A night at the Symphony

Jeremie and I, along with our friends Laura, Marquita, and Brian, purchased a 4 show pass for the Phoenix Symphony this year. It was kind of pricey ($80 per person), but that equals about $20 per show, which is not that bad of a price when you consider how much theatre or the like tickets run nowadays!!

Our first show was back in fjlrjkejl and was Beethoven's 9th symphony (the one with Ode to Joy in it!) and was amazing. Like, for real amazing. When the chorus started belting out the climax of the final movement I really felt like jumping out of my seat. I felt like my mother wanting to get out of the van to run across a flowered meadow on the way to the grand canyon... that's how good it was!

Anyhoo... last night was the Eight Seasons. The conductor, Michael Christie who does this funny butt dance sometimes when he is really into the conducting of a piece, paired Vivaldi's 4 seasons, with Piazzolla's 4 Seasons of Buenos Aires. It's kind of like classical 17th century baroque music meeds a dirty, sultry mash up of classical music and tango. IT WAS UNBELIEVABLE!!!

First we had dinner at Hanny's downtown which is starting to make some major blips on our favorite restaurant radar. It has great food and great style and the amount of pretension is just right. It is a nice occasion restaurant, but you don't feel like you have to make a million dollars to not be sneered at. =) I had to include this picture becuase it is too freakin cool! Here is a picture of their coat room:

It has a glass floor so you can see down to the levels below. =)

The concert didn't include the whole symphony because Vivaldi wrote his 4 Seasons before the concept of the symphony was created. It only included the strings and a harpsacord... which is the first time I have ever heard a harpsacord live! =) Because of the smaller group of musicians the concert was held at the Orpheum downtown instead of symphony hall. If you haven't been there... the Orpheum is GORGEOUS!! Here are some pictures...





As I said before... there were two pieces mashed into one: Vivaldi and Piazzolla. The Vivaldi was nice, but the Piazzolla was AMAZING!! Very different music like I said. The Vivaldi had some hoity toidy soloist that teaches at Yale... that SUCKED! I know nothing about the violin or violin performance, but I know that this guy was trash! He played a bit out of tune and his bow squeaked up and down the strings as he struggled to not butcher some incredibly difficult violin solos. He wasn't very successful. The Piazzolla, on the other hand, had this soloist named Karen Gomyo that BLEW MY MIND!! She was playing these really intense tango rythms and employing some really crazy techniques like playing ugly notes on purpose below the bridge and slapping her hand on the board to make a percussion sound. She was snaking her head and body in time with the music. At times she seemed angry at the music and was spanking her violin (a rare "Ex Faulis" Stradavarius from 1703 BTW) with her bow to teach it a lesson. At one point she had broken several strings on her bow and without missing a beat she ripped off the broken strings of the bow and continued her masterful performance!! I was breathless watching and I keep making typos now because I am so excited remembering how amazing she was!!!!!

We have had such an amazing time thus far (2 more shows to go... Mozart's Requiem and American Masters) that we have already decided to buy the same for next year. Y'all should buy tickets and come with us!!! Let me know if you want to join and I will le you know when we buy tickets again! =)