Saturday

[da]

Thanks to catbear & dawn_guy for surprising us with Pops symphony tix yesterday evening! We were going to just have an evening at home with just the two of us; maybe rent a movie...

I've not been to a Pops concert in ages and ages; partly because my brain slides it into a sort of "easy-listening classical" bin, which is definitely in the NOT WANT category. My last pops concert was possibly some time in our year in Boston, at an outdoor concert; but slightly more likely in high-school with my parents, also an outdoor concert. I really don't know. But for the first three pieces last night, I kept having the sense-memory of picnics, which is a bit weird and probably my imagination running away with me.

This was a tribute to Boston Pops' conductor Arthur Fiedler. At first it was a bit odd to me to think about Pops music having a geneology, but really, why not.

Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue was very well done, the first time I'd seen it performed live. The Dvorak selection from Symphony No. 9 was wonderful, and I wish they'd done more of Dvorak instead of the first few pieces (including Harry Potter Symphonic Suite).

The conductor is possibly more of a ham than Richard, d's old conductor. The symphony was energetic- some members more than others- in the first few pieces, I couldn't tell if that was forced, or if it was only me not expecting some of the performers to be constantly smiling and catching eyes in the audience and incorrectly assuming it must be forced. I eventually decided on the latter.

I was very amused by watching the two bass players on the end, who had good chemistry together.

Other stuff from yesterday: again Happy Birthday nobodyhere! We had fun at her party. I did not try the Hooch, though I smelled it.

...and I wrote a letter to Barundi.

Comments

[catbear.livejournal.com]

About the musicians' energy: Most of the players have friends in the audience -- they're not hamming it up or forcing it. When the energy is there, they are genuinely having a good time.

[dawn-guy.livejournal.com]

Glad you guys had a good evening out of it. I seem to have gotten my electrolyte balance back but would like to exchange my head for one that isn't so achy. Good thing we decided not to re-roof the garage this weekend.

Brian Jackson is getting a little less spry, but he's still a great match for the Pops repertoire. A lot of the musicians quite like him and have a good time playing with him. Er, playing their instruments with him leading them, that is.

I don't think we're likely to see Brian conducting next year unless we buy single tickets for a pops concert, since we genuinely want to see all the "whatever they're calling the main series" concerts this year and probably won't trade our tickets in for pops. This past year we traded in half our masterpiece tickets for pops because we'd rather listen to a good pops concert than to the results of a certain long-term guest conductor leading our symphony.

The basses are, in order from the front of the stage, Thomas, the affable George, Milos with the gypsy bass and a great sense of humour, and quiet Bruce. Sometimes Janet joins in as well; she retired from the KWS but AFAIK still teaches and plays locally.

It's a little sad that so few people, especially so few under-50s, bother with the KWS. I think changes centred around the new Young Turk will help a lot.

[da-lj.livejournal.com]

"Good thing we decided not to re-roof the garage this weekend."

All I've got to say to that is "oof."

Yes, we did enjoy it a fair bit, and I'm glad you're on the mend.

Janet was standing in for one of the other bases last night (I'm not sure which one).

Yes, I have high hopes for edwinoutwater.