Concert Report Essay

It’s amazing to listen to musicians who do not normally play with each other come together and leave the audience in complete awe. That is exactly what happened on the day of Thursday November 26th 2014. The Bill Crothers Varsity Winds comprised of grade eleven and twelve students along with a few, talented grade tens went to listen to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra play. We travelled via a typical yellow school bus that took us to Roy Thomson Hall where we went right to the top level and took our seats. The seating seemed rather helpful because from a distance you could hear every instrument when you focused on it. It was beautiful. The band presented well with their “Penguin” like attire that was kind to the eyes. They appeared very organized,

The title of the first song is “Roman Carnival Overture, Op. 9” , preformed by the Youtube Symphony Orchestra and written by Hector Berlioz. It is a classical piece composed by Michael Tilson Thomas. The tempo for this song was all over the place. It starts off as a crescendo, then towards the end of the crescendo it becomes a mezzo-forte allegro. Suddenly it drops down to a pianissimo largo. It goes on like that for a few more steady beats then turns into a piano. As more instruments join in, it becomes a mezzo-piano adagio. When the chorus comes on it turns into an allegro. Throughout most of it, it is legato. There were many times in the beginning and end that it was an accelerando, but through most of the middle it is a ritardando. I could not tell what the meter was for this song because it seemed like it was all over the place. For rhythm, I noticed that there were a few parts that were repeated, but there was not any syncopation. The melody was predominantly conjunct and it seemed to be very tuneful. The harmony became a little dissonant in the beginning, but during most of it, it was consonant. The texture was homophonic because there were many instruments playing for most of it. The only time it was monophonic was at the start when there was a solo. The concert section that was an allegro, put me in thrilled mood. The decrescendo largo part was so moving that it made me want to cry. Overall, I liked it, it was very consonant, which made it pleasing to listen to. It was very good because the temp was vivace for a good amount of the song. This music made me picture a relationship between a man and a woman. Throughout parts they fight and during other parts they don’t, but no matter what they do, they are very passionate throughout it all.

The name of this work is Act One: Youtube Symphony Orchestra @ Carnegie Hall. It lasts for about one hour. This is the first symphony orchestra of its kind. Many things set it apart from all others. Approximately three thousand people from all corners of the globe sent in video tape auditions of their musical talents. From this a total of ninety six people were chosen by " Youtubers". The orchestra consists of both male and female musicians. The attire is all black and formal, such as dresses, suits, etcetera. From certain angles, one can see that the music hall is packed with people. The dim lighting gave great and appropriate ambiance.

There is a slow introduction; you get a sense of longing in the music suggesting that Berlioz is feeling sad before he saw his lady friend. The symphony plays a slow introduction in a classical sonata style. The muted strings play a sort of veiled tune and it fits Berlioz's romantic spirit. The orchestra gives off a dreamlike condition and the melody provides a sense of loneliness, and despair, a description of how Berlioz feels. The key it is being played in is C minor.

The third piece is Musica Celestis, composed by Aaron Jay Kernis in 1990. Its orchestration includes strings only. Its duration was 13 minutes. It is filled with warm harmonies. The beginning is very soft and deep (piano). As it goes along, the pitch and the dynamics become deeper, louder and more passionate. Scales keep ascending quickly, as if it is reaching a climax, until a full sudden stop is reached. After that, the music returns slowly and becomes deeper towards the end. This was my favorite piece in this whole performance. The listener can plunge into deep affectionate feelings. It was easy to imagine a scenario or a story by listening to its soft well-connected harmonies.

The piece I have chose to analyze is an online video recording of Beethoven Egmont Ouverture, Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 and Mahler Symphony No. 1 preformed by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra led by the conductor Christoph Eschenbach and violinist Ray Chen. Over the 101 minutes recording there are many great examples of the concepts learned in the course.

On December 2nd, 2017, I attended a concert performed by the Diablo Valley College Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert, performed at the Diablo Valley College Performing Arts Center, was called A Classical British Invasion and it featured pieces that were either written by British people or were inspired by them. Since I have only listened to professional orchestras for previous concert reports, I decided to attend a college orchestra, hoping to see the differences between a professional orchestra and a more casual one.

However, the repertoire presented was drawn from different sources and an excerpt from J.S. Bach’s “The Art of the Fugue” was handled by incorporating lots of musical adventure. The music of Bach was revisited again at a later time with four of his famous “Goldberg Variations”.

This song almost feels like a couple of people are having a conversation. “Gloria (from mass No. 2 in e minor) ” by Anton Bruckner changes in loudness and softness to emphasize different stages of the song to make the composition unique. This piece of music has a medieval sacred music feel because you could imagine a priest chanting sections of the mass along with the music. “Chorale Prelude, Vater Unser in Himmelreich” by J.S. Bach was the next piece. This offering was a slow, solemn and religious chorale. I could imagine this piece being played in a gothic cathedral. The next part was “Trauersinfonie” by Richard Wagner was a song that was slower and had a sad tone color compared to the other composition. It is a stirring piece with a stately air. I could imagine this piece being played at a funeral because of its tone color. The next piece was the “Chorale Prelude Wachet Auf, Ruft uns die Stimme”. This piece was also religious. The piece gives you a sense of awakening to pay attention to something important. This was a pleasant song. It had a happy tone color. Then the band went right into “Overture to Rienzi” by which Richard Wagner. This piece had multiple emotion changes. It

Overall, the Yale Symphony Orchestra delivered an exquisite performance, riddled only by perpetual intonation problems. The audience was very engaged, with a lengthy standing ovation at the end of the concert, and no cell phones in sight throughout – the truest sign of a phenomenal

I have chosen to share three of my favorite pieces. Each piece is different by genre, artist, style, and time. These three pieces should be familiar to most of the populations’ ears. I tried to choose different types of pieces because I do not like to listen to the same artists or genre. My personal musical taste is a variety of genres and choosing the three pieces represents my musical mixture.

Lastly, the third music that the played it was for Haydn Symphony No. 104. I do know this piece, and I was happy when I saw them playing it. they played the four movements. The first one which was the Adagio – Allegro, reminded me with Beethoven his 9th symphony. The opening of this movement was hard and dynamic of it is loud at the beginning, but then is getting softer with the cello and violins. It tempo of it is fast as well; it feels like a darkness with the loud start at the beginning. The end of it was pretty by the cords, it is a nice piece. The second movement Andante opened by the violin. It is fast a little bit and softer than the first movement. It has repetition but different sounds and different instruments. Then at the middle

In 2013, I went to experience the Dallas Symphony perform Carmina Burana. It was the first and only concert I had ever been to, but I think it was my first “Kantian experience”. It was inspirational for a young flute player, like myself, to see professionals perform such an iconic and difficult piece of music with such passion. Although, I did not know what the singers were saying, the music and their voices were so smooth and powerful. For a middle school student, who had not really started listening to classical music and was used to the noise we made in band class, it was the most beautiful thing I ever heard. Many times I was moved to tears because of how emotional the music was. I think experiencing music like that live really changed

I attended the West Virginia University Symphony Orchestra Concert which was held on Thursday the 25th of February 2016. It was hosted within West Virginia University’s Creative Arts Center at the Lyle B. Clay Concert Center. The concert started at 7:40 pm, 10 minutes after the scheduled time, lasting for close to two hours. The concert consisted of four pieces; “Hebrides Overture”, “Concerto in D Major”, “Siegfried Idyll” and Overture to Rienzi. The third piece was conducted by graduate assistant director, Hanjin SA whereas the rest was conducted by Mitchell Arnold. As for instruments, those in use were percussion, timpani, tuba, trombone, horn, clarinet, flute, piano, harp, contrabass, violoncello, viola and violin.

The first piece I will introduce is “Appassionata” by Ludwig Van Beethoven. “Appassionata” was composed during a time of many changes in both Beethoven’s life and the musical world around him. By 1800 Beethoven’s hearing had deteriorated so much that he was almost completely deaf. Although this was not something easy to cope with, Beethoven did not let this obstacle hinder his career. In fact, in many aspects his works flourished, and a new wave of creativity sparked in his career. Beethoven was not the first to compose a multimovement piece for the piano, but he was the first to stray from the former expectations of piano sonatas. Beethoven’s new sonatas were longer than most and incorporated dramatic elements. With just one instrument Beethoven was able to convey so much power and emotion, something that no one at the time