i saw a very good performance of das lied von der erde this evening

at avery fisher hall

...bernard haitink played the stick, christianne stotijn was the beeeeeautiful mezzo,

and mr tenor was richard margison

goodness! that piece is just so powerful! it has every emotion, and it gets so so sooo dark at the end, but sooo heart wrenchingly beautiful. i didn't want it to end. i wanted to hold on to every last little bit of the dying end (when miss mezzo was pretty much owning it).

i loved watching the percussion section.

did you know they often sit when they play??

mr triangle/tambourine/tamtam sat pretty much the whole time, and also did the triangle rolls with two hands.

and mr glockenspiel sounded so different, but so TIGHT!

one small bit about the experience really did not make me happy.

before it began, before the leader (leader is apparently what they call the concertmaster across the pond!) walked on stage,

mrs. god got on the announcer and made a disclaimer for mr. tenor.

A DISCLAIMER!

it went something like, "ladies and gentleman, richard margison, our tenor for the evening, has come down with a cold and would like you to bear that in mind during tonight's performance."

i mean, she might as well have said,

"ladies and gentleman, richard margison, our tenor for the evening, has come down with a cold and would like you to know that that is the reason he is going to BLOW tonight."

let me quickly say that he didn't blow.

he was in fact really good.

and there was absolutely no reason for a (excuse my french)

FUCKING DISCLAIMER

if it's that bad that you need to solicit mrs. god to make an announcement in front of zillions of people who spent good money (or good time stubbing in), then don't sing.

12 cupcakes says that no one in the audience would have known mr. voice was with cold, had announcement not been made.

ugh.

mr. margison was good.

he didn't need a disclaimer.

no one ever needs disclaimers.

especially as you are about to walk on to the stage of avery fisher to sing one of composers' greatest gifts to society.

anyways,

continuing on about the london invasion

"percussionists are like the hussein bolts of the music world"

-david jackson

david jackson, the LSO's cymbal player gave a wonderful masterclass yesterday at my school!

his cymbal sound is so different from american cymbal sound.

the notes are more elongated, and the whole choreography of the crash is so relaxed and smooth.

i've never seen cymbals played with such artistic grace.

he played the la mer cymbal part for us, and the way he mixed sounds of the suspended cymbals was like mixing colors to paint a picture (his analogy, not mine :-). it was so complex and TIGHT!

it was so fascinating hearing such a different perspective on cymbals.

it makes me actually want to practice cymbals...

oh no. i'm falling asleep.

tomorrow is the new york city dumpling festival.

xoxo

yeh