it was a good Saturday. I had lots of things (too many in such a short amount of time) to do, so it flew by (as always). Dave was with me basically all weekend. I could really get used to that - guess it’s a good thing we’re getting married after all. =)

went to a concert at Taylor on Saturday night, after a busy day of running errands - grocery shopping, cleaning the kitchen, starting the paperwork for our new apartment in Gas City (what an awful town name to lay claim to!), etc. the concert was… long. generally, I very much enjoy concerts, but I’m discovering that I don’t really enjoy “Philharmonic” concerts. the Indianapolis Philharmonic Orchestra can’t tune their violins, so every piece is torture. I don’t care how good you are technically; if you can’t tune, go back to high school. the Marion Philharmonic Orchestra stays in tune pretty decently, but they program horribly and are very pompous for the size of their organization.

this concert we went to was disorganized, to put it politely. the program order was bad to start off with, but they switched it up without telling the audience. so… while some of us know the difference between Mozart and Bernstein within the first couple of bars, quite a few people had no idea they weren’t listening to the Mozart as the concert opened. then, and here’s the kicker, they didn’t tell the soloist for a piano concerto that they were changing the program order, so they had to call for her from the stage. she was a sophomore in college who’d won the annual concerto competition. I’d have been a wreck had it been me, but she had *remarkable* composure considering the situation in which she was placed.

so. the program order was written as this:

1. a Mozart symphony
2. Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms (a remarkable piece)
3. intermission
4. a Beethoven piano concerto
5. Faure’s Requiem (7 movements)

they played:

1. the Bernstein
2. the Beethoven (after screeching from the stage for the soloist)
3. intermission
4. the Mozart
5. the Faure

they should have played:

1. the Beethoven - because it was a cute, shortish good opening piece for a symphony concert - something you’d expect to hear at a symphony, and it would have settled folks into the concert nicely. and also, the soloist was a talented, pretty college girl, which gets the attention of about half the audience from the get-go. =)
2. the Faure - because it’s slow, LONG, and very static. how to explain… it’s like watching the water on a lake shore, on a nice calm day. there’s movement, but it’s very much an ebb and flow and doesn’t change much in volume or pitch. Faure composes like impressionists paint - blurry and atmospheric. this piece makes a HORRIBLE concert closer because it lulls you into a semiconscious listening state and will NEVER get your orchestra any kind of ovation, let alone a standing one.
3. intermission - to give the audience time to get re-invigorated for the exciting remainder of the concert. it’s too bad they couldn’t throw the intermission between movements of the Faure. =)
4. the Mozart - in much the same way as the Beethoven would make a good concert opening, this would have been a good start to the second half.
5. the Bernstein - this was such an exciting piece! there was so much rhythmic diversity and crazy hard intervals that you couldn’t *help* sitting up straighter. it’s pefect for a closer because people are energized by the 20th century rhythm and harmony and energy of this piece.

Marion Phil, you need to hire me to approve your concerts from now on. because I’m not going to another one as badly organized as this one unless you twist my arm, you twits. you should have asked Al Harrison what to do before you let him go to his son’s graduation.