on concert-going
When I was in high-school, the height of existence for me was going to the symphony. I would cajole and beg until someone would schlep me and possibly any friends I could drag along the 35 miles to the nearest city, usually in the cold (this was in Iowa). I would watch breathless drinking in every minute. I continued this frenzied concert mania into college until my first senior year. Then I just quit going to symphony. I was bored with it. I can't really explain it. I used to love the thrill of getting dressed up, drinking in the music, staying out late. Perhaps I got to the point where I was performing so much that concerts began to be equated with work instead of pleasure. I don't perform anymore now, but I study music as an academic discipline, so perhaps I still view it as work. And what I really want to do on a weekend evening is stay at home and watch a movie.
This said I went to the symphony last night. A friend called with an extra ticket, so I went. Looking at the program, I probably wouldn't have chosen to go to this particular one. It was almost an all Mozart program, and as someone said, you're either a Mozart person or a Haydn person, and I'm a Haydn person. It's not that I don't like Mozart, though. I enjoyed it nevertheless. First up was the overture to Le Nozze, then a Divertimento. The third item on the program was on the only non-Mozart piece, a set of four brass pieces by Gabrieli. When they started played it all of a sudden struck me: oh my word! Early music at the sympony!! I love our conductor. I really enjoyed the pieces. Last up was the "Jupiter" symphony, no. 41.
I was not the euphoric teenager heavily involved in an aesthetic experience. I felt a bit more seasoned. While listening to the pieces, I could tell you exactly where we were formally at a given moment; I could appreciate the 'moves' Mozart was making (for example, modulating down three steps successively in the development of the fourth movement of the Divertimento); and I was interested in the interpretation of the pieces, so well-known, by the conductor (who is really fabulous) as he conducted from memory.
I realized that the last time I have been to the symphony was almost two years ago when I sang in the chorus of Missa Solemnis by Beethoven. The last concert I've been to was Monteverdi's Vespers last November. I really need to get up, get out there, and here some more live music.