Concert Fatigue?

My friend, Mystic, said to me last week that I could be having concert fatigue. She speculated that I could have been feeling tired lately during concerts simply because I had attended much too many concerts lately. Could that be? Or was my general tiredness during the past few concerts a result of overworking myself?

I don't have the answers for now.

This evening, I attended the concert presented by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. Yes, yet again. This evening's concert was an event which is part of the Singapore Arts Festival. It is titled Stephen Hough Plays Rachmaninov.

Opening this evening's concert was George Bizet's Symphony No. 1 in C major. I think it must have been a result of general tiredness from overworking or lack of rest, I could not keep fully awake and alert while the orchestra was playing the first and second movement. Things got a little better during the third and fourth movement, but I was still feeling a little sleepy. I wonder how much my ears were really appreciating the music. My apologies if I had seem to be disrespectful to the music. I did not mean to be tired.

Next on the programme was Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Op. 43. The pianist, I felt, had played much better than another pianist whom I had heard playing the same repertoire live. Somehow, he has this charisma on the stage. I quite like his interpretation of the work. Yet, I could not help but have my mind turned to "partial sleep mode" at certain points of the performance of this work. But when he played the Variation 18, my ears seemed to cry out to my mind that I must pay full attention and be alert. So I did. Somehow the playing of the Variation 18 seems to melt away the gloom from the preceding variations.

Then it was interval. I could not help, but to continue to feel tired. But I was not too tired that I doze off totally in the concert hall. I do not know why, but my left shoulder has been aching since the morning. Why is my shoulders taking turns to ache? I spent some time trying to self-massage my shoulder during the interval, in hope of relieving the aches, but the aches still did not go away.

After interval, the orchestra played Elgar's Enigma Variation, Op. 36. Whether it was due to concert fatigue or general tiredness, I confess that there were occassions during the performance of the work when my mind just went "disconnected". It felt as if the mind just blanked out, and my eyes shut down. Yet when the orchestra played the "Nimrod Variation", my mind starts to get to fully awakened mode. I like the "Nimrod Variation", it appeals to me. I also like the Finale of the Enigma Variation. I suppose my mind does really practise selective attention?

The orchestra played an encore this evening. The orchestra rarely plays encore even if there were roars of applause from the audience, so having an encore being played makes the concert special. Elgar's Pomp & Circumstances was played, and I was able to stay alert throughout the orchestra's rendition of the encore. What an irony. My mind slept through much of the concert's main programme but became alert when the encore was played. Anyway, I quite like the encore.

I still have no answers whether I have had concert fatigue, but I am feeling really tired from the day. So, good night.

Enjoy the night. Somehow tonight's skies are pretty dark, and dark skies make the stars look much more visible. So there's beauty in darkness, it makes stars look more visible and brighter.