JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: This past Sunday, I had the pleasure of seeing the Portland Symphony Orchestra perform Beethoven’s 9th Symphony. To say it’s one of my favorite pieces of classical music is hardly cutting edge – almost everyone in the world has heard at least part of the choral symphony. According to IMDB, the composer has over 1,200 movie and TV music credits to his name. That’s not bad for someone who died in 1827. (Note to Beethoven lovers: start lining up your tickets now for 2027 concerts. It’s going to be lit!) One of my personal favorites is its use in that classic Christmas movie, DIE HARD, where the theme appears over and over again, first shyly, as a few violin notes, and then eventually to a rousing climax.
This performance kicked off the 100th year anniversary of the PSO (one of the few places where the Other Portland beats us out: the Oregon Symphony was formed in 1896.) The PSO did an amazing walk through its recent history as part of the opener. They invited three past Music Directors, going back to 1976, to conduct each of the symphony’s movements in order.
It was a literal passing of the baton, ending with our current Maestro, Eckart Preu, and as you can imagine, it inspired the audience to both sentimental sighs and rabid cheers. (For those of you who aren’t symphony lovers, let me assure you, the most excited fans at a baseball game have nothing on a concert hall full of classical music fans. I think it’s because we have to be SO quiet while the performance is going on. We really let ‘er rip when we’re finally released to applaud.)
So Sunday will definitely go down in my memories of Top of the 9th. (See? I also like sports!) My other two favorite moments? One was a few years ago, when my dear friend Tracy Leu, who works for the Boston Philharmonic, got me tickets to see their performance. The music was rousing and rapturous as always, but the polish on the apple was experiencing it in Symphony Hall, an extraordinary Renaissance Revival building with an extravagantly decorated interior and, according to the National Register of Historic Places, the finest acoustics in the United States. Plus, the long, shoe-box-shaped design means the people watching is excellent as well.
The first? I was listening to the start of the symphony in my car on the way to attend class at Maine Law. I remember it was winter. I don’t recall what the class was. When I found a space in the law school lot, instead of turning off the radio and hoisting my heavy backpack, I lingered to hear more. And more. Yes, dear readers, I skipped class to listen to the entirety of the 9th Symphony in a running, parked car. One of the early signs, perhaps, that I wasn’t cut out to be an attorney.
How about you, dear reader? Do you have cherished memories of
performances, either classical or not, that you like to revisit?
What a special concert, Julia . . . I do love classical music. At the moment, I get to "attend" my grandson's concerts [my daughter tapes them and then sends me a disc] so that I can enjoy listening to him play his violin . . . .
ReplyDeleteI love that, Joan!
DeleteI love classical music and you are right, when the performance is over, the claps are riveting.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I went to a concert as a young adult, I was shocked at how noisy the appreciation was!
DeleteWhat a treat, Julia. I love the 9th. I need to go to the symphony more often.
ReplyDeleteSymphony Hall is indeed a special place with amazing acoustics, although I have a funny story about it. Years ago I went with with Hugh to a jazz concert there. Three greats, including Herbie Hancock, were playing on stage, and the tickets were expensive. And I fell asleep! After that we agreed he would find someone else to go to jazz concerts with. It's just not my thing.
Jay's comment below about Grieg reminded me of the big set of records of classical music my parents had when I was growing up. I think that's one reason I know so many of the works. Also, when I moved to Boston in the early 80s, Robert J. Lurtsema would play a Bach cantata every Sunday after the eight o'clock news on WGBH. I miss that.
DeleteOh, Edith, I still do miss Robert J on WGBH, lp these many years later.
DeleteAnd he opened his show with a couple of minutes of birdsong at seven, remember? Sigh. Now GBH is all talk and news.
DeleteHaven't they added a separate classical station/channel, Edith? About a decade ago, when MPBN stopped having their classical programming, they opened a new all-music station, Maine Public Classical. I have it on frequently.
DeleteI love classical music, too, and Beethoven is one of my favorite composers. I have a special memory connected to the 9th: sometimes I used to reward my sixth grade class with a movie they had earned through points. (I picked the movies, though.) One year I picked Beethoven Lives Upstairs, a charming telling of when B. rented a room from a teacher and, mad genius style, scribbled his newest composition on the walls. As it turns out, he was writing the 9th. Musicians would come to the house and practice. Then singers. And the protagonist, the landlady's young son, would be listening - as we're my students. The movie was so artfully told that they were totally immersed in the creation of this symphony, including the marvelous "Joyful, joyful ..." finale. When the movie ended, as the credits started scrolling, I got up to turn the movie off. But the students said, Oh, no, leave it on." The credits were scrolling to the music of Beethoven's 7th, that beautiful music played in the triumphant scene of The King's Speech, and they wanted to hear it. So we all listened to it through the credits.
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful experience! I’m sure those students still remember it!
DeleteDebRo
Classical music via movies and cartoons is still a wonderful way to introduce kids! My youngest got interested in hearing live Beethoven after their class watched Immortal Beloved.
DeleteLovely story, Elizabeth. I'm going to look up the movie.
DeleteThe film is available on YouTube.
DeleteJulia, I loved Immortal Beloved!
DeleteDeborah, thanks for the You Tube info for Beethoven Lives Upstairs.
DeleteDeborah, thanks for the You Tube info for Beethoven Lives Upstairs.
DeleteI love classical music. When my parents began to spend their winters in Spain, they gave us their tickets to the theater (Longwharf in New Haven) and the opera for the months they were away. We saw Aida performed at the Hartford Civic Center with elephants. I can't remember if we bought those seats ourselves or if it was one of the shows they gave us.
ReplyDeleteFor the first few years we were together, we had season tickets to see the Harford Symphony with guest performers. Yitzhak Perlman was my favorite. It became more difficult to put it into our schedule and eventually we dropped it in favor of tickets to Harford Stage.
Oh, Judy, you've lived my dream. I love opera, and I long to see the Met's production of Aida, elephants and all.
DeleteOver the years, my husband and I have gone to lots of classical music concerts in Bern, so maybe that's why when I think of a really special performance, I think of the one and only time I saw the Rolling Stones live in concert. Although I listened to their records endlessly as a teenager, I never saw them on stage until 2017, when my husband bought tickets for us and our son Tommy to go to a Stones concert in a stadium in Zürich. We had standing room, so we were surrounded by a mass of people, with the band far away on stage but lots of huge screens all around us showing us close-ups. I didn't experience any crowd fear at all. I just danced and danced to all my old favorites and sang most of them under my breath as well. Peter loved it, too, and to our surprise, Tommy seemed to know the music as well as we did and had a great time. (You never know what is flowing through your kid's headphones, do you?) That concert remains a highlight I won't forget.
ReplyDeleteKim, that sounds like an amazing concert experience! And I'm not surprised about Tommy - my kids listen to a surprising range of music, much more so than I did at their age.
DeleteI'm not really into classical music all that much beyond whatever pieces may be used in movies or TV to help amplify the drama and/or action.
ReplyDeleteThe two main experiences I have with classical music are tied to my love of heavy metal. My favorite band Savatage has a song and album called 'Hall of the Mountain King'. It is based off of the Edvard Grieg piece "In The Hall of the Mountain King". And Trans-Siberian Orchestra (which was born out of Savatage) did a non-Xmas album called 'Beethoven's Last Night' which has a fictional story about the last night of Beethoven's life and incorporates pieces of his work into the music.
I actually own a compilation of Grieg's work that has a recording of "In The Hall of the Mountain King" because of the metal connection.
Here's a clip of Savatage's "Hall of the Mountain King" with its lead-in instrumental "Prelude to Madness" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRU-c0SBbyU
Here's a link to the full Trans-Siberian Orchestra album 'Beethoven's Last Night' - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIYbS9EioRY&list=PLoAEg7BcaNc39a9hZwT8x_WSqna-0up3C
As for reliving performances, it is a bit easier these days because of people who record everything on their cell phones. When I go to a concert, I know that I'll be able to come home and soon find clips or full shows posted on Youtube which will allow me to view the show I was at for as long as the clips stay posted.
We had records of Grieg's music when I was a child, Jay. I know it well!
DeleteJay, my son is into metal and, in particular, Scandinavian metal, so we've had good conversations about the similarities between orchestral and metal music.
DeleteI have not gone to many classical music performances but one stands out.
ReplyDeleteI was in Berlin, West Germany in 1986. Herbert van Karajan was the long-time conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. The audience members were swooning in delight and yes the roar of applause at the end was thunderous.
Grace, you make me think of another item on my classical music bucket list: to hear a concert at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, a city NOT otherwise on my bucket list. The Elbphilharmonie is widely acknowledged to have the best acoustics in the world. And it's a new build, so you know the seats will be comfy, too.
DeleteJay, Grieg is a other favorite composer of mine and my husband's, and I have always liked, "In the Hall of the Mountain King."
ReplyDeleteIt's always on classical stations "top one hundred" lists, Elizabeth!
DeleteMy father loved classical music and always had something playing on the stereo; I particularly remember Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Decades later, my partner took me to a concert where the symphony orchestra brought that piece alive on stage and I was transfixed watching the musicians create that magical soundscape in real time in front of my eyes and ears. I simply loved it.
ReplyDeleteAmanda, have you ever seen the 1981 movie, The Four Seasons? I don't remember much about it, except the exquisite Vivaldi score.
DeleteVivaldi's Four Seasons is def. one of my all-time faves, Amanda. Our local classical station always plays the appropriate season/movement on the equinoxes and the solstices!
DeleteI've been to the symphony a few times and really enjoyed it, but don't remember what I heard. More recently, one of my son's professors suggested that he listen to a few operas (he's doing a PhD in Germanic and French studies). I watched performances of Mozart's Marriage of Figaro and Cosi fan Tutte with Matt this summer and was just blown away by the music, the singing and the performances in general. I think there will be more opera in my future.
ReplyDeleteGillian, those were my entries to opera as well. As an adult, I mean - my parents took me to see Hansel und Gretel as a kid, but I mostly recall the special effect of the witch zipping down a fly line from the back of the theater to the stage.
DeleteWhen I was a senior in college, my then-boyfriend wanted to introduce me to opera and took me to see Marriage of Figaro and Cosi fan Tutti. The music was so gorgeous and they were SO funny! I was hooked. I went through all the light, comic operas, then got into the Big Fat Tragedy operas, and finally... I fell for Wagnerian opera.
Mozart is the gateway drug, for sure.
"In the Hall of the Mountain King" is an excellent addition to a Halloween party playlist, Jay!
ReplyDeleteSo many fun memories. My first-ever symphonic experience was in about the sixth or seventh grade, when we had a field trip to a local performance of Peter and the Wolf to learn about the instruments in the orchestra. I was enthralled. At home we only listened to the local Top 40 station.
Steve's mother learned to play classical piano well into adulthood, and she took me to many Cincinnati Symphony concerts with her. She had a special relationship with Mozart, so when the movie Amadeus came out we took her and my father-in-law to see it. At the end of the movie, when--spoiler alert--Mozart dies, the house lights came up, and Edna was sitting there with tears pouring down her face. I have always hoped she got to meet him, if there's an afterlife. He was her rock star fantasy hero.
And lucky us, Frank and Lise Proto have lived next-door for 35 years and been our very dear friends. Frank was a bassist with CSO for three decades and was and is a famous composer; Lise taught piano performance and conducting at UC's College Conservatory of Music. She had a pair of tickets to every CSO concert, facing the left of the stage so she could watch pianists' hands as they performed (and make eye contact with her honey), and she invited me to share them many times. What a treat, to learn so much at her side. She also taught my two youngest piano while she was still taking a small, select number of students, bless her. Lise used to give private concerts at her home, playing their exquisite grand piano for a few friends. We used to be able to hear her practice, until memory issues slowly stole that ability from her.
What a treat, Karen, to be so close to talented musicians like that, especially ones who were willing to share.
DeleteYou're so right, Edith. They are treasured friends.
DeleteI love this, Karen! Like reading, music is a life-long joy.
DeleteWhat a wonderful experience, Julia! And I so love your memory of listening to the car radio instead of going to class. I know next to nothing about classical music but I am always learning to listen and learn more.
ReplyDeleteI suppose my most cherished memory of a performance was at a Gordon Lightfoot concert in 1982. After just a few songs he left the stage and couldn't continue. Apparently he was having some emotional difficulties with a partner, or ex partner. I was so happy when he was back the following year and that concert was excellent!
Oh, Judi, my husband LOVED Gordon Lightfoot and saw one of his shows back in the early eighties, before we met. Lightfoot's music was so acoustical, and so much about his singular voice; I imagine hearing him live would have been such an experience.
DeleteIf you have not heard the series Classical Kids, I suggest that you listen to them. https://www.susanhammondmusic.com/classical-kids
ReplyDeleteThey are a very compelling introduction to Classical composers. They are videos as well, but let your imagination soar and listen instead.
I hadn't heard of this before, Margo! I love the idea of getting kids into the music before they're old enough to "know" it's "boring"...
DeleteI grew up listening to classical music.My father played classical music on his stereo every Sunday afternoon. We had records of all of the greats but Sibelius was his favorite. Now my husband and I have tickets to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and we have been fortunate enough to get to know some of the musicians. What lovely talented people.
ReplyDeleteAtlanta
I fell in love with Sibelius after learning about how important his music was for his country in resisting "Russification." It's quite a thing to embody the soul and culture of a whole nation!
DeleteJulia ~ I loved seeing the photo of the Boston Symphony Hall you posted on your blog today. It is such a beautiful piece of architecture and indeed its acoustics are remarkable. Living just outside the City of Boston for many years we enjoyed so many wonderful concerts there. For nearly 20 years we attended the Holiday Pops every Christmas season and sat in the top right balcony in the first row overlooking the orchestra on the stage. We preferred that to the tables on the floor where the sound of silverware and clinking glasses often competed with the music. While we've enjoyed many Boston Symphony concerts our favorite concerts were always the Boston Pops, the "lighter" version of the Boston Symphony. We've attended so many of their concerts at Symphony Hall, on the Esplanade at the Hatch Shell during Fourth of July and at Tanglewood in Lenox, MA. The history behind the Boston Pops is fascinating. In 1929 Maestro Arthur Fiedler's dream of introducing classical music to all the people of Boston came true with his first of many decades of free concerts on the Esplanade. He was responsible along with his good friend, businessman David Mugar, of coming up with the idea of ending the outdoor Fourth of July concerts at the Hatch Shell with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture synchronized with fireworks, blasting cannons and Church bells from the Church of the Advent in Boston. (Although many 4th of July outdoor concerts across the country now end their celebration with the same finale Boston was the first to do so thanks to Arthur Fiedler.) They started this tradition in 1974 but the Bicentennial celebration in 1976 was even more amazing when over 400,00 to 500,000 people attended that Fourth of July concert. We rode our bikes in that year and while it was a great piece of history we experienced we nearly suffocated on one of the small canal bridges...there were so many people on the Esplanade. The following years we smartened up and drove in but with half the house...a huge cooler full of food for the day which we ate on china with silverware, several books to read, Christmas cards which I used to get a jump on by addressing the envelopes, a blanket and folding lawn chairs. We picked out the same spot every year for twenty-five years...along one of the lagoons, under a nice shady tree where we would settle in for 12 hours. The sound system became so sophisticated with gigantic speakers stretched along the Esplanade that we did not feel the need to be in front of the Shell every year where there was zero shade and people often became very protective over their chosen spots. Following 9/11 which understandably prompted heavy security, long lines to get on the Esplanade and strict regulations we stopped going to the annual 4th of July concerts. The freedom of hanging out all day from 8:00 in the morning until the fireworks finale at 10:00 at night had lost its glow. But we have been blessed with wonderful memories of knowing that we've seen every conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra to date from Maestros' Arthur Fiedler to John Williams to Keith Lockhart. I'm grateful too that I came to appreciate and love classical music as a result of being introduced to the Boston Pops Orchestra and the phenomenal conductors that have been a part of its rich history.
ReplyDeleteMy father found the Pops concerts on PBS and became a Summer staple for years in our house.
DeleteKait, Cincinnati has lots of wonderful parks, and for many years there was a series of free concerts that circulated through them in turn. Friends would gather on blankets with picnic baskets to listen on warm summer evenings.
DeleteI just realized we no longer have them, and I'm wondering now when they stopped. There are a couple areas with band concerts, but not orchestral ones that I'm aware of.
Keith Lockhart, by the way, got his start as a pops conductor with the Cincinnati Symphony!
DeleteYes indeed...you are right, Karen. Cincinnati was blessed to have Eric Kunzel as a Maestro too. I always loved watching him conduct the National Symphony Orchestra on the Capitol Lawn every National Memorial Day Concert that airs on PBS. He also conducted the National Symphony Orchestra every Fourth of July, too. We grew so used to watching him each Memorial Day from 1991 until he passed in 2009 that it took awhile to get used to the present conductor Maestro Jack Everly. Who is wonderful, too. When Keith Lockhart joined the Boston Pops after John Williams stepped down some of us were skeptics. Here comes this fellow only in his mid-thirties replacing the incredible John Williams who was twice his age with an impressive resume a mile long and everyone went whoa! But he won all of us Bostonians over with his engaging personality and charm and it's been great having him here for nearly 30 years. Bostonians can be tough accepting changes. :)
DeleteWhat amazing memories, Evelyn! I love the camping out for the Pops concert with the good china and the Christmas cards - that's got to go in a book somewhere.
DeleteEvelyn, Keith was an eligible bachelor here, and his youth injected a lighter touch than Kunzel's for the Pops. We were sad to lose him, but very proud that Boston felt he was up to their exacting standards!
DeleteOh that would be a gas, Julia! I'd love that!
DeleteKaren ~ Yes...Youth has a way of changing things up a bit...for the better. Arthur Fiedler was a true perfectionist and traditionalist and John Williams was...well...JOHN WILLIAMS...truly delightful with a bit of Hollywood glam and then in comes Keith Lockhart with his young and creative ways. Despite two dynamic personalties with ideas of their own following behind a very disciplined Arthur Fiedler they respected his memory and neither conductor ever "messed with" Fiedler's traditional Santa Sing-a-long that took place during every Holiday Pops concert each year for decades. It's hard to believe that young bachelor maestro is now 64 with three marriages under his belt. Wow...I feel old!
DeleteDeana ~ Thank heavens for PBS...They have given all of us so much entertainment and enlightenment over the years.
DeleteI'd forgotten you were an attorney, Julia!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was three or four my dad took me to see The Magic Flute in the old Met in New York. It was, well, magical. My dad was a huge opera fan and he wanted to share that love with me. I remember he spent days telling me the libretto and showing me pictures in various books and programs. My grandparents were German speaking so the language was familiar. This was before supertitles, of course. When I was older, and lived in Miami, I had tickets to the philharmonic, opera, and ballet. I trace that love of music and drama back to that first performance of The Magic Flute.
I've mostly forgotten I was an attorney, too, Kait!
DeleteI'm convinced there's one particular experience that sets people on the road to opera and/or classical music. Mozart seems to be it in a LOT of stories, including mine. (The Marriage of Figaro and Cosi fan Tutti.)
Julia, I didn't grow up listening to classical music, but years ago I had season tickets with a group of friends for several years to the ballet. The marriage of beautiful music with dance/costume/spectacle was always a thrill. But my best musical performance memories are much closer to home. Older nephew, at the age of 11, heard a fellow student playing a classical piece of piano music at school--he's been playing classical only ever since--and luckily I have videos of his recitals and just moments at home playing for the love of the music. I have videos of performances by youngest nephew also--he's written three plus albums of outlaw/Americana country music. My favorite memory is of his first paid gig at a bar/restaurant in a nearby town. The owner introduced him and the patrons sitting at the bar turned around. One guy smirked to his friends at the sight of this skinny young man in his ballcap, sweatshirt, jeans, and a guitar, then the music started. Wish I had a framed photo of the way the guy's mouth dropped open when Walker began to sing!
ReplyDeleteI love it, Flora! Every amazing musician started with performing at home recitals/local bar/school. You never know when you might hear one of them!
DeleteMy most memorable musical performance was when we were at the Grand Ol’ Opry and Charlie Daniels made a surprise appearance to play “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”. It was just a few years before he died and he could barely walk out on the stage, but he could still make that fiddle sing. It was AMAZING!
ReplyDeleteOh, my gosh, Brenda. My husband would have died on the spot, he'd have been so excited.
DeleteMargo, your comment about the cathedrals reminds me of the trumpet and organ rehearsal we wandered into on the Ile de la Citie in Paris years ago. The acoustics were splendid.
ReplyDeleteI love this! Oh, my father was the music critic for the old Chicago Daily News, and took me to concerts with him beginning when I was way too young to go. (One of his favorite stories was when a man turned around in his seat to tell me to shush during a symphony performance--and the man was Yul Brynner. Can you imagine?) And after my dad retired from his second career as a cultural affairs officer in the foreign service, he taught a course in Beethoven's Ninth, and another in the music of Mozart, at Georgetown University. SO. I have a lot of history with classical music,and still adore it. But agree, there is nothing like the ninth.
ReplyDeleteAnd now we know the title of your autobiography, Hank: SHUSHED BY YUL BRYNNER: THE HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN STORY.
DeleteSerendipity, Julia! This is the first time during the September Deaf Awareness Month that any Deaf person was mentioned. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteYes, Beethoven became deaf at the age of 25 and he composed music. I dated a man who introduced me to Beethoven after I got my cochlear implant. I enjoy the sounds of Beethoven.
Speaking of my most memorable performances, I remember watching a tv programme - A Child's Christmas in Wales with Bernard Bragg (from National Theater of the Deaf) signing stories and Sir Michael Redgrave (father of Lynn Redgrave, Vanessa Redgrave and Colin Redgrave).
Grew up in a musical family (music range from classical to folk) and I remember seeing my relatives singing. A relative was in a band and one of her bandmates played the spoons. She taught me how to create music with spoons and that was fun.
Diana, I mention above that Youngest got into Beethoven after watching the movie Immortal Beloved, which deals with the composer's deafness. The climax of the film is Beethoven conducting the 9th. It intercuts from the experience of the hearing audience to the silence in his point of view. Instead, he experiences it as a written thing: he took the music with him. It does a great job of not making his deafness a tragedy.
DeleteMy most magical performance was in a church in our local town of Alexandria ON. Every year the high school band would play their year-end concert at the Sacre Coeur church. The church had really good acoustics compared to those around and they generously donated the place for 2 nights. The event was a fundraiser for the band, and very few people paid less than the entrance fee. (All kids were given their instruments free for that year).
ReplyDeleteThe band teacher should have been with a symphony. He demanded only the best from his kids both musically and personally. They all needed to be spit spot – white shirts and black pants. Their instruments must be polished and tuned. They all would walk in, and take their seats on the stage. He would enter, dressed in a tux, and they all would stand for his entrance. Silence descended, and then he would strike the baton, and they would start “Free Spirit”. You could hear the pride in the kids and the pride and anticipation in the mostly parental audience.
The best acoustics in the church were just past the midway mark next to the columns. That was where I sat, annoying the other parents who thought I should be up-front, but knowing my daughter with her alto sax-a-ma-phone knew that I could always see her, but now was the time to hear her.
Friday night was wonderful. It was the usual mix of good music, Big Band, a bit of Jazz, and many contemporary songs. It was the time of Hockley Night in Canada, Beatles medleys and maybe a bit of Star Wars. Saturday should have been a replay of Friday night, but with the kids playing a bit more relaxed and now able to have fun with the music.
Mr V came out and said there was to be a selection on the soprano sax. This was his personal instrument and very few others ever got to play it. A chair was put out front on the stage. The lights dimmed, and all the rest of the band held their instruments in the darkness. My daughter (unbeknownst to me) crossed the stage and sat down – alone. She picked up the sax and played the first note of MacArthur Park – my favourite piece of contemporary music. Such a silence descended on the church as to deafening. Eventually there was a roar of applause such as I had never heard!
I was not the only person who cried.
Margo, and now I'm crying, and pretty sure I'm not alone. What a lovely moment.
DeleteMy grandson plays alto sax, but his only solos were brief.
Oh my goodness, Margo - is someone chopping onions in here?
DeleteHow wonderful! There are several non-profits in our area that support the development of musical appreciation: ComfiKids.org based in Foxboro that provides financial assistance for low-income children to participate in recreational sports and arts enrichment programs to pursue their interests and develop confidence* and MusicDrivesUs.org - Ernie Bock Jr.'s organization that supplies grants to music programs designed to effect positive change for people of all ages. *One young boy now plays trumpet with the Children's Boston Symphony Orchestra!
DeleteI started singing in the church choir in third (or fourth) grade. I SANG in the choir. In ninth grade we moved across town and I choose chorus as my elective class. I had been singing for fives my then and was selected for the Honor Chorus. I SANG in the choruses and church choir until I went to college, after that it was just church choir. I never studied music, never had voice lessons, I just sang. I loved it.
ReplyDeleteIn college I had the opportunity to attend a Count Basie concert. Loved it. My uncle wanted to attend Brahms Requiem for his 65th birthday with the San Francisco symphony. It was marvelous. But in the middle of concert I realized that I was listening to a section that I last sang with my mother and sister at the memorial service of our beloved organist It was the last piece we ever sang together.
Deana, what a lovely story. I'm a singer too, also largely untrained, and I know the power it has. Isn't it amazing how many memories and emotions are caught up in music?
DeleteThank you, Julia, for reminding me how much I love classical music, and the 9th in particular. For years I had season tickets to the symphony and the opera, but stopped both for one reason or another, life interferred... Also, we have pretty good speakers in our kitchen, and on Sunday afternoons I used to put the 9th on while I was doing Sunday chores, but somehow I got out of that habit, too. That one should be resurrected! What a joyful way to start the week!
ReplyDeleteLast fall I took my daughter to her first ever opera, Tosca, here in Dallas, and we had a great time. I'm going to see if she's up for another performance this year! The Dallas Opera is doing La Boheme in the winter--everyone should see at least one performance of Boheme!
Oh, absolutely, Debs! That opera has more "hits" than a best-of album.
DeleteMargo, you've got to give live performance a try, if only to experience the difference in acoustics. Especially for "big" pieces - it's amazing.
ReplyDeleteI was privileged to attend Beethoven's 9th in Florence, Italy. It was performed outside in the Piazza della Repubblica. It was amazing!
ReplyDeleteThat sounds like a once-in-a-lifetime experience, Gretchen!
DeleteI love all live theater - symphony, plays, musicals, dance and even opera. In fact, I used to have season tickets to the opera in the before times (i.e. children) and I still remember my amazement at a rendition of Carmen set against a cigar making factory in Cuba. It was fantastic.
ReplyDeleteCarmen was an early fave of mine because a SEXY movie version of the opera came out in '84. Hwoo!
DeleteI so enjoy classical music! (And live theatre) somehow the habit of going to symphony has waned, still love the music. Of course Beethoven ‘s 9th is a favorite and many others Mendelssohn’s Symphony #3 and so on. Now it is all on my phone auto enjoy at will.
ReplyDeleteI get most of mine delivered via Alexa these days, Anon. At the price for tickets, live performance is a rare treat, alas.
DeleteMargo, live concerts are wonderful. Magical. Everything you've enjoyed so far, taken to the next dimension.
ReplyDeleteI tried to comment earlier and Blogger said, "No."
ReplyDeleteThe Hubby is not really a symphony fan - he likes classical music, but isn't into the experience of attending a live concert.
But we did go to hear Tony Bennett play in Heinz Hall, which has amazing acoustics. He turned the sound system off and you could hear him clearly in every part of the hall.
We attended Tony Bennett's last show here in Worcester, MA at the Hanover theater in April, 2017. Bennett finished the night with “Fly Me To The Moon (In Other Words),” astonishing everyone in the theatre by finishing the song without a microphone.
DeleteI adore Tony Bennett. I loved his later duets with young pop singers. I am in awe with how long his voice lasted, and the subtle ways he used interpretation to cover up any diminution in range.
DeleteI think when we saw him it was right around his 80th birthday. Still going strong. And yes, I've loved his duets with the younger singers.
DeleteI loved the wild and crazy cartoons of the 1950's that exposed me to classical music. Today, I am very tuned into the music played in the background of all movies and TV shows. Boston's Symphony Hall is a marvelous venue where I have enjoyed the Boston Pops several times as well as at Tanglewood.
ReplyDeleteWhat first comes to mind when I think of memorable performances is one by Harry Connick, Jr. who brought New Orleans music and traditions to the Providence Performing Arts Center. That same venue also hosted Steven Tyler (just him) which in my opinion was his best performance ever.
For my most memorable music experience, I need to go back to the mid-1970's when I attended engineering classes in Chicago. One night, several of us ventured out to a small, dark venue to hear Michel LeGrand on the piano. How moving! Later, I would expand my appreciation for music with his compositions for both Broadway and movies: Les Misérables and Miss Saigon. Legrand won his first Oscar for the song "The Windmills of Your Mind" from The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), and additional Oscars for Summer of '42 (1971) and Barbra Streisand's Yentl (1983). My next trip to Broadway will be to see Audra McDonald once again as she is in rehearsals to star in a revival of Gypsy!
Alicia, your mention of "The Windmills of Your Mind" instantly threw me back to my mother's Johnny Mathis album. I must have listened to that a hundred times as a kid ( I guess we all do pick up some of our musical loves from our parents, huh?)
DeleteAnd... I just discovered Johnny Mathis is alive and IS STILL FREAKING TOURING at age 88!!!
DeleteI heard the Ninth first as a child in the Toscanini recording, and was lost forever. Although I went to many concerts at Symphony Hall, and was lucky enough to sing (in the chorus, not as a soloist) in the Mozart Requiem there, I never heard the Ninth there. But I heard the Eroica there. Wonderful. Thank you for starting this thread.
ReplyDeleteThe Episcopal church in our small Texas Hill Country town hosts a sing-along of Handel's Messiah. A few soloists are at the front with some professional musicians in the parish. Each person in the pews chooses a voice to follow and then all sing in a glorious melding of sound. I had tears in my eyes by the end, it was so magnificent! I'd better check to see if they'll do it again this coming December....
ReplyDeleteWonderful!
DeleteThere I was, a small town girl from way upstate NY ( a hick, really) in my freshman year in college. In Boston. (But I'd grown up watching classical music concerts on tv) We were at the famed Boston Symphony Hall. Guest orchestra was NY PHILHARMONIC. Conducted by ( yes, you guessed it!) Leonard Bernstein. And a friend in our group, a local girl, said, "At intermission I can take us to the green room and meet the orchestra." And that is how I shook Leonard Bernstein's hand and told him how much I'd loved hearing Mahler for the first time. Some memories are cherished for a lifetime.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was in high school, our music teacher had a group that went to see the Philadelphia Orchestra on a weeknight; it was a concert for only students from various schools around the area. They were held 3 or 4 times a year, and were free, I think, since I don't remember having to pay for them. Eugene Ormandy was still the conductor, and he used to talk to us about the music before they played, helping us understand what the composer was trying to say. I know that I heard the Ninth there, as well as other great music.
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