Read about the PSO concert experience from various viewpoints.
An Enticing Evening
One must savor each note and piece of virtuosity granted to us by the musicians, for once a note sings, flies, dances, or soars into the air it is of the past. This past weekend with the PSO was an enticing one to say the least. The performance began as Composer of the Year Steven [...]
Feb 20
Florid Resonant Surrender
The concert begins as composer Steven Stucky enters the stage and introduces his world premiere of “Silent Spring,” a work commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. According to Mr. Stucky, “Silent Spring” is a dark, dramatic and exciting piece. In order to compose the music, he used poetic imagery suggested by the titles written by [...]
Feb 18
NPR’S “FROM THE TOP” IN PITTSBURGH
“From the Top”, the distinguished showcase for young musicians heard weekly on Classical WQED-FM 89.3 came to the Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to tape a radio broadcast on Tuesday, February 14. I am glad I was able to attend and pleased that “From The Top” could be my valentine! The popular NPR program, [...]
Feb 17
Caught Temporal Embrace
A caught temporal embrace never lasts beyond the fleeting flicker of the moment it was intended, never grants the bearer a feeling beyond a mere moment’s euphoria and eventually fades, like the best of dreams, into the mundane aspects of conscious reality. Yet we hungrily cling to that memory, that moment of passion hoping to [...]
Feb 11
Hope Is All You Need
I had a powerful—and quite unexpected—moment at the very beginning of Johannes Brahms’ German Requiem. At the risk of committing a sappy cliché, I must say that the Mendelssohn Choir sounded absolutely angelic when they sang, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they will be comforted.” I felt a tear glide down my cheek, thus [...]
Feb 7
2nd Hand
A preface: Before I get the review of the show, let me just offer this quick behind the scenes at how blog writers are able to attend PSO performances. You see, there is the blog manager and he emails the blog writers about when a show is coming up and asks if we can make [...]
Feb 6
Death, Brahms And Our All Too-Human Grief
It is a fact of life that we all mourn and yet we also must accept the fact that we all mourn differently – a strange paradox that while grief is impersonally universal it’s also oddly unique. For example, my own father passed away 4 years ago and while I still feel (and will always [...]
Feb 5
Noah Bendix-Balgley: A Profoundly Gifted Artist
Sunday evening, January 29, I attended the first Pittsburgh recital of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Noah Bendix-Balgley, and am thrilled I was able to be a part of this event. Mr. Bendix-Balgley, is an exceptionally gifted young artist filled with promise. Promise not only for his career as a virtuoso violinist, but also music itself [...]
Jan 31
A Colorful and Rhythmic Evening In The Fullest
Spiritual. Pulchritudinous. Sublime. Angelic. Ethereal. Intellectual. Those words can only touch the colorful and rhythmic evening the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, renowned percussion soloist, Dame Evelyn Glennie, Composer of the Year Steven Stucky, and guest Slovakian conductor Juraj Valčuha offered to the audience in Heinz Hall on Friday evening. ‘Once upon a time…’Ravel’s Suite from “Mother [...]
Jan 17
Percussion Demonstrations
My friend Miki Sarkozi and his father Miklos accompanied me to the concert last weekend. Miki wrote his impressions of the evening… There’s a knowledgeable student at Duquesne University in the Percussion group, hosted a lively demonstration before the concert and took the time to explain to me the types of gongs in use. The [...]
Jan 17
