I was just looking back through some of my posts and noticing how I had commented on a couple concerts from a couple major ensembles at Olaf (namely Band and Choir), but somehow I missed giving Ole Orchestra a review [I'm thinking that's because I missed their concert last spring]. I'm going to try and keep it brief, as I have work to do, but last night's concert was simply stunning. Maybe part of it was the fact that I was seeing some of my friends in the ensemble for the first time in about 10 days, or maybe it was their choice of piece, but I was loving pretty much every minute of it. [OK, I was less than impressed on Michael Torke's Bright Blue Music, but it reflected more on the composition itself rather than the performance in the fact that it stayed in exactly one key for about 6-7 minutes.]
The last two bits of music--the fourth movement of Peter Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6 in B minor (Adagio lamentoso) and the encore, whatever it was--really got me thinking, kind of like one of those time-life memories/reflections that I'm trying to make sense of. But part of it may have been related to an earlier event, one that happened during the third movement. As the program notes say, "surprisingly, the typical Tchaikovsky finale comes [in the third movement rather than the fourth]. This third movement is a sonatina, or sonata that skips development of the theme for the sake of hearing the catchy theme a few more times." So I was listening to what should have been the final movement, i.e. really uppity and exciting. But the development (no pun intended) that occurred in the seats just a mere few rows in front of me showed an elderly but still agile man running down the aisle and out the door, presumably to the bathroom. I figured he had an emergency of some sort, like he needed to use the toilet or throw up or something. So I was kind of praying that he was going to be alright. As a result, that may have played into how I listened to the somber fourth movement. I was kind of praying that he wasn't about to die.
Well, fortunately he wasn't. In fact, after the concert ended he appeared to be talking in happy spirits at the end, so I then figured it was nothing big. I found out later exactly what happened from a friend who happened to be sitting right in front of the group of elderly people. She told me that someone had fainted and the guy was running down to get help. I did notice that sometime towards the end of the third movement that a couple other people were walking an elderly woman down the aisle and out of the room, so I wondered if the several events were tied together.
Basically my only complaint of the evening is that I felt the audience was too noisy. Aside from the aforementioned incident, there were a lot of noisy crashes in the stands, as if something had fallen. And the worst part is, most of the noises seemed to come during the quiet parts of the concert.
Aside from that, it was all good. I was glad to hear such quality playing on pretty much everyone's part. Luke (bassoon) and Aria (violin) did a great job on their solos, and each section blended well with each other. But enough raving from me for now. I must get back to work.
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