I did not
attend the symphony orchestra on October 5th played in Ford Hall on
Ithaca College campus. Although, I did watch the web stream online and it may
not have been as good on sound quality but my review and thoughts can be
written and told to you as my first and initial reaction. To start off, I am
going to admit I am not a musical person. I played piano and the violin but I never
did exceptionally well or had enough interest to continue and better myself.
What I can say is that this orchestra was amazing. I have never seen or heard
much like this, I figured it would be equated to my middle school concerts and I
can now assure you it cannot. The orchestra was large in size and filled with
many musicians that were talented. I found it very amusing to watch the conductor
throughout the whole time to see his gestures and what impact they had made on
the musicians playing. Like I said before, I am not musically inclined but when
listening to this music I can’t help but visualize scenes happening in my head
or relating these pieces to real life.
The first piece
was written by Gutierrez and I feel as though it started off the concert well.
The music being played was eerie and mysterious. It reminded me of scary movies
when suspenseful parts play. The instruments would be soft and light at times, kind of stable and
constant and then they would become bold and loud, bringing me on the edge of
my seat. It also reminded me of cartoons that don’t play music, like Tom and
Jerry. The music played sporadically got louder and quieter and I felt as
though they could be sound effects to gestures a person could make. Since this
was the opening number I was amazed at the way the groups of instruments were
really together on movements of their bows and instruments. It made it visually
appealing for me to watch. I also paid close attention to the conductor and it
was amusing to see his gestures toward a certain instrument and how the song
would be influenced by it. For example he conducts regularly at one point and
all of a sudden swiftly thrusts downward in a certain direction to a certain group
of instruments and they reply with a bold loud noise. The interaction between
the conductor and musician was especially interesting for me to watch since I am
a visual person. It is kind of like when a child bounces a ball or hits something
just to watch what happens to it. The conductor was the child directing those
around him and I was the one being able to watch what happened as a result of
his movements.
Jolivet had
composed the second part of the concert and I found this music to be more
upbeat with a faster tempo. I especially enjoyed watching and hearing the bassoon
player. To begin with, she had a certain spunk to the way she looked. With her
blue hair and edgy dress she looked like she was ready for a performance and
boy could she play. I had never been familiar with the bassoon but even though I
don’t know how it sounds normally, she was exceptional. The music she played
was very upbeat and fast moving which I think caught me off guard the most. When
looking at the instrument it seems like it would be large and low pitched but
it turns out it ranges from low to high and everything in between. It’s safe to
say that her solo was my favorite part about the whole concert. The second half
of the music by Jolivet was slower. It brought me emotions of sadness and
depression in a way. You know in movies when a character is sad and they’re
looking out a window as its raining outside? That is what I pictured in my head
the whole time and I thought it would be a fitting scene for this music. I did
notice that the conductors arms stopped being full of energy and started to
slow down with graceful and gradual movements which also showed the speed of
the song and helped to see what the musicians should have been doing. The music
did get louder at the end of the piece which I thought was interesting and made
it more of a dramatic ending to a continually slow paced piece.
The last
part of the concert was written by Shostakovich. The beginning of it reminded
me of music they would play during a royal ball. My favorite part was when it would
get really quiet with only one type of instrument playing and then all of a
sudden a lot of instruments would come in as a bold statement. What I didn’t like
about this piece was it was very slow a lot of times so it was hard to hold my
attention. Although, toward the end the tempo did pick up and it got faster and
more dramatic which I liked. My favorite part was when there was a constant
noise like a long stroke of the bow on strings and other instruments plucked. I
think it sounded different than the other music performed during this concert
which made it intriguing to me. What also made it interesting is that it would
sound very upbeat and suspenseful, scary, intense and magical and then it would
sound slow and sad or heavy. It was an interesting blend of different types of
sound and it was exciting to hear. Once again, the piece ended in a very
dramatic, loud and upbeat way which was intense and amazing. I thought it was a
perfect ending. Although this one was the longest, it was also my favorite. It
blended together many different types of tempos and loudness which made an impact
on me as a listener.
After
watching this concert I can say I am thoroughly impressed by this concert. You
can tell a lot of time and effort was put into it and the music was interesting
to listen to even over a long period of time. I thought the musicians were very
talented and this does not compare by any means to my middle school orchestra concerts.
It was lively and entertaining and brought different moods to me as a listener
which I think exactly is the purpose of music. It’s supposed to make you feel
something as you listen to it and that is exactly what this whole concert did
for me.
If you want to watch the concert on for yourself:
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