It’s been a long time since I went to an orchestral performance at Carnegie Hall, and I’ve never been to a classical concert. Thursday was the first, and the best.
Purcell’s suite was great for falling asleep to…
Tchaikovsky’s piece on The Tempest impressed me in its depiction of the storm. I haven’t read The Tempest and therefore cannot go into details, but the magnitude of the storm and the calmness of its eye are great.
Dallapiccola’s piece made some sense as a depiction of a deserted summer night.
Mendelssohn’s Die erste Walpurgisnacht orchestrates a poem of a Christianized people who still follow parts of their old religion. It had this interesting stanza:
| Dieses dumpfen Pffafenchristen, Lasst uns keck sie überlisten! Mit dem Teufel, den sie fabeln, Wollen wir sie selbst erschrecken. |
These stupid Christians let us boldly outsmart them! With the very devil they invent We’ll terrify them. |
This helps uncover a major flaw in the “Christianizing” of the old days: the people were never changed in their hearts. Instead they were forced into a new mold in which they continue to do what they used to.
The best part of that concert was hearing the trombones.
HAHAHAHA… “great for falling asleep to…”
and Purcell is considered one of the best English composer out there….
“The best part of that concert was hearing the trombones.”
nah it was the flutes.
Hej, Joshua, but you know what happened with dem Teufel, the “very devil,” right?
By the way, this part of Goethe’s poem which Mendelssohn uses as a theme for his composition is not about Christians or pagans, but about “Walpurgisnacht” – the wild night of witches.
Well, Josh & Lucius, how about – neither trombones nor flutes but cellos & the bass-baritone of Luca Pisaroni…