Date Night Part Deux

The evening’s performance was both utterly bewildering (Adams - Violin Concerto, feat. Leila Josefowicz, soloist) and wonderfully invigorating (Shostakovich - Symphony No. 5). I don’t listen to a whole lot of classical music, but listening to Shostakovich usually makes me feel like I just got my ass kicked. This one was surprisingly carefree, even the militant parts were on the gentler side, and somewhere in the middle of either the second or third movement I actually had visions of butterflies on a grassy hilltop in May.

Now the John Adams piece... I could try to listen to it a bunch of times, read interpretations of the piece and really get to know and appreciate it. But I probably won’t.

Here are some excerpts of Adam’s description of the piece from the program notes, contrasted with my “interpretation”:

…(Adams) describes the first movement as "a long, extended rhapsody for the soloist, a free, fantastical 'endless melody,'" under which the orchestra maintains a steady rhythmic pulse through which its own melodic ideas are conveyed.

My interpretation: “What in the HELL is this? An epileptic child having a seizure while chasing a rabid frog is less random than this music…okok..must focus and appreciate. Focusing….listening…appreciating … ah f**k it, it’s no use. Does Leila Josefowicz know that her shoes don’t match her dress?

About (the second) movement Adams says, "It produces some deeply disturbing events. It is like some piece of kinetic sculpture or a clock that normally functions in a regular, predictable, reassuring, comforting manner, over and over again to the point where one is almost lulled to sleep. Then it suddenly begins to go awry, starts going into very strange modal areas, starts to experience arrhythmia, begins to behave in a dreamlike, irrational manner. It becomes Salvador Dali's clock."

My interpretation: “OMG, they actually took that bizzaro first movement and made it worse?!? How is this possible? And those chimes!! They’re like the stereotypical sound of death at a funeral in a movie. Must bite the inside of my cheeks and dig my fingernails into the palms of my hands to cause enough pain to prevent me from erupting in maniacal laughter. This music has obviously driven me mad.”

The final movement … rushes headlong like a rollercoaster in and out of light and darkness; it never pauses to allow the soloist, orchestra or audience to catch their breath, but its relentless pace, laced with a thrill of danger and uncertainty, rivets our attention right through to the end.

My interpretation: "YES!! They’re FINALLY attempting to play actual music. The first part must have been the warm-up. I’m glad they finally got started. Whoops. They’ve stopped playing. It must be over. I wonder if it holds the record for shortest symphony ever composed."

I come to realize that I must be horribly ignorant about classical music to not have enjoyed the GENIUS of this performance. And it’s not lost on me that it must be REALLY REALLY HARD to play this piece, even though it sounds remarkably similar to any performance by my sixth-grade honor orchestra group. Hmmm.