Scenes From The Symphony

First of all, a shout out and a very big THANKS to Terrie for inviting me to the Pacific Symphony tonight - the inspiration for this entry.  What a great day - I got to break software at work and I got to go to the symphony!

So it was at the new Sergerstrom Concert Hall - across from the Performing Arts Center - beautiful facility!  Jan - I thought of you when the guy giving the opening comments used the word juxtaposition!  Part of the program included a guest pianist, Gabriela Montero.  She was WONDERFUL - young and very relaxed, but a great pianist and fun to watch.  She played without music and you could just tell that she was very passionate about what she was playing - and she kept a keen eye on the conductor - our choir director at church would love it if we all watched him like that!  We were in seats where we could watch her face and expressions while she played - it was just fascinating!  As an encore she asked the orchestra for a musical theme that she could improvise on.  So one of the violinist played a little classical excerpt - which I recognized, but don’t know the name of it - and she just started playing and improvising with different styles of that theme.  It was amazing - and the best part was watching the members of the orchestra watch her - they all looked so awed and impressed - she was great!

At intermission it’s always fun to do some people watching and we were definitely not disappointed.  There was this one guy that went walking through the crowd and I swear he looked like he was walking the catwalk!  The sweetie darling was really working it!  And then to watch this other group watching him - it was hilarious!

Finally during the last act they played a piece that I wasn’t all that thrilled about - but it was neat to watch the orchestra play - especially this one cellist that was very animated and intense - next to another guy that was very relaxed.  It was fun.  A very good evening!