How Special is a Concert!

Sunday, January 20, 2008
Coyoacán

Maybe it's just that I've been harboring - no nurturing - a deep yearning for good classical, preferably symphonic, music for ages now. So there was just a bit more I wanted to say about last night's fabulous concert, since it really was the highlight of that very special day. Now, the Sala Nezahualcóyotl is no small affair! It is, in fact, reputed to be the greatest concert hall in Latin America, and renowned especially for its fabulous acoustics. Let me try and describe it quickly so you can sit yourself down by my side. No, actually, let me get a picture of it for you so you can see for yourself. There, see it up above (I love this blog!) That's only the central area of the orchestra pit, part of a much larger space extending way back and up behind the field of this picture. But the most striking part, for me, you can see in this picture, and that's the glittery arrangement of faceted panels suspended directly above the orchestra pit. No doubt highly instrumental in creating that sumptuous acoustic resonance. Visually, it so reminded me of the deadly underneath portals of those huge alien ships in Independence Day - a bit disconcerting at first! (let's see if I can find you a picture of that!)



There! - am I imagining some uncanny resemblance, or what!
Anyway, the feeling was there - though not at all one of imminent anihilation! Just the intensely smart chaneling of sound energy. Those shiny mirrored panels also looked like someone took the bottom section of a vast disco mirror-ball and separated out the pieces to hang them separately as if the ball were exploding!

So, see the elevated tiers of balcony seating behind and around the stage. Well, that's me on the right in the front row (for US$6.50 remember!) I was looking right down onto the orchestra, so that - with the piano over to the left - not good to see the keyboard, but Mr. Mikhail Rudy was framed perfectly between the grand piano's lid and its support. Amazing to actually see not only the pianist head-on, but the actual workings of the inside of the piano - now that's a first for me! - and besides, it meant that the sound was just radiating straight up to me from those piano strings. Awsome!

Now all this is about the Bartok, No 3 by the way! Could there be a more ethereal, enchanting piano concerto ever?! Especially from the second-to-third movement when, out of a grounding of the most delicately soulful gentleness emerges a first puppy-playful and then just plain delicious love dance between the small orchestra and the piano, as passionate and gripping as anything you could imagine hearing on such a respectable stage. And the program says Bartok died - penniless and broken, in New York - just a few bars short of completing the final orchestration! Well, you could just die and go to heaven from hearing such heavenly music! - or I could! And as if that wasn't enough...the audience's rousing, stand-up ovation finally brought Mr Rudy back for an encore. A Chopin Nocturne, I'm sure it was - maybe No 4? - for more pure delight dripping from heaven in fragrant liquid crystals of bliss!

I guess you've figured out - I really enjoyed the concert!! Oh, and after intermission, the second half of the program was Brahms Symphony No 4 - quintessential XIX Century passion and pomp! Love it!
What a wonderful gift a fine concert is - just a plain ol' classical symphony concert!
Cultures and civilizations produce all sorts of stuff, don't we - from art and monuments and prosperity, to war, injustice and ... toxic waste. I always felt the orchestra was one of the great achievements of Western culture - all pompous and bourgeois though it may be!