12-18-2008, 05:42 PM
The premise was the building of orchestral sound over time, which almost worked. Edwin Outwater conducted and he's getting more lively to watch. Handel's Entrance of the Queen of Sheba was a good opening for the first set and got me in the mood. It closed with one of my fav pieces, Saint Saens Symphony #3 for Organ. I used to listen to that in high school, back when DOOM just got it's first doses of testosterone. Had I thought about it, I would have gone to sit with my kid, who was behind the orchestra, in front of the organ. I love that Davies organ. But watching my kid stare up in awe at the mighty pipes was pretty fun too. Second set opened with Mussorgsky-Ravel Great Gate of Kiev, which I've heard SFS do before - it's over done, like a movie soundtrack. Ruggles Men and Mountains was just a mess. They wanted something discordant, but they should have really gone for it with something like Penderecki. Then again, it's a family symphony and that stuff terrifies adults.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse