The Arts in New York City
Upon arriving at Carnegie Hall, and climbing to my seat, I immediately thought I was going to fall down the steep steps and over the railing. It was quite unbelievable how open the area was compared to previous places we visited. The seats were bigger and thus more comfortable, but I was still trying my best to not knee the woman sitting in front of me. She often times leaned back, and I was forced to nervously watch her, or risk kicking her in the back of the head and cause a disturbance. Before the show began, I was looking around the auditorium and I was disappointed to see the empty ceiling area. It was a huge circle designed into the ceiling of the building and I couldn’t help but think that a large chandelier, similar to the one at the Metropolitan Opera House, would be perfect for such an area.
After the music began playing I became much more relaxed and comfortable in my seat. It was nice hearing such mellow and relaxing music, especially when it was played live. Looking onto the stage I noticed each individual performer, the conductor, and the violin and trumpet players. Each group moved differently, but together they created a rhythm, both acoustic and visual. Even the conductor with his rapid, and crude movements, seemed to fit perfectly within the orchestra. Majority of the time they would all play in this rhythm, other times a select few groups would do their own thing. On one occasion, a group of violinists was barely moving, while another group kept bobbling back and forth, crudely playing their instrument. Watching them at certain moments threw me out of the musical rhythm, since I expected everything to flow smoothly and seamlessly.
The most enjoyable aspect for me, besides the music itself was the lack of visual strain on the audience. There was no need to watch and focus on the stage. Instead the audience was able to let their eyes wonder, or close them entirely, and enjoy the melody being played. Indeed this is what I eventually decided to do, instead of being distracted by other factors, such as people texting or a little girl leaning over the balcony in the front row, with her mother holding her back nervously.
At the end I came out of Carnegie hall enjoying myself, and the performance. Even though I heard bethovens music before, it was much different hearing it live. It was different, and better, since majority of the focus was on the musical pieces playing. It was peaceful, soothing, and without a doubt a good conclusion to the night.
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I definitely agree with this review because I too thought I was going to hit the person in front of me if I were to slouch in my seat. But I really did enjoy the performance. It was amazing to be able to see all these talented musicians put their skills together to play such a beautiful piece. Every individual player had his/her own rhythm and it was great to see that they all contributed their own way of playing into this beautiful orchestral piece. For example, I saw that all the violinists having the same bowing strokes, each playing at the frog of the bow, and the tip of bow at the same time, but in the same regards, they all swayed their body different- some more vigorously than others. It was great to see that the conductor were able to over see every single player to make sure they were on par with everyone else.
I do play the viola in my high school orchestra, and the performances for us were around 30 minutes, and my arm would be sore with lactic acid since we had to lift this instruments continuously and I wondered if these performers were tired during each piece. Not only are they talented musically, they have to be physically adapted to playing the piece. And I thought they were great at both. I really enjoyed this musical performance.