How do you keep your mind busy and occupied?
I heard a truly first rate performance of Schubert’s Symphony No 9 by the ever-wonderful Cleveland Orchestra and Franz Welser-Most. Cleveland might not be a big metropolis but it has one of the top orchestras in the world… ranked by the New York Times as the best in the US and by Gramophone Magazine as Number 7 in the world. Not bad for a small city in Ohio. This reading of the Schubert 9 was dazzling – especially as Welser-Most (a Vienna boy to his fingernails) – conducted with a minimum of fanfare and an absolute command of Schubert’s immense orchestral architecture. It truly blindsided me – and I’m still thinking about it hours later. And by the way the performance took place in Berlin’s Philharmonie – which might just be (alongside the Musikverein in Vienna and Symphony Hall in Boston) the best acoustic in the world.
Anyway I was absolutely entranced for the hour long duration of this monumental symphony. The guy directly in front of me – bald, with a big beard and a paisley shirt – spent the entire performance staring down at the score of the symphony, following it note-by-note. I am an obsessive concert goer and
someone who especially loves watching conductors at work (maybe in the next life I will come back as a maestro… though I rather love what I do in this life). But the guy with the score… I think he looked up twice during the entire performance. I found myself thinking: instead of paying 90 euros for a seat in the
stalls of the Philharmonie you could be doing this at home, listening to it on a CD or via a streaming service.
But there he was, completely engrossed in the score, sometimes shaking his head at a certain phrasing by the other time, something nodding agreement with a metronomic choice made. My attention was fully focused on Welser-Most and his orchestra… but I occasionally stole a glance at this man deeply obsessed with the score on his lap. And I couldn’t help but think: that’s a happy man.
Anyway I was absolutely entranced for the hour long duration of this monumental symphony. The guy directly in front of me – bald, with a big beard and a paisley shirt – spent the entire performance staring down at the score of the symphony, following it note-by-note. I am an obsessive concert goer and
someone who especially loves watching conductors at work (maybe in the next life I will come back as a maestro… though I rather love what I do in this life). But the guy with the score… I think he looked up twice during the entire performance. I found myself thinking: instead of paying 90 euros for a seat in the
stalls of the Philharmonie you could be doing this at home, listening to it on a CD or via a streaming service.
But there he was, completely engrossed in the score, sometimes shaking his head at a certain phrasing by the other time, something nodding agreement with a metronomic choice made. My attention was fully focused on Welser-Most and his orchestra… but I occasionally stole a glance at this man deeply obsessed with the score on his lap. And I couldn’t help but think: that’s a happy man.
