The Arts in New York City
It was crowded outside the small entrance of Carnegie Hall very much like the entrance of BAM. The lobby was small and there was only one entrance to the auditorium. This was very different from the Metropolitan Opera house which houses a fountain and glass walls at its entrance. The climb up to my seat was probably the longest out of all the performances this semester. Because I was so high up, I was scared I would tumble over by accident and fall on the first floor audience, probably breaking some necks on the way. Another thing about the seating was the size of the seats themselves. It was uncomfortable even for me and I wondered how bad it must be for someone with long legs.
Besides the seating and venue, I really loved the performance. It was probably the best instrumental performance I heard. Not only was the music beautiful and perfect, it was really fascinating for me to see how it was delivered. Throughout the whole performance, I focused on individual performers and tried to distinguish the sound of their instruments from the rest. I focused on their hand movements to see what they did to produce a certain sound. I really liked the flute sound because I used to play the flute. Listening to it made me feel nostalgic and want to take up playing the flute again. It was also interesting to see the conductor wave his wand around at certain people and they in turn played their instrument. It was sort of like he had a magic wand and he used to it to produce melodious music. Some of the parts really reminded me of Disney soundtracks and other parts sounding like marching band music. I really loved the repetition in all the pieces. I liked how something was introduced in the beginning of the piece and kept coming back in different ways throughout. Overall, I liked this performance more than the one at 92nd Y only because it incorporated so many instruments that produced a unique and beautiful sound that appealed to me more than string instruments do.
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Great Review! I felt the same way about the walk all the way up those stairs. I have a huge fear of heights, and all Macaulay seemed to do was test me at every possible moment. Clinging on to every railing and people’s seats, I finally got to my seat. I had the same experience with the performance, as I thought it was the best instrumental performance I had ever gone to. A large part of that was the beauty in the songs they played, but the movement and personality of each player also moved me. Each person had their own signature movement – like the man whipping his hair back and forth – and their instruments also had a unique sound. It was entertaining as I attempted to isolate each instrument. I tried to identify what each instrument was with the booklet – as it said how many people were playing each instrument. There did seem to be a reoccurring theme in each piece of music, which I found especially appealing. I also preferred this performance to the one at the 92nd Y.
After reading a number of reviews, it is quite obvious that many of us can come to a general consensus that none of us like climbing up to our seats if they are many flights above ground level. I, for one, also share this opinion, but for other reasons, primarily sight problems. It was hard to differentiate the Don Giovanni performers from one another, but it was slightly less difficult in the orchestra case. The variety of instruments played by the members of the orchestra produced many sounds, but instead of an unpleasant, boisterous cacophony, each instrument relied on their strengths to compensate for other instruments’ weaknesses. The result was a harmonious, triumphant sound that was guided by a composer. Overall, I too found the orchestra to be an exciting event, but I must disagree and mention that I enjoyed the Tokyo String Quartet more because of the ground level seating, more accommodating space for the legs and ability to perfectly see the performers, allowing me to better connect to the music.