This was my first time ever setting foot in Carnegie Hall. I’ve only actually seen the outside of Carnegie Hall a total of two times; the first on the way to Fall for Dance, and this was the second. I played in my high school orchestra as the 1st chair Violin myself, and I know the feeling of walking out on stage by yourself and hearing the audience applaud you. It’s exhilarating, but it also puts a huge amount of pressure upon your shoulders.
The inside of the hall is quite beautiful and it’s such an amazing privilege, and what a luxury, to be able to just sit inside and do nothing but listen and enjoy. My favorite piece was the one by Luigi Dallapiccola with the full orchestra. I’m not sure how to quite explain it, but I just really enjoy the sound of a complete orchestra. There are certain parts in the music that sound as if different sections of the orchestra are having a conversation with one another. One section plays a couple of lines and another answers back, sometimes mimicking, sometimes in response, sometimes almost in retaliation as if they were in a friendly competition. Those are the parts of the music that I enjoy the most, whether it’s listening to it as the audience, or playing it in an orchestra.
Beautifully said, Pun.
And you must be a pretty good musician if you got the 1st seat!
Here are a few more words about Dallapiccola’s piece (unsigned comments, from another concert’s program): “Italian composer Luigi Dallapiccola composed Piccola Musica Notturna as a commission by German conductor Hermann Scherchen in 1954. The title translates to a “little night music.” However, the inspiration, rather than Mozartian, is Antonio Machado’s poem Noche de verano (“Summer Night”), a contemplation of an empty town square on a quite summer night lit by moonlight. The piece might be described as a nocturne for orchestra, a mood-piece that tries to capture the sultry, lonely atmosphere of Machado’s poem.”
And here is Machado’s poem – in Spanish (its original language), and English translation by Willis Barnstone:
NOCHE DE VERANO
Es una hermosa noche de verano.
Tienen las altas casas
abiertos los balcones
del viejo pueblo a la anchurosa plaza.
En el amplio rectángulo desierto,
bancos de piedra, evónimos y acacias
simétricos dibujan
sus negras sombras en la arena blanca.
En el cénit, la luna, y en la torre,
la esfera del reloj iluminada.
Yo en este viejo pueblo paseando
solo, como un fantasma.
SUMMER NIGHT
A beautiful summer night.
the tall houses leave
their balcony shutters open
to the wide plaza of the old village.
In the large deserted square,
stone benches, burning bush and acacias
trace their black shadows
symmetrically on the white sand.
In its zenith, the moon; in the tower,
the clock’s illuminated globe.
I walk through this ancient village,
alone, like a ghost.
Oh wow, thank you for the background information! That’s really interesting. I can definitely picture that piece being played in a scene like that poem.