and the crowd goes wild!

I'm looking forward to a work-filled week (as in..."I have work to do," not "I'll get a lot of work done"), but Buddy and I spent the weekend with my family to celebrate my dad's birthday, and upon returning we enjoyed the opening weekend of the new season with the La Jolla Symphony & Chorus.

What a way to kick off a season titled "Stravinsky Circus" (and spend Sunday afternoon)! Steven Schick (of red fish blue fish fame) conducted the performance, which itself was subtitled "The French Composer." It was everything I expected of LJSC...including the usual from the horns, but that's OK.

We started off with a short piece by Stravinsky that was my least favorite. I'm too simple-minded to be able to appreciate music without a clean, graspable melody. So by that standard, Symphonies of Wind Instruments was out (though it did remind me of just how lovely clarinets can sound).

Then we moved on to a Debussy piece titled...it's too long to remember what it's titled. But we had a special guest performer to play the harp, and I am convinced that when I have mastered the trumpet and the guitar, my next instrument is going to be the harp. It is a hulking instrument but it is so lovely (visually and sonically), and it has such a special place in my heart. It has such a warm sound...and the Debussy piece was lovely (and lovelily played).

The Mother Goose Suite was also lovely, a perfect rise and fall of movements. What do I remember from it...? Maybe I remember the bassoon and oboe here too, or maybe that was the whole performance...I think the entire performance I came to appreciate the un-sexy instruments, the ones that the relatively quiet, uncool kids play in middle school. (I was one of them.)

Everybody's favorite was The Rite of Spring, and it certainly deserved a standing O at the end. I think I was expecting something crazy and unpalatable (like the first piece of the program), but in fact it was so well put/pulled together, with the pieces falling gracefully into place. Schick was doing his usual swishing on the podium, and there was so much energy in the performance. I wished I knew more technical terms to describe the piece and the performance, but I must say, I really enjoyed it.

(I did fall asleep during The Rite of Spring, but that doesn't mean I couldn't hear it...I am known to fall asleep even at loud concerts. Apparently not even The Rite of Spring could stop me.)