Mr. Tchaikovsky

Hey, hey...don't get me wrong. I love Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony in E minor. It's great. I played it in high school. It's all great. However...

A little less than a month ago, the dudes and I went to see it performed by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra at the Musikverein. Who knew? New Zealand's got a pretty good orchestra. The only problem with the concert was that it was completely sold out. Like true music lovers, we waited outside until intermission to sneak into the standing room. We met some nice British folk whose brother was the timpanist of the orchestra. Quite nice.

Tonight was a concert of a Weber overture, some songs from Mahler's Des Knaben Wunderhorn, and Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony. I got Lil Bare "Schweppe" to tag along. We had things to do before the concert so we decided to get there in time for intermission...yah, so we could sneak in. After a little confusion with a coat check lady, we made it up the stairs to the hall. Schweppe was pretty set on standing for the Sixth. I, on the other hand, was not. I had scoped out some seats that I saw on the video monitor in the lobby. We sat in those seats for the usual, uncomfortable 20-minute long intermission praying no one would kick us out. But our praying worked wonders. The ticket folks closed the doors. The orchestra came out on stage, and the long-haired conductor followed. We got ready. Tchaikovsky Numba Sixxxx. And the downbeat.........

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI3ifmdPPJE&feature=related

Schweppe and I immediately exchanged befuddled looks. We had snuck into two different concerts at intermission and saw Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony both times without trying to (the second time). Not only that, both orchestras were unheard of. Tonight, we saw the Resident Orchestra based in the Hague (somewhere in the Netherlands). We both wanted to see and hear the Sixth, but were fine hearing the same piece within a month in the same exact hall. Yeahhhh oh yaaaah...they also played an encore. Of what you might ask? the last two minutes of the the fifth's finale. We heard those two minutes played three times.

Tomorrow's our big, big concert at IES.

Happy 2nd night of Chanukah,
L'Chaim folks