The brass of the Noldor

Sometimes my tradition of not reading the program until after a concert backfires on me. I don’t read the program because I want to experience the music for itself and oftentimes the program notes get in the way of that.

After listening to Nathan Davis' a Sound uttered, a Silence crossed [Ask] at the opening of the La Jolla Symphony season I read the notes and was impressed by the beauty of the concept. However, the music I had just heard was unable to deliver on the concept.

I hate to do this, but I refuse to rubber stamp everything as great.

I think poetry with sound effects and some musical accompaniment is the most accurate way to describe the piece.

I know that La Jolla Symphony is associated with new and "adventurous" music but, to be frank, I wasn't feeling this piece — at all. I tried to remain open to it and focus on how I was feeling, but how I was feeling was uneasy and manipulated.

I can hear it now, "Good, you should feel uneasy. Music should challenge you."

No, no it shouldn't. I'm challenged enough by this thing called life... but I'm about to go off on a rant and I don't want to do that so let's move on to Mahler — which was great.

Ken Fitzgerald's trumpet started Mahler's Fifth Symphony and the brass proceeded to split my skull in two with their plangent sonority throughout the piece.

I got some brain juices on the lady next to me, but she was wearing grey so it was all good.

I can't get over how incredible the brass section sounded. When they hit their big moments in the second and the fifth movements it was as if the trumpets of the Noldor had uprooted themselves from the pages of The Silmarillion and thrust themselves into Mandeville Auditorium. If I were Morgoth I would have cause for concern.

That's a bit obscure but hey, so was the opening piece of this concert.

The playing of the strings at the top of the famous adagietto was gorgeous enough to bring a little tear to my eye. However, every now and then the strings were out of tune. It was usually at the beginning of a phrase and it surprised me each time it happened because so much of their playing was tuned beautifully.

The woodwinds also played notes.

I never know what to say about the woodwinds. They always seem to be the middle child of any orchestra.

Next up for La Jolla is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in December.