Monday
Today, I worked for my internship all day, typing up memos, contacting soloists, and other professional sorts of things. It was surprisingly tiring...I think I am getting too used to going to concerts and the like!
After that, I got some Japanese fast food (Onigiri and edamame, so not unhealthy like Amurrican fast food), and went to choir rehearsal. The Beethoven piece we are doing is really dramatic and fun to sing, although it is still killing my voice while I haven't quite recovered from my illness...
Tuesday
Today, I went to class all day, in a weird schedule switch up so that tomorrow we could go to Cirque du Soleil! We learned about Cosi fan Tutte, the Mozart opera that we are going to next week, and I am really excited for. After that, we made homemade fried chicken and mashed potatoes with sauteed mushrooms in them, which was amazing.
In the evening, we made some tortellini, and then went to the Oscar Wilde play "Lord Arthur Saville's Crime" at the Richmond Theatre. The play was funny (it is Oscar Wilde), but definitely not his or the actors' best work... There was really strange (read:out of key) musical accompaniment, which made the play unnecessarily cheesy. The set was pretty cool, and overall I was certainly entertained by the play, but not blown away.
Wednesday
Today, we woke up late, and went off to the Royal Opera House for our Back Stage Tour!!! We got to see the main hall while they were setting up for one of the ballets, as well as a practice room for ballet, the prop loft, the back stage area (which is measured in acres), and bunches of other really cool places around the building. It was very exciting.
Next, we went off to Cirque du Soleil: Varekai at the Royal Albert Hall. It was incredible, and nerve racking, to watch. Many of the artists were doing incredibly dangerous stunts, which was scary. They basically flew around the room, unsupported by harness or other safety equipment, doing acrobatic stunts all along. The story was not comprehensible at all (apparently due to changes in the act), but the incredibleness of the stunts made up for the lack of a plot.
After that, I went to a performance by the London Philharmonic Orchestra of French Impressionist music by Ravel, Poulenc, and Debussy. Although it was a little bit difficult to get into the music near the end due to the splendor of the day so far, I was still very impressed by the orchestra and conductor, and loved hearing more Ravel. Debussy's "La Mer" was also a very beautiful piece.
Thursday
Today, we held a huge debate on the abolition of the monarchy in British society, in which the people in favor of maintaining the monarchy (including me) surprisingly, though narrowly, won the vote of conscience at the end of the class.
For dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant for cheap pizza. Little did we know, however, the cheap pizza came at the price of having to listen to Celine Dion, Shakira, and an Italian cover of "House of the Rising Sun" throughout dinner! It was a little scary, but we made it out alive.
After that, we split ways, and I went to the Southbank Centre to see the Philharmonia Orchestra do Mahler's 2nd symphony. It was absolute enormous, with a 170 member choir on top of the already sizable orchestra (which had a separate brass and percussion section playing entirely off stage, out of sight). This piece, like the other I saw at the beginning of the trip, was a hugely emotional piece, with many ups and downs, and interesting movements. I have come to the conclusion that I have really underestimated Mahler to this point in my life, and will have to continue to remedy my lack of exposure to his music.
Cheers
Showing posts with label Mahler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mahler. Show all posts
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
Tales #12-14
Wednesday
Today was the least exciting day in London yet, which is saying something! We had a couple of classes today, in which I made a presentation on pianos in Mozart's lifetime and learned the condensed history of British architecture (like all of it) in 3 hours. This was all very fun, although I was tired from waking up at 7:30! In the evening, we went to an Foundation for International Education welcome party, which had "nibbles" which means 10 varieties of fried food and nothing else apparently. It was good though, despite the party's inherent awkwardness due to the fact that despite all being Americans, us liberal and performing arts kids are pretty different from most of the people from other schools. It was still fun to meet people and socialize though.
Thursday
Today, I saw the best concert I have ever seen! But hold your horses, I'll get there in a second. Before that, I had an interesting British culture and politics class where we discussed stereotypes that we have of British people, and vice versa, which was very revealing. Among the most prominent stereotypes of Americans according to my professor: we are puritanical, insular, gun-toting, badly dressed, hospitable (wait, what?) energetic, enthusiastic(loud) idiots. Well, he didn't actually SAY the last one, but... For dinner, we made some penne pasta, which was gloriously good, and we shared with some of our neighbors. Then, we went to the concert, at the Royal Festival Hall (see picture (oh, and I got my camera!))
Well, now to the concert. It was amazing. The program was Mozart's 20th Piano Concerto, with a solo by the "Saucy Frenchman" David Fray, and Mahler's 5th symphony. The piano player was really surprisingly good, with flamboyant and expressive styling and dynamics that were perfect for the piece. (see picture)
The Mahler symphony, however, really stole the show. The orchestra was gigantic (as in they had 2 harpists. that big), and they were absolutely together through the entire 68 minutes. That is just the basics, though. They played absolutely brilliantly throughout the entire thing, capturing the individual melodies that constantly play with each other, and creating a glorious story. The 4th movement in particular, had a huge impact on me. It was all strings, and it was the most intensely beautiful performance and composition that I have ever heard. The conductor, Leif Segerstam, was a giant man who is apparently legendary in Finland where he is from. He conducted extremely well (if you can't tell by the last 3 paragraphs!) (see picture- it was very difficult to choose a picture of him, but this will have to do!)
Friday
Since we didn't have class today, I started working on a few assignments for my internship, which is shaping up to give me a lot of practical experience, and exposure to how choirs work. I am really excited for it so far! I also went down and bought tickets for 3 more concerts at the Royal Festival Hall because of how excited I was about the concert last night. This puts my Ravel quota (the number of times I am seeing his orchestral pieces in the next month from tomorrow) at 4. So excited! I also went to the National Art Gallery today (see picture), which was so enormous I probably only got to 1/15th of it in the 2 hours I was there.
I will have to go back, but I saw some beautiful Impressionist artwork by Monet that particularly struck me. One of the portraits from when he was in London, of the Westminster Palace with the Thames in the foreground, was especially neat.
This evening, we cooked some burritos (they do have Mexican food here!), and Will and I went to a concert at St. Martin in the Fields church. A great chamber orchestra played several violin concertos and other pieces, including Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The Four Seasons was especially great; the piece is incredibly innovative, combining baroque style with programmatic composing that is strikingly chromatic, making for a really interesting combination. I heartily enjoyed the entire performance.
Cheers,
Ethan
Today was the least exciting day in London yet, which is saying something! We had a couple of classes today, in which I made a presentation on pianos in Mozart's lifetime and learned the condensed history of British architecture (like all of it) in 3 hours. This was all very fun, although I was tired from waking up at 7:30! In the evening, we went to an Foundation for International Education welcome party, which had "nibbles" which means 10 varieties of fried food and nothing else apparently. It was good though, despite the party's inherent awkwardness due to the fact that despite all being Americans, us liberal and performing arts kids are pretty different from most of the people from other schools. It was still fun to meet people and socialize though.
Thursday
Today, I saw the best concert I have ever seen! But hold your horses, I'll get there in a second. Before that, I had an interesting British culture and politics class where we discussed stereotypes that we have of British people, and vice versa, which was very revealing. Among the most prominent stereotypes of Americans according to my professor: we are puritanical, insular, gun-toting, badly dressed, hospitable (wait, what?) energetic, enthusiastic(loud) idiots. Well, he didn't actually SAY the last one, but... For dinner, we made some penne pasta, which was gloriously good, and we shared with some of our neighbors. Then, we went to the concert, at the Royal Festival Hall (see picture (oh, and I got my camera!))
Well, now to the concert. It was amazing. The program was Mozart's 20th Piano Concerto, with a solo by the "Saucy Frenchman" David Fray, and Mahler's 5th symphony. The piano player was really surprisingly good, with flamboyant and expressive styling and dynamics that were perfect for the piece. (see picture)
The Mahler symphony, however, really stole the show. The orchestra was gigantic (as in they had 2 harpists. that big), and they were absolutely together through the entire 68 minutes. That is just the basics, though. They played absolutely brilliantly throughout the entire thing, capturing the individual melodies that constantly play with each other, and creating a glorious story. The 4th movement in particular, had a huge impact on me. It was all strings, and it was the most intensely beautiful performance and composition that I have ever heard. The conductor, Leif Segerstam, was a giant man who is apparently legendary in Finland where he is from. He conducted extremely well (if you can't tell by the last 3 paragraphs!) (see picture- it was very difficult to choose a picture of him, but this will have to do!)
Friday
Since we didn't have class today, I started working on a few assignments for my internship, which is shaping up to give me a lot of practical experience, and exposure to how choirs work. I am really excited for it so far! I also went down and bought tickets for 3 more concerts at the Royal Festival Hall because of how excited I was about the concert last night. This puts my Ravel quota (the number of times I am seeing his orchestral pieces in the next month from tomorrow) at 4. So excited! I also went to the National Art Gallery today (see picture), which was so enormous I probably only got to 1/15th of it in the 2 hours I was there.
I will have to go back, but I saw some beautiful Impressionist artwork by Monet that particularly struck me. One of the portraits from when he was in London, of the Westminster Palace with the Thames in the foreground, was especially neat.
This evening, we cooked some burritos (they do have Mexican food here!), and Will and I went to a concert at St. Martin in the Fields church. A great chamber orchestra played several violin concertos and other pieces, including Vivaldi's Four Seasons. The Four Seasons was especially great; the piece is incredibly innovative, combining baroque style with programmatic composing that is strikingly chromatic, making for a really interesting combination. I heartily enjoyed the entire performance.
Cheers,
Ethan
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