evening at the concert

After a gosh-awful day at work, during which I thought I might have several aneurysms on account of the constant nagging I was being subjected to, I had a chance to decompress by going to the symphony. In Seattle, going to the Symphony is a much less stuffy affair than it might be in New York or Europe. (Though my recent experience at the Concertgebouw seems to indicate that the Europeans have lately loosened their belts by a notch or two.) The few who do dress up in suits look comically out of place in the audience. "First time?" I get the urge to ask them as I take my seat in tee shirt and jeans. Even the orchestra sets aside their stiff-collared tuxedos in favor of more relaxed clothes, though retaining the dignity of their art in their monochrome blackness.

 

Yesterday I went to hear Jan Lisciecki play, for the second time this year. It seems he has quite an attachment to Seattle. He played the Grieg Concerto. I like Jan Lisciecki. His technique is formidable, and his playing is crisp and unpretentious. One does get to see his O face more often than one would like (or exactly as often as one would like), but every artist has their quirks. Technically, I was captivated by his sparing use of the pedal and his ability to produce rich legato sounds despite that without sounding dry or tinny. Often he'd lift his foot up all the way from the sustain pedal - no half-pedaling or anything crazy like that. I have read that when playing in a concert hall, the pianist's perception of their pedaling tends to be different from what an audience member hears many feet away from them. The inexperienced pianist might think they're using exactly the right amount of pedal, but what the audience member hears is a muddy stream of sound vomit. It must take quite an ear and quite a lot of experience to pedal for the people in the balcony instead of for yourself.

 

I struck up a conversation with the lady in the seat next to me, another solo concert-goer like myself. She was from Spanaway but was currently living at an assisted living facility in Des Moines. She was pleasant to talk to. She remarked at the end that we made great seatmates. I suppose I might run into her again at another concert in the future.