Symphony Weekend

I love the symphony.

Baltimore has a pretty good symphony orchestra. And a little known fact: Marin Alsop, the current director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra is the first woman to lead a major orchestra in the United States. So cool.

This past weekend I went to the symphony. They were playing Beethoven's 5th Symphony, which I love, love, love to see live. I love it so much that I decided to see it twice. (No really...I went both Thursday night and Saturday night.)

Also, it turns out that the most famous/awesome violinist in the WORLD was there too. If you don't believe me, watch these videos. I wanted to share them because I think they are cute; especially the last one, which has such a good message. Of course Itzhak Perlman has done a gazillion other things, but seeing him on Sesame Street is kind of fun.




(Can someone explain the ending of this to me? I don't get it. The part where IP says, "That was very good! What happened?" and Telly says, "Oh, for sure it was good. But it'll never happen again!" What are they talking about?)





The concert was AMAZING. IP played a Bach concerto for violin and oboe (the oboist was one of the members of the BSO), AND conducted it at the same time. I actually wish that they'd chosen a different piece, one to show him off a little more. The oboe, as much as I love it, is just so overpowering compared to the violin, and sometimes it felt like an oboe concerto with violin accompaniment. Then IP conducted the orchestra in Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings (lovely!) and....Beethoven's Fifth! Seriously. That piece is so amazing live. It's almost a shame that pop culture has cliched it to death, because really, you forget what genius it is. I love it. (Especially the second movement. It's my favorite.)