Monday, May 11, 2015

concert review: Symphony Silicon Valley

A choral concert from SSV afforded me finally an opportunity to hear Rachmaninoff's The Bells, a work I'd long been curious about but had never listened to. It was quite impressive, with all that dark Russian drama. And I reviewed it.

I was sorry that the new also-inspired-by-bells choral work that was going to be premiered at the concert got cancelled. The announcements made about this were rather unclear as to the reason for the cancellation; I got my information from private sources. A mischievous imp suggested that I should review it anyway. I know this composer's music: I could work up a plausible fake description. I could even say that it sounded less "potato-drenched" than the Rachmaninoff. (Would anybody get that reference?) I ignored the imp, of course.

Really important news that didn't seem appropriate for the review is that the private parking lot across from the California Theatre has abandoned its policy of charging a flat $10 for parking on event nights. Now they charge $5/hour, which means that if you arrive in time for the pre-concert lecture at 7, by the time you get out at 10 you'll have been there for just over 3 hours and get charged $20. You also pay on the way out instead of in, so you'd better hustle or else wait in a long line.

On the good side, my editors have finally decided to spell Rachmaninoff's name the way he wanted it.

On the other, the concept that the music is set to the words rather than the other way around was added by the editors in the process of recasting a sentence. Please don't hurt them.

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