Wednesday, March 30, 2005

Third Symphony

Philharmonic Winds - Death and Life

I shall only comment about Third Symphony since I was essentially only interested in hearing it. In fact, that's one of the main reasons why I even attended this concert.

1. To see Dr. Alan Lourens conduct.
2. To hear his interpretation of Third Symphony.
3. To hear Natalie and Rachel play.

Third was good but it was also in way, disappointing. It's not that they played badly or what but rather, I'm disappointed with Lourens' interpretation.

The first movement started off nicely. The solos were all good; the build-up to the bursting point was nicely done. In fact, I really likee the modulation (or was it release?) at the climax.

Second movement wasn't that good. The playing wasn't as tight as I would have like it. The saxophones were rather untidy in their soli section; something which I thought wasn't really difficult at all!

There were really beautiful solos in the third movement. The flow of the whole movement was however, very disappointing. You have players who play beautiful solos and the man at the helm of it, the conductor, spoils everything with his failure to stitch everything up smoothly. Yibin thinks that he probably didn't experience any emotional pain in his life before and I agree.

Mesto is filled with so many emotions: pain, sorrow, bitterness and even anger.

This is a movement where you allow your feelings to flow, not allowing any humps! The music felt like you're traveling down a straight road with humps between the different sections.

Fourth movement started off brilliantly. There were parts where I felt the trumpets could have played out more. They sounded rather constrained, trying hard to blend in instead of playing out at times when they should be! This shows especially when the trombones echo their calls much louder than the trumpets did.

A general observation: The mallet choices were horrible! Don't they have any softer sticks? I was quite irritated by the hard and loud mallet sound throughout the entire symphony.

This concert concludes with me not having a high opinion of Lourens as before. I previously quite impressed by him. As Yibin puts it, the Third tells whether a conductor is good or not.

Rachel
You had really improved a lot since the last time I heard you! Sheesh, I feel old now that the younger generation is catching up on me! It's time to chiong! Long tones, James Brown, scales, LTCL, here I come!

Natalie
I think you say meh nicer than your oboe sound.

Okay, I'm kidding. You're doing fine for your level so continue to work hard!

A part of advice for the both of you: Burn your Lorees! Haha! =P
fjozn at 11:26 AM