Okay .... I'll start the next installment, in bits and pieces as I can
So our second show was Sunday afternoon at 3:00 pm (ending an hour before the Super Bowl began).
The Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO)
http://www.bfz.hu/en/ conducted by Ivan Fischer, visiting David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center for an all-Beethoven show: the First Symphony; the Fourth Piano Concerto, with Richard Goode on the piano; and the Fifth Symphony.
Our seats were fourth row, right of center. Right in front of the second-violin section. Two blonde violinists right in front of us.
Maestro Fischer walks out onstage. The senior citizens in the audience (aka almost the entire audience) clap in their seats. One idiot in the fourth row decides to rumble the place and stands up as he applauds, and points at The Maestro, who smiles and waves. Someone asks the fourth-row idiot, "Is the conductor a relative of yours?"
"No."
"So you're ... just a fan?"
"Hell yeah!"
Interesting thing about how the BFO sets up the instruments: the timpani is all the way up front, on the Maestro's left.
The first violins are of course on the Maestro's left; the second violins on his right. Deeper in are the violas. The cellos are directly in front of the Maestro.
Farther back, on raised platforms, are the wind instruments. All the way in back are the basses. Six of them!
Beethoven's First Symphony is alright - I was not familiar with it before buying these tickets (in July! DJ and I have waited seven months for these shows!) I recently started listening to it a lot on my iPod - it's alright. Not one of Beethoven's masterpieces, but certainly damn good for a first and better than what most anyone else could do. Afterward, they wheel out the Steinway piano for the 4th concerto. Doing so, they rearrange the seats somewhat, and DJ says to me, "Now we have a clear siteline at three blonde violinists, not just two." I look up and see that indeed, the rearranged seats give us a clear view to another blonde Hungarian violinist. We'll call her Aniko. Cuz that's her name. Aniko Mozes
https://www.bfz.hu/en/orchestra/mozes-aniko And sorry to disappoint you, DJ, but it looks like she's taken and she has a bunch of kids. Here is her Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/aniko.mozes.7The 4th Concerto has moments where there are Long stretches of piano where the symphony is doing nothing, and long stretches of the symphony with the pianist is doing nothing. At one point where the symphony was sitting around doing nothing for a while, I caught Aniko looking bored and spacing out. I laughed or wave at her and got her attention; she smiled back.
So, we go to intermission; the Steinway is wheeled back off the stage, as we prepare for the masterpiece known to all the world: Beethoven's Fifth.
BTW, funny thing about the BFO: the first violinist, Giovanni Guzzo, spends the whole show laughing. Not kidding. Smiling, smirking through the whole set.
So now, as the BFO walks onstage for the 5th, and I stand up and applaud, Guzzo's eye catches mine, and I mouth, "No laughing." He suddenly turns deadly serious - for the first and last time.
BTW, this is Guzzo's page
http://www.giovanniguzzo.com/index.phpBefore the Fifth begins, an announcement comes over the public-address system that for the fourth movement, the BFO will be joined onstage by players from the Julliard School and Bard College Conservatory of Music.
Funny thing is, in Beethoven's Fifth, there is no pause between the 3rd and 4th movements. It's like one long piece. So the music is in middle of playing, suddenly the side stage doors open, the kids run on with their instruments and the stands holding their sheet music and start playing. Was really nice. Lots of instruments, a loud booming sound, for Beethoven's Fifth, a great symphony that just doesn't seem to ever want to end
Funny thing happened during the Fifth - one of the blonde violinists sitting directly in front of us dropped her bow and had to bend down and pick it up
After the show, a great ovation, the entire place was standing. I clapped so hard and so long that the next morning, my shoulders were absolutely killing me. I could not lift my arm above my shoulders. But what a wonderful pain it was
Then, of course, we go to a bar with DJ to watch the Super Bowl, meeting some (supposed) friends of mine. DJ leaves with Atlanta way ahead, figuring it's over. I know what Yogi Berra would have to say about that, so I stay till the end, and unfortunately watch New England's miraculous comeback. Plus, some girl problems at the bar. I figure it's done between me and the Kenyan girl. So, another great night at the symphony, ruined by the dumb shit I do afterward, instead of just going home with the good memory.
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The next night, Monday night, is to be the granddaddy of them all: the second and last of the two performances BFO are doing in New York, featuring Beethoven's 8th and 9th Symphonies. The Little and The Choral. I swear to myself that this is going to be the greatest night of my life and that I am going to go straight home afterward and keep the good memory.
Did I keep that vow? Stay tuned .......
