Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the Texas State Symphony Orchestra Recital at Evans Auditorium. The performance was made up of two pieces: “Overture to Nabucco” composed by Giuseppe Verdi and “Symphony No. 5 E minor op. 64” composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky with its 4 movements. The theme of the overall performance was “Fifth and Fate”, depicting the ideas of life and destiny. Despite its flaws, the concert very well exemplified this theme and overall put on a delightful and memorable performance. Now, while the performance in its entirety was something spectacular, like every piece of art, it had its flaws. One thing I noticed throughout the recital was the lack of balance. At some points, the string section overpowered the horns almost entirely to where it was nearly impossible to hear them. Granted, the string section was almost three times the size of the brass, but that is no excuse. A good director would notice this imbalance and make an attempt to conduct the sections to fix this unequal sound. Simply stating, the strings needed to be quieter and the horns could’ve made an attempt to be louder. A more obvious fault to the untrained ear was the timing of the orchestra. On occasion, after rests, when an entire section was cued to come in, they did not come in in unison. There would be a lone bassoon or viola that would come sometimes as soon as a beat before the rest of the ensemble. This hindered the sense of unity and harmony the orchestra attempted
Though my ears are not exceptionally honed nor trained to point out musical mistakes, I would like to add that mistakes, if any, were not thoroughly noticeable. The musicians blended well and produced the right effect based on the musical context. However, when the vocal soloists sang in the final movement of the Ninth Symphony, their voices were drowned out by the loudness of the orchestra and large chorus. It did not help that the soloists were located lower than chorus, which made the perception of hearing the soloists more difficult.
On July 31st, 2015, at Lincoln Center: Avery Fisher Hall, the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra: Mozart and Brahms took place. The performers for that evening were Jeremy Denk, the pianist and Louis Langrée as the conductor. The performances that were played that night were Chaconne in D minor for piano left hand by composer Johann Sebastian Bach and Johannes Brahms, Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K.466 by composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Symphony No. 4 in E minor by composer Johannes Brahms. The symphony was excellent in my opinion. The first performance, Chaconne in D minor for piano left hand wasn’t my favorite one but the last two were spectacular. It was the first time I’ve been to a classical music concert and it was a different
When the concert first began, the three instrumentalists walked with energy despite their age. The first song, “Sonata I in G-Major Op. 2, Nr. 1” by Michel Blavet, was a Baroque Sonata. There were five movements and was played by the harpsichord, flute, and cello. All movements of the song were polyphonic because of the three instruments that had different parts and equal importance. In the first movement, I noticed that the flute tended to rise in pitch. In the second movement, I noticed that the melodies often repeated. Throughout the rest of the song the tempo changed from fast to slow and the flute would usually take the lead. On the last movement, the cello and the harpsichord
The concert performed by the Allen High School Symphony Orchestra, which combines the Chamber and Sinfonia Orchestras, was an amazing concert but was not a flawless one. The pieces all sounded quite wonderful on the outside, but by diving deeper into the music and truly listening to and observing the performance with a sharper eye, there were some problems that appeared in a couple different areas, and those problems came mainly from three distinct areas: tone, technique, and musicianship.
I have never attended an orchestral concert. Although my taste ranges between several different types of music, the only concerts I have attended are of the rock and country variety. I was not sure what to expect in attending The Houston Civic Symphony’s performance on Sunday, October 9, 2016. It was held at the Dunham Theater within the Morris Cultural Arts Center at Houston Baptist University. Once inside I saw the beautiful stage with all of the performers warming up and three stories of seating. Many of the patrons were in the age range of 30 and up. I did see some kids and young adults but not many. The HCS marked its 50th year since the very first performance this season. The first performance happened in 1996 when a group of music lovers in Houston came together to play a concert just because they wanted to play and share their love of music with others. From that day they became known as the Houston Civic Symphony. Some of the players I watched in this performance have been with the Symphony for 25 years or more while others are barely reaching their first year if not their first performance; only two of the players have been there since the very first season. Out of the three pieces performed the one that caught my attention the most was the last, it hold a powerful message of fear and desperation for
Overall, the performance turned out a success. Both the symphony and opera act enhanced the audience with the feeling of warmth and laughter. The symphony made me to realize how each section is structured and in order, while the opera act was simple, yet made it very delightful to listen to. Also, It’s amazing how different the symphony and opera act turned out. The symphony followed a four-movement pattern: fast, slow, minuet/dance, fast, while the opera combined both musical and singing element. In essence, the combination of voice and strings as well as the unstructured nature and freedom of the opera led me to emotionally connect with all three pieces of the
For this assignment, I went to the Basically Beethoven Festival at the Dallas City Performance Hall. The recital was opened with a few pieces played by the rising stars Madera Wind Quintet. The main performance included Rachel McDonald on the viola, Joseph Kuipers on the cello, Grace Wollett on the violin, Scott Wollett on the oboe, and the great pianist Alex McDonald. They performed a compilation of famous composers’ masterpieces.
On Saturday, December 12th, the High School Philharmonic All-Region Orchestra performed a variety of fascinating pieces. They were directed by Professor Edward Kawakami from Carthage College. The region orchestra began the concert with “Pomp and Circumstance March No. 4 op. 39” by Edward Elgar. The next piece that the orchestras performed was “Clair de Lune” by Claude Debussy. The last piece that the High School Philharmonic All-Region Orchestra performed was “Samson and Dalila Dance Bacchanale op. 47” by Camille Saint-Saens.
The concert I attended was called the Faculty and Student Recital, which took place in the Cisco Auditorium on April 11, 2017. The music that was on the program was mostly what is called “classical” music, as well as a Chinese Folk Song, an electronic composition, and variations on an Indian Tala. In the classical pieces, the instruments that were used were the violin, the piano, the cello, and the oboe. In the electronic composition, the computer was used to make music. In the Chinese Folk Song, the piccolo was used to imitate the unique timbre of a Chinese flute. In the Indian tala, drums from Ghana were used to imitate the rhythm and sound of Indian drums. The piano, the violin, the cello, and the piccolo all originate
I attended Western Kentucky University 's symphony concert. It was on Friday, October 30th at 7:30pm. It was held in Van Meter Hall. Their event was named “It 's time for a treat.” The symphony was conducted by Dr. Brain St. John. Before it began, I read over the program that was handed out to find out basic information. The history of the pieces helped in understanding them. The concert featured many well-known works by famous composers such as Camille Saint-Saens, Modest Mussorgsky, and Berlioz. The three pieces that are the most memorable in my mind are “Overture to La Cenerentola”, “Là ci darem la mano”, and March to the Scaffold from Symphonie Fantastique.
Today, classical music by many can be seen as a dying genre of music. Not often do people attend concerts to be moved emotionally, for entertainment, or as a means of socializing. Though groups such as 2Cellos, Piano Guys, and the YouTube Symphony Orchestra have recently driven people back to concert halls and have them watching classical performances online. The YouTube Symphony Orchestra has made a significant movement to this genre of music by live streaming their performances (one in 2009 and the other in 2011).
Never could I have thought that my first concert experience was going to be in a college class, performed by various composers of classical music. During the concert, I got to listen to four performances. First, the Oxycotton was played by Tim Sanchez. Second, Samantha Post played Acht Stucke on flute, followed by Nicholas Gledhill, playing Blues and Variations for Monk on horn. Finally, the CSU Graduate Brass Quintet performed a piece named Misty. In this essay, I will share my personal experience of the concert and discuss the different elements of music seen in the different performances.
I feel that the fourteen members of chamber orchestra and the two vocalists did an outstanding job. This piece was well put together. I loved the harmony that was brought forth between the orchestra and the vocalists. The two vocalists a tenor known as Paul Groves and a soprano known as Anna Larson, did a beautiful job staying in tune. The way that their voices went back and forth in harmony was just beautiful.
On Sunday, May10 2015, a concert was held in The Broad Stage. The concert was played by Santa Monica College Symphony Orchestra, whose conductor is Dr. James Martin. For this concert, I would identify myself as a referential listener at this concert. I say this because I am not an expert in music, therefore it would be hard for me to be a critical listener. I wouldn’t be able to tell what went wrong with a performance even if some incorrect notes were played. I was more of a referential listener because the music was soothing and brought my mind to peaceful thoughts. This essay will tells my experience of the concert in order to persuade my friend to attend a classical music concert with you in the future.
I think that the performer’s ability was appropriate for their location and for their audience because the tone quality of the musicians sounded very rich and clean. When I listened to the performance, I was able to hear all of the different parts of the piece clearly, which has made me much more conscious of the balance and dynamics of each phrase when I play. The texture of the pieces played was very rich and full because an orchestral piece is designed to have a good balance of instruments and good range of frequencies of sound that has lots of different things happening at the same time.