Valentine’s Day! Sydney Symphony Orchestra! Sydney Opera House! Schumann! Mendelssohn! Dumplings! Or more coherently, Valentine’s Day Sydney Symphony Orchestra Opera House Schumann Mendelssohn dumplings! Oops.
It’s a slightly rainy day that didn’t start out very smoothly, with one of my contact lenses deciding to rip and us having to make an extra trip back to pick up my spare lenses and all. Thankfully, everything was perfectly timed after and we could still grab a quick bite a tower of dumplings for dinner as planned.
I’m not normally one to celebrate commercial holidays, but they do make for a good excuse to do something special. Tonight, it was the SSO, conducted by David Robertson, performing Schumann’s first and second symphonies, and German violinist Christian Tetzlaff as the soloist for Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. I used Richard’s birthday gift certificate to me (on top of the buffet dinner), so I was able to get us premium seats in one of the Circle Boxes. Spoilt? Me?
Being a classical music nerd, I was already familiar with all three compositions, but picked up a lot of notes (especially from the second violins and violas) from the live orchestra that I missed from just listening to recordings. I was also more used to a faster third and fourth movement for Symphony No. 1. I suspect more people would prefer the violin concerto, but I loved all three.
I really can’t comment on the quality of the music otherwise being such an amateur violinist myself, but really did absolutely, massively enjoy the event and was still buzzing from the performance a while after. One thing, though, from Vickie the snob: People, you don’t clap between movements! cool
The brother asked when I’d be the one on stage. Well, realistically never, but here’s hoping the experience wasn’t too dull for Richard for this to be our last time attending a classical music concert together. smile
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