NUSSO's Concert - Sturm and Drum

Apologies in advance. This is going to be a long post because it's about a concert I've attended and I tend to talk a lot when it comes to that. =) If you like, you can just skip this whole section, scroll down to the end of this post and read the last few lines.

Last night I attended NUS Symphony Orchestra's Sturm and Drum, part of NUS Arts Festival 2007, at the University Cultural Centre. It's been only the 3rd or 4th time that I entered the concert hall within UCC. First time when I was still in JC, the other times were vague.

I like concert halls and the smells that come with it. Sometimes carpeted floors, sometimes polished wood. Cushioned, folded seats, dimmed lights, the orchestra on stage. It brings back memories and I realize that it has been a long time since I last attended a proper, paid concert lasting more than 45 minutes, excluding times when I was the performer.

I think UCC put up this structure on stage especially for orchestras or bands because the ceiling of the stage is very high with velvet hanging around the edges. The structure is like a wooden shelter, only much higher and much larger. The main portions of this "shelter" is the roof and the backing. It enables sound to be reflected off and up front instead of it getting lost and absorbed by the velvet and high ceiling. It reminded me of Nanyang Polytechnic's Auditorium where I've performed before with the Xinmin band. NYP Auditorium has this horribly high ceiling which absorbs so much sound that we sound really small on stage. We want the sound to reach the audience, not for the structure to fill its hunger.

Last night's concert was great. It was good to hear how an orchestra sounds like and how an orchestra concert is structured. It lasted very long, starting at 7.40pm lasting till close to 10pm. They played 5 pieces not including the encore piece. 2 of the pieces were played with a guest viola soloist, Anatoly Zelinsky. He's born in Russia but Ukrainian by origin and travels around quite a lot, playing in different orchestras and recitals. He's currently Principal Viola at Christchurch Symphony Orchestra in New Zealand.

I don't usually attend orchestra concerts because of my band background, so I'm not sure about the structure of an orchestra or how exactly it's supposed to sound. Nevertheless, last night's concert I enjoyed tremendously. It's been a long time since I've last enjoyed a concert. However on the overall I felt like something was missing, something that I should be feeling but which I wasn't.

Here's the list of pieces they played:

1) Russian Easter Festival Overture by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

2) "Trauermusik" for Viola and Orchestra by Paul Hindemith

This piece is actually a funeral music Hindemith composed on the occasion of the unexpected death of King George V in London and performed a day after its completion. There are 4 movements to this piece. This piece is incredibly sad and mournful. I feel that this piece is something like a lone voice against the rest of the crowd, with the solo Viola being the former and the rest of the strings being the latter. All are upset, but... you know scenes from musicals where there are a lot of people in the background singing in harmony and there is one single person who sings loudly above the voice of all, representing truly and echoing how the others feel? Well that's how it feels to me.

3) Grand Sonata for Viola and Orchestra by Niccolo Paganini

Completely amazing piece, with sounds from the solo Viola that you wouldn't usually expect to hear in a concert. Makes you wonder if the soloist made a mistake or is it truly as written in the piece. By the way, the latter is true. Even a layman like me can tell it takes a lot of technique to play the solo Viola part. Even thinking about the sounds now, I'm still amazed.

4) Symphony No. 6 in F Major, Op 68, 'Pastoral Symphony' by Ludwig van Beethoven

This piece was composed simultaneously with Beethoven's more famous Fifth Symphony but was never quite as popular as it in the past. But now it's one of the central works of the symphonic repertoire. It's an interesting piece, portraying a a thunderstorm with rain, thunder and lightning, after which the storm eventually passes and there is a rainbow at the end, with what I feel is happiness and joy at the world after the rain and wonder at the storm. The program booklet says that the final movement represents "the shepherds' song of thanksgiving". Much as this piece is grand, I feel that some element of ferocity and much feelings are not portrayed enough to the audience.

5) Symphony No. 2 in D Major, Op 43 by Jean Sibelius

I don't remember much about this piece except that I didn't like the slow movement but found the transition okay and the fast part in the first section quite interesting.


If you've been reading this blog for a long time, you should know that I lost my ability to listen to concerts properly back in JC. If you've followed this blog from even further back, you should know that when I listen to music or attend concerts, I experience a lot of visual effects in my head. The string of notes, accents, dynamics, emotions, everything in my head were transformed into colours. Some vivid, others dark, some huge splashes, others are scattered spots and some come in long strands. These colours dance and mix in a way I found amazing. Best of all, nobody saw these colours, only I did.

Last night I didn't see any colours, which was not surprising because I haven't seen colours in my head for a long time.

I heard sounds mixing and matching instead. It wasn't clear and I was trying to figure out this new way in which my senses interpreted what came to me, but it was interesting.

Sometimes I think I try too hard to make sense of music so that I become so stressed out, I can't enjoy it anymore, and I think that to a certain extent it is right. Yet, I can't enjoy music without thinking and listening to it in detail. There's so much to be heard in a concert, so much details to pay attention to and so many things to put together that I used to wonder how can people fall asleep while listening or say that they prefer concerts where bands play pop music or theme songs from movies. It completely eludes me. Pop music and movie themes are plain. They have no complexity in them, no tact, no details etc etc. They are, in my opinion, completely boring. I hate it when we have to perform pop pieces or anything like that because I feel that it degrades the band and the meaning of a band concert. I shudder whenever we have to play one. I'm not sure - maybe it is because I grew up playing classical band pieces and am used to it. Now I better understand how it's like, what others really hear and why they will fall asleep (cos' I did too =P).

Oh and this guy in front of me nodded off halfway through the first section while another Caucasian guy had his head bowed throughout the entire concert. And I think I heard somebody snore once very loudly behind me.