Cameron and I enjoyed a special treat: tickets to hear the NSO for only $19.30. We got to sit in "prime orchestra" seats, normally $65 each - way out of reach. Thanks NSO! Greg Sandow is right... offer cheaper tickets, program some interesting music, and young people (like us) will be delighted to hear orchestra concerts.
Stravinsky + Bartok + $20 = sign me up.

There's a review in today's Washington Post. One comment about the ticket price promotion: just because we're "young" and not subscribers, please don't assume that we don't know anything about classical music. That wasn't an issue with the concert at all... but the tone of the review made me nervous.

So about the music: two words - hell yes. Stravinsky's "Symphonies of Wind Instruments" is a treat to hear live, I've only heard recordings. Contrary to Post critic Ginsberg, this piece never occurred to me as an "academic study" (although I did study it in grad. school) - I felt like it came off exactly as promised in the program notes: a series of "short litanies." The winds and brass instruments all sounded warm and gorgeous. Even the bassoons.

The Mendelssohn Octet in E-Flat, Op. 20 was performed by the entire string section and sounded great. Now I'm curious to hear Leonard Bernstein's string orchestra treatment of Beethoven's C-Sharp quartet, Op. 131 -- I know he recorded it, but I haven't actually heard it yet. I was always suspicious of performing chamber pieces with a zillion players doubling each part -- but this totally won me over. Any "infelicities of ensemble" noted by Mr. Ginsberg went totally unnoticed by me. I was quite mesmerized with their ability to maintain the clarity of the chamber piece, and deliver the added lushness of a full string orchestra. Delicious.

I had mixed feelings about the Chavez "Toccata for Percussion Instruments." Slatkin introduced the piece by calling it the second important percussion piece in the repertoire after Varese's "Ionisations." I'm not so sure about that, but who am I to argue with the Maestro. I'm spoiled, I guess. Hearing the So Percussion Ensemble playing music by John Luther Adams at last year's Otherminds festival made this piece so very tame in comparison. And maybe hearing the automated "Ballet Mechanique" at the National Gallery last weekend didn't help either?

The program ended with Bartok's "Suite from the Miraculous Mandarin" which just plain rocked. I think Bartok is to classical music as Caspar Brotzmann is to rock music. His work is rigorous, and quite satisfying intellectually, but as you're listening it doesn't hit you in the cerebellum, it punches you in the gut and leaves you totally breathless. This was an especially nice bit of programming by Slatkin and Co. - after hearing the sections of the orchestra on display, the Bartok made for an amazing showpiece - that's not just a showpiece. Also a nice choice to do this one instead of his Concerto for Orchestra, which I think is a little less "accessible" (although still plenty accessible) - and also would have been too long to tack onto the end of this particular program.

So, wow. That was a real treat. I hope us "young people" will have more chances to hear the NSO before Slatkin retires.