Concert on 6 May 06

Last night, I attended the concert titled James Judd with the SSO with my mother. I usually attend concert alone and so it was considered a rather rare occasion yesterday that I have a company.

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The Age of Anxiety composed by Leonard Bernstein gave an interesting opening to the concert. It was the first time that I have heard this symphony, and I could not yet know how to appreciate this symphony fully. The programme notes came very helpful. It gave a rather good account about what this symphony is about.

The symphony is imspired by the poem, The Age of Anxiety, written by the English poet, W H Auden. The story has that three men and a girl are having problems trying to discover their true selves and coming to terms with the world.

I especially like The Epilogue part of the symphony.

A side note, in case you aren't aware, Leonard Bernstein is the composer of the musical, West Side Story, which was recently staged in Singapore.

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After the interval, I was treated to Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A major. I love it, it just sounded great live. At certain points, I just felt an urge to be on stage with the musicians to play this symphony. The double bass parts sounded very challenging. There were also times when I felt as if my mind was dancing to the music. I quite like the way James Judd conducted. His conducting somehow gave the orchestra more freedom to be spontaneous and free.

I very much like the sombre beginning of the second movement. Somehow, it lends a very nice contrast to the other movements.

How did Beethoven develop the skills to be able to hear in his mind how the music that he had written would sound? I am simply fascintated by this symphony by Beethoven, somehow. More so, I am fascinated by how great composers like Beethoven go about conceptualising and writing their works.

Now, his music has done the trick of getting my mind to replay bits and pieces of his symphony in my mind.