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kenjariThis has not been as productive a weekend as I would like, but I've been having a good time nonetheless.
On Saturday night, I went to the Boston Philharmonic concert with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
gee_tar. The concert was really good. The orchestra has a nice, rich sound in the strings that suited the Rachmaninoff particularly well. And the pianist, Gabriela Montero, was very good. She wasn't at all heavy-handed (which happens all too often with Rachmaninoff). Having great seats on the left side of the balcony made the performance even better - we were able to look directly down at the keyboard and see everything she was doing. As an encore, she improvised short pieces based on themes suggested by the audience. The final piece ended up being on the Imperial March from Star Wars, which she transformed into a tango. It was both really funny and musically satisfying. This was the very first time I had heard Nielsen's Symphony No. 5, which was the other piece on the program. I liked it quite a bit. While it did not partake of any of the more famous developments going on in the 1920s (twelve-tone technique in particular), it was definitely modern in sound and conception. I hope to get more opportunities to hear it. Since public transportation misbehaviour prevented us from having dinner before the concert, we rounded out our evening with a meal at Betty's Wok and Noodle Diner.
Today Other Kenjari and I went to the movies. Since we opted for a matinee, we left Harry Potter for another day and saw Walk the Line, the movie about Johnny Cash. I highly recommend it, even if you are not a Cash fan. Joaquin Phoenix does an amazing job, as does Reese Witherspoon (she plays June Carter). Their performances are completely convincing in ways that go beyond just physical resemblance and mimicary of voice and mannerism. Plus, both Phoenix and Witherspoon did their own singing and playing, and they are surprisingly good. I think that's one of the things that make the movie so good - there are plenty of performance scenes, and they are all extremely well done.
On Saturday night, I went to the Boston Philharmonic concert with
gee_tar. The concert was really good. The orchestra has a nice, rich sound in the strings that suited the Rachmaninoff particularly well. And the pianist, Gabriela Montero, was very good. She wasn't at all heavy-handed (which happens all too often with Rachmaninoff). Having great seats on the left side of the balcony made the performance even better - we were able to look directly down at the keyboard and see everything she was doing. As an encore, she improvised short pieces based on themes suggested by the audience. The final piece ended up being on the Imperial March from Star Wars, which she transformed into a tango. It was both really funny and musically satisfying. This was the very first time I had heard Nielsen's Symphony No. 5, which was the other piece on the program. I liked it quite a bit. While it did not partake of any of the more famous developments going on in the 1920s (twelve-tone technique in particular), it was definitely modern in sound and conception. I hope to get more opportunities to hear it. Since public transportation misbehaviour prevented us from having dinner before the concert, we rounded out our evening with a meal at Betty's Wok and Noodle Diner.Today Other Kenjari and I went to the movies. Since we opted for a matinee, we left Harry Potter for another day and saw Walk the Line, the movie about Johnny Cash. I highly recommend it, even if you are not a Cash fan. Joaquin Phoenix does an amazing job, as does Reese Witherspoon (she plays June Carter). Their performances are completely convincing in ways that go beyond just physical resemblance and mimicary of voice and mannerism. Plus, both Phoenix and Witherspoon did their own singing and playing, and they are surprisingly good. I think that's one of the things that make the movie so good - there are plenty of performance scenes, and they are all extremely well done.
