I headed for the box office, as I had a number of ticket exchanges and ticket pickups to do there. Then I went and sat at one of the tables near the lobby doors, and waited. A few more people began to gather about in the food area and by the lobby doors over the next ten or twenty minutes, and then they let us into the Grand Lobby. About ten minutes after that, they let us into the main level of Benaroya Hall. I took up residence in seat N-15, which is considered Orchestra A (second in price only to the Founders Tier seats), but as I suspected, and as was confirmed yesterday afternoon, the acoustics are not actually that great in that section of the hall.
The opening number was Fauré's Elegie for cello and orchestra, performed by the amazing Efe Baltacigil in front of a reduced Seattle Symphony, but the sound did not project well to where I was sitting. The orchestra sounded quiet and not very articulated. Baltacigil's playing sounded wonderful, but again, his tone didn't reach my ears with great clarity or projection.
Sitting next to me in seat N-16 was the local composer Greg Bartholomew, whom it was a pleasure to meet. He and I both are not very much into the avant-garde in terms of new music, so we hit a common note.
After the Elegie, Ludovic Morlot took the stage along with the artistic director of the Seattle Chamber Music Society, James Ehnes. Morlot talked about the upcoming season, and I was overcome with excitement as he mentioned Verdi's Requiem, Bach's St. Matthew Passion, the late Mozart symphonies, Brahms' second symphony and other masterworks. He didn't go through the entire season in detail, but he mentioned enough phenomenal music to make me feel like a child in a candy store. He also, unfortunately, mentioned a few of their "outreach-to-the-deliquinet-youth" programs, such as the presence of Sir Mix Alot, which is a tragedy for culture and a triumph for the dictatorship of relativism.
Nevertheless, it seems that the organization is still perfectly aware of the fact that most of their donations come from cultured, intelligent people who want to hear the masterworks from the great composers, and for the most part that is what is delivered in the coming season!
After Morlot and Ehnes left the stage, the Seattle Symphony was joined by the Seattle Youth Symphony on stage to perform the final movement of Shostakovich's 5th Symphony. Due to the size of the orchestra and the nature of the piece, the sound did project pretty well to where I was sitting, though I am not a huge fan of Shostakovich.
As soon as the event was over, I made my way out to the lobby, picked up a 2013-2014 season brochure, and went to the box office to speak with Brent Olsen, the Subscriber Ticket Services Coordinator. Brent knows me as the crazy guy who is obsessed with moving further and further up in the hall, constantly exchanging tickets to get as close as possible to my desired seats. He had suggested that I speak directly with him after the event when I come to subscribe to the new season.
I gave him my very-thought-out list of seating preferences, which simply lists all the seats of the first tier in forty-two sections, so all they have to do is go down the list and give me the first available pair that they can. I then subscribed to the full 21 Saturdays Masterworks series! Brent also printed out for me a bunch of tickets for this season that for some reason had never shown up by mail.
By now it was close enough to the 8:00pm Bach & Telemann concert, that I just stayed around Benaroya Hall, and was joined by my girlfriend around 7:15.
I don't have too much to say about the concert. It was all baroque music. Handel, Rameau, Telemann and Bach. The conductor was Matthew Halls, a young fellow from England, who conducted the orchestra with liveliness and enthusiasm. From seats B-1 and B-2 in the second tier, the sound was crisp, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Our box-mates were slightly annoying though. Not long into the first half of the concert, I had to lean over and shush them, as they were talking to each other and laughing. The nice thing about this despicable phenomenon of talking during concerts is that nobody is doing it to annoy anybody else, or out of spite. They don't have any desire to stand by some supposed right to do it. Hence, when you make it known that their noise is bothering you, they immediately quiet down with no objection. This has been my experience for the most part at least.
The next concert I will attend is on February 9th. Schumann's Piano Concerto and Brahms' 4th Symphony!
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| Look at this! This is the "crowd" gathered to hear the season announcement. Pitiful. |
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