Barge Music, located just under the Brooklyn Bridge, brings great music to the public for a not so great price. Although I myself had not had to pay for my ticket, I have looked through the listing of different concerts performed at barge music and their admission prices. Going to barge music was an incredible experience. It is conveniently located right off the Brooklyn Promenade, which gives you a really beautiful view of the city, and is also right next to the ice cream factory, which has very delicious ice cream (especially the strawberry one because they make it with real strawberries). Stepping onto the barge, I had found out that the barge actually does move along with the waves. I was given a program for the night’s performance. Michael Bulychev-Okser, a Russian pianist, was performing three of Beethoven’s Sonatas. The inside of the barge is comprised of one room with a stage and chairs facing the stage, for the audience. It was a pretty small room, it could fit maybe 100 people, but it was a lot larger than what it seemed like from the outside. Behind the stage was a window, which provided a view of Manhattan. If you looked through that window, the movement of the boat became very apparent, otherwise it was barely noticeable.
Michael Bulychev-Okser started out by playing Piano Sonata No.29 in B-Flat Major, Op.106, “Hammerklavier”. I did not so much like this choice of melody because at times it seemed like there were too many things going on at the same time. What I mean by that is each hand was playing a tune that was both powerful and completely distinct from the other, and when both are put together it is very hard to follow the music. This however, was not the performer’s fault, after all he isn’t the one that composed the melody. This piece did do one thing though. It allowed us to see just how talented the performer is, that he was able to play two completely different melodies with his hands at the same time. Following this performance was an intermission, during which I went upstairs to admire the view of the city. Surprisingly, you could not feel the boat’s movement at all from the top. After a brief intermission, Michael Bulychev-Okser came back and performed two more pieces for us: Piano Sonata No.8 in c minor, Op.13, “Pathetique” and Piano Sonata No. 16 in G Major, Op. 31, No.1. These last two performances were very enjoyable since there wasn’t any dissonance between the melody played by the right hand and the melody played by the left hand. The movement of the barge had at times seemed timed to the music and had only emphasized the music more. This made the performance even better.
Sadly there was only a handful of us that went to see the performance. Those of you that did not go, you missed out on a great experience and I would recommend that you at some point go to a concert at barge music.
