Brahms Unplugged

Mary Beth and I went down to the Halloran Center for one of Memphis Symphony Orchestra's "unplugged" concerts (the first one we'd been to...were kind of confused as to the meaning of "unplugged" in the context of an orchestra...but it's more of an (relatively) intimate "deep dive" into one composer or work that mixes in a lecture with the concert). This was for Brahms's Symphony No. 1. So for the first half Robert Moody (the conductor) was giving a lecture with amusing anecdotes and stuff about Brahms's life. After a bit all of the strings came out and they did the Hungarian Dance No. 5 (so that was nice!). Then he was going into the musical elements of the symphony, and the rest of the orchestra came out and they would play brief little sections of it as he was talking about them (lots of references or homages to Beethoven in there, but some other stuff). Then after the intermission they did the whole symphony (with some notes here and there referring back to the lecture projected behind them). It was good and I really enjoyed the piece. Nice to finally know what the whole "unplugged" thing is all about! I think the real first season premier concert is in a few weeks, but it was fun getting a soft opening. I quite liked the Brahms piece they did in the last season so it was nice to dive in a little more.