my wife and i were fortunate to pull a freebie this morning and attend a rehearsal of the l.a. philharmonic. we were told they would rehearse gustav holst's "the planets", and we figured that would be all they would do. we got seats in the center balcony at disney hall. everything was happily informal, with the musicians showing up in sweatsuits and jazzercise outfits, and we settled in to listen to one of mariko's favorite pieces of music--she especially likes the movement devoted to jupiter.
the orchestra seemed a bit thin for this dazzling piece, and their first number, which i surmised to be a rather long and nondescript "mercury", left us hungering for more exciting planets. then a tall guy with very long hair strode onto the stage--kinda looked like paganini--and proceeded to play the violin. hmmm, i thought. didn't know holst featured a violin on one the planets. maybe the violin is supposed to represent the sun, shedding light on everything else.
this fellow was technically amazing, but i still wasn't recognizing any planets. they proceeded through three more unfamiliar planets, and then there was polite applause from us freebs up in the balcony, and all the musicians walked off the stage. our friend who got us in to the rehearsal, a disney hall tour guide, said they were probably taking a break. mariko hadn't heard her beloved "jupiter" yet, so we figured there were several planets to go.
then we get ahold of a shard of a program. we had just listened to eight russian folk songs arranged for orchestra and then the prokofiev violin concerto, performed by a world class artist, leonidas kavakos, on a 1724 strad.
"the planets" came after the break, the orchestra was twice as big, and it was wonderful. i'm trying to enjoy the concerto in retrospect, but it isn't easy.
My questions to Tony:
1. WHO was BEHIND the scenes?
2. WHO made you think that the first performance was The Planets?
3. Have you spotted any ANTENNAE on the musicians?
4. Was anything MISSING when you came back home?
5. Did your head appear SMALLER when you came home?
6. Are you the Mac?
Let us know!