Saturday, May 29, 2010

A Late Night with the ESO

















Thanks to an invite from Phil, I was able to attend the "Late Night Paris" concert last night at the Winspear Centre. Instead of detailing every meticulous musical moment from the concert, I will choose a laidback attitude in this blog entry (since the concert itself was relaxed) and document random details from the evening.

I have never been to a late night concert in the series since 9:30 pm is a late start time for a symphony concert. However, I must note that the concert had a very nice relaxed vibe to it. People were dressed in a range of attire from jeans to dresses and alcoholic beverage consumption were not only requested but encouraged. The two conductors from the evening, Eddins and Waldin, jokingly engaged in a light banter on the topic of alcohol as Eddins ordered Waldin to get some bubbly for him and Waldin eventually brought a glass out but proceeded to sip from the glass himself. Eddins had to emotionally appease himself with the fact that he would enjoy a martini in the lobby afterwards while listening to the live jazz trio and invited the audience to join him as well.

The evening was filled with French pieces which included two movements from Bizet's Symphony in C major, Poulenc Aubade and Suite francaise. For Poulenc's Aubade concerto for piano and orchestra Eddins played the piano solo but beforehand he took the audience through the musical highlights of the piece and played some of the musical motifs that they would soon hear later in the piece. It was nice to get a musical roadmap of the melodies to listen to and it was just entertaining to listen to Eddins passionately talking about the story being told within the piece which revolved around the character of Diana the Huntress. It felt like we were in Eddin's living room and he was just sitting at the piano and chatting with us.

Since I promised random musings in this post, this random thought is something that kept cycling in my mind. Waldin is the resident conductor for the ESO this year and the first time I saw him was at the ESO's Symphony Under the Sky Festival. I remember a bunch of middle aged women around me drooling at this curly-haired, statuesque figure standing on the pavement in his black, long-sleeved conductors shirt. The women around me were visually devouring Waldin with their eyes while my curiosity got the better of me and I craned my neck to try to get a better view. When he eventually turned around, I just thought, "Whoa! it looks like he stepped out a Viennese period film set in the 1700s!" His angular features and piercing eyes formed a composer-like profile that reminded me of the composer posters that used to line the walls of my elementary school music room. If he just wore a white wig, put on some tailored breeches, and a militant jacket, it looks like he could have been chumming around with Mozart in 1783! Once in a while I come across a face that looks like they belong from another time period and Waldin's is definitely one of them. Even though I expect Waldin's musical career will continue to flourish, if anything ever falls through, I could easily see him being in a production of Amadeus. I mean this in the best way possible of course! Since it's probably hard for you to picture, here's his artists' profile picture from the ESO website:















What do you think? Yay or nay to his period film profile?

Until next time, take care and hope you enjoyed my random post!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I saw him at one of the lighter things I went to at the ESO last year and I can certainly picture that. Ha ha I actually imagined that myself!