Symphonic

[ateolf]

Mary Beth and I went to see the Memphis Symphony Orchestra in the afternoon. The first piece was a short one by Leonard Bernstein called Slava!, a Political Overture. It was probably my least favorite of the lot (but they ended on a better one by Bernstein). Next it was Michael Gandolfi's Piano Concerto with Marc-André Hamelin as a guest pianist. That was my favorite piece of the set. Then it was John Wineglass's Alone Together which was written at the beginning of the covid pandemic so it was arranged for only instruments that could be played while wearing a mask (i.e. no horns!) as that was the requirement at the time, so all the strings and some percussionists and harp. They finished with Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (as it sounds, the dances from that arranged into a symphony) and it was good! Otávio was back in town playing with them but he was behind everyone from where we were sitting (especially in the first half when the huge piano was taking up the front of the stage, but then still behind other people after that). Not a lot else. At night we watched Pola X (Mary Beth had just gotten the dvd and wanted to test it out so, hey why not rewatch the whole thing!?).