This past weekend G and I went out to a symphony concert. We had a lovely time and we are both eager to go again. I am looking into getting a subscription for next year, and we are also buying tickets for a chamber concert this coming weekend.
The main work was Gustav Holst's The Planets, and quite frankly I was surprised to find G eager to attend. In the past he looked down at the work as a form of "classical for the masses". In this case I think that hearing something too often does the original work no favors as one becomes inured to its joys. G however has lost most of his previous associations of things including his memories of bad performances of popular symphonic works performed by second-rate orchestras. For this I am happy, as the concert was truly lovely and the piece was well played.
The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra could not compete with the New York Philharmonic on a good day, but I might argue that I've heard some sub-standard Philharmonic performances and Knoxville's Orchestra could at least hold its own. But it has been a few years since we have heard the New York Philharmonic and our only basis of comparison would be the American Symphony Orchestra and I would say the Knoxville performance was far more enjoyable than any symphonic performance we have heard at Bard, either of the ASO or the Bard Symphony Orchestra. The music was, in fact, far better than we expected, considerably better than The American Symphony Orchestra which tends to be muddy and to overplay the accoustics in the theater, which does not help.
Also performed was a piece by Aaron Jay Kernis, Musical Celestis for String Orchestra which was quite lovely, and a Concerto in B Minor for Viola and Orchestra purported to be by Handel, but actually composed by a French violist named Henri Casadesus. Neither of us recalled having heard this piece before and it was quite beautiful and well played by violist Mary Persin, whom we have heard play many times in the Biava Quartet, but never as a soloist.
On a completely more shallow note, I was happy to see that people actually dressed for the concert, something that did not necessarily happen up at my country abode. In fact I fell squarely on the underdressed side in a simple gray skirt, gray sweater, tights and black flats. This had been deliberate after we attended a choral concerts where I had been dismayed to be conspicuously overdressed for the occasion while most of the audience seemed to be wearing jeans or chinos and fleece jackets. Really I find it much easier to dress "up" than "down". Even after years of semi- then full retirement I still find casual to be be difficult. I am happy to know that there will be events where I can occasionally pull out a nice dress, perhaps even lace, and dress up occasionally.
