Concert time

Last Thursday Kevin and I went to go hear the National Symphony Orchestra play one of its regular subscription concerts. It featured Philippe Jordan making his directorial debut with the orchestra.

Jordan is young, tall, and slender, looking very elegant in his white tie and tails, and he worked with a great deal of energy and enthusiasm. The strings took a moment to warm up at the beginning, but ultimately the orchestra played well for him throughout the performance.

Featured soloist for the evening was Lynn Harrell, the well-known American cellist, who played the Schumann Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129. Harrell is a master of technique and his nearly fifty years of professional experience was readily apparent as he finessed his way through the Schumann. Thursday was a tough crowd, though, giving him only one extra curtain call before the nearly full house ran out for intermission cocktails.

NSO opened the evening with Prokofiev's Symphony No. 1 in D major, Op. 25, "Classical," featuring several tunes that are very recognizable to those who listen to classical music radio stations. After intermission, they closed with the familiar Beethoven Symphony No. 4 in B-flat major, Op. 60. The Beethoven was clean in the classical manner, though I thought Jordan embued it with a bit of a Romantic flavor, not unexpected, given his high level of opera conducting experience.

We had a good time, and I think Kevin particularly enjoyed the people watching. Our seats were right in the middle of the center section about 60% of the way back, so we had great views of the stage and many of the patrons. Some of the people do carry on so! We had a group behind us that went from chattering about their New York Broadway trips to their hints on ski resorts and skiing all of whom had to be in their sixties.