Story #7: Symphony

Thanks to Ck who had press passes, I went to the symphony tonight for free. We sat in the front row, which was a first for me at the symphony. I sat in the front row last March when I saw Wicked on Broadway, but never for a symphony. Turns out, front row is not all that great for a number of reasons - but mostly due to the way in which the sound blends together, or doesn't, when you're up that close. I also was unfortunately seated on the wrong side of the piano.  I could not see the pianist or his hands at all, which was a disappointment.  But sitting that close did allow for random observations about the symphony that I never really noticed before.

• Very few people in the strings section of the symphony were married.  Or maybe they were married, but not wearing rings.  Why did I notice this?  I'm not sure, but I think it started because one cellist had a wedding band on his right hand, which intrigued me.  So then I started looking at the rest of them.
• I like to see when the musicians look to the conductor versus just looking at their music.  I found no real rhyme or reason to the timing.  In fact, they seemed to look at all different times.
• Intermission is a poor time to go to the restroom.  Old ladies have small bladders.  Many old ladies attend the symphony.  They served free champagne before the symphony.  The first two pieces, pre-intermission, were over an hour long.  Put this all together, and you have a line that stretched almost across the lobby.  I didn't have to go that badly...
• Old ladies also like to talk.  We walked one of them back to her car afterward so she would not have to walk alone in the dark.  She told us so many stories, I can't even begin to count.  I also cannot begin to count because there was no separation, no moment when one story ended and another began.  She would begin talking about one thing, and then throw in some extraneous information, and then suddenly we were on an entirely new path.  Of course, I know, I have no room to talk when it comes to details and extraneous information, but wow.  This woman was amazing.  We heard about her grandchildren in San Diego, her 102-year-old mother, her Norwegian neighbor, the raspberries she purchased on sale last week, and how the separation of church and state is wrong.  Eventually, after standing next to her car for quite a while, she hugged us and thanked us, and we went our separate ways.
• The symphony itself was good.  Terrence Wilson played with them during Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 3.  He also played a short solo piece - I think it was Chopin Etude Op. 10 No. 4 - to a standing ovation, although they give them pretty liberally at the Hult Center.  The Firebird by Stravinsky was full and good, and I like the piece for its energy, particularly toward the end, but I would say I was most excited for the Rachmaninoff.