Fun at the local Symphony

[ApolloFC]

I strongly recommend any of you to check out your local symphony.

I went to the Greensboro Symphony last night and had an absolute blast. Its so different watching a symphony versus a metal show but equally entertaining. With the symphony I found it difficult to watch the show because there were so many people to watch - the solo/duet violins (1st and 2nd chair I'm assuming for harmony), the conductor who also played, then you have the double basses.... the instrumentation and harmony is crazy. I was actually thinking briefly during Vivaldi's Four seasons "fuck metal! this is awesome!". I actually found myself headbanging to one of the pieces.

Not just that but the acoustics of the place were fantastic. Having played on the same stage before with my concert band I never realized what it sounded like way out on the balcony. Everything was so well balanced and this was without microphones/amps aside from recording purposes. It was like you were listening to them at your computer at home.

If your a student the prices are either $5 or $10 compared to a $22-$40 price range for every show they put on.. and they do the same show on a thursday and saturday at two different locations... that is with the Greensboro Symphony anyway.


Everybody in the crowd seemed to know the pieces played last night. I'd compare them to say Helloween's future world or Iron Maiden's Number of the beast in terms of familiarity. While I didn't recognize this first one by title I did recognize the music.. and note that this is just like 2 minutes of 10 minute piece or so










With vivaldi you may be more familiar with the first 3 minutes of the piece.. but jump to 7:14 and that was like the "hell yeah!" section of the piece... and thats just for this movement.

2 hours of an epic show and I saw gods on strings ... all for a price of 5 bucks lol.

 

[J-Dubya 777]

When I lived in IL, I used to go to the Chicago SYmphony Orchestra a couple times a year. I got hooked when the first time I went, they played some newly composed "experimental" piece that reminded me a lot of Zappa's orchestral music.... Then there's always claiisical guitar guests.....

 

[SkiBumMSP]

I try to go to the symphony a couple of times per year up at the Strathmore Music Hall in Bethesda, MD. An absolutely beautiful facility, with incredible acoustics. The National Philharmonic and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra plays there. The weekend right before leaving for Aspen, I went to an "All Tchaikovsky". They played several pieces including the Romeo and Juliet Suite and the 1812 Overture. For the 1812 Overture, they actually had these two huge stacks of subs on each side of the stage for the cannon shots. Holy crap, that was on hell of a performance! Also seen Stravinsky's Rite of Spring performed there. Talk about "progressive classical" if I every heard it. Lots of crazy, technical moments through that piece. Hell, when that was first debuted in 1913, a riot broke out at the music hall! How bad-ass is that? I keep thinking that if some of these classical composers were still alive today, they would be composing Metal! The one performance that really blew me away is when I saw Holst The Planets performed there. Mars, Bringer of War is still one of my most favorite classical pieces of all time. So, when I saw there was going to be a performance - I was on the first train I can get up there to see it!

Glad to hear others on here are also going to and enjoying the symphony. Gives me much more appreciation for things like what Nightwish are doing as well and even bands like Susypre, which takes a lot of inspiration from the great classical works incorporated into their music.

 

[LunaTEKKE]

I go to the Phoenix Symphony at least a few times a year...the last time was a couple of weeks ago seeing Dvorak's "New World Symphony", which has obviously influenced many modern-day film composers. (Guess who completely ripped of the opening notes?)



Newbies will probably want to check out the program, and maybe sample some of the music before committing, as I find some of the more modern stuff extremely painful to listen to. I think some of the better ones to start out with are Vivaldi's "Four Seasons", Beethoven's 5th/9th, New World Symphony, Orff's "Carmina Burana", Grieg's "Peer Gynt Suite", Mozart's 25th/40th and Holst's "The Planets".

 

[ConnieOH]

We've gone to the Toledo Symphony here in Ohio quite a few times recently, starting with the good old Handel's Messiah at Christmastime - that never gets old! If we take our kids, they can get in with $5 student rate tickets. Now my son is playing with the Toledo Symphony Youth Orchestra (french horn) and in a couple weeks they will have a concert where they play a few songs and then the actual symphony plays.

I do not listen to classical music at all in my day to day life, but I really enjoy hearing it in a live setting and watching these talented musicians play their instruments.