Florida
The concert in Boca went well. I tried something new. After playing Carl Ruggles’s prophetic and dissonant work “Men and Mountians,” I encouraged the audience to applaud the piece if they liked it, and boo if they didn’t. There were defintiely some boos, but there were also a few bravos. I prefer either to tepid applause.
Meanwhile in Miami beach, I caught a concert at New World Symphony conducted by Benjamin Shwartz, with Yuja Wang as piano soloist. Before each piece, words ticked onto the screen behind the orchestra, describing the piece they were about to hear in a humorous and snarky manner. I felt like I was watching “Adult Swim” on the Cartoon Network. That’s not a bad thing. Also, there were free cocktails one and a half hours before the concert. Everyone had a fine time, and somehow the music was still at the center of everything. It was a cool way of refreshing the concert “format” without dumbing-down or overwhelming the music.
Today, in San Francisco, I caught rehearsals for the premiere of Robin Holloway’s Fourth Concerto for Orchestra. Massive, complex, tonal, and worth hearing. Aarron Jay Kernis, who just premiered a piece at the SF Conservatory, dropped by to listen as well.