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Art and music
Aug. 9th, 2003 05:26 pmAd Mundo Exteriore,
Last night I went to the Mostly Mozart Festival concert at Lincoln Center. It was my first time in Avery Fisher Hall, which was an impressive-looking place though not particularly amazing in the acoustic sense. (I mean, it wasn't bad, just not extremely good.) The program consisted of light Classical works, all easy listening and many downright familiar. The highlight however were the Gluck and Handel arias sung by mezzosoprano Susan Graham. In particular, the Handel arias were originally written for famous castrati of his time and had a whole series of difficult vocal flourishes that were really quite amazing. And the performer's voice was beautiful, rich without being thick, smooth and yet dramatic, with a near virtuostic technical control. I've mostly heard Puccini and Verdi operas, all from the Romantic period, so these arias were quite different in style. On the whole, more lyrical and more structured, and yet not any less emotionally moving. It's actually more accessible, I think, than the later Italian operas. Actually, Mozart's The Magic Flute and Cosi fan tutte are similar but they're comic rather than tragic. (Um, wait, never mind. Die Zauberflöte isn't really comic, is it? It's kind of a category to itself, I guess.)
Oh, and I never knew it before, but according to the playbill, Mozart composed his first five violin concertos at the age of 19. The one performed at the concert, the Strassburg Concerto, has a very famous first movement. So famous, in fact, that I, with my horrible memory for music, recognized it immediately. I'm just flabbergasted. I mean, I knew Mozart was a genius and started composing at the age of 7, but...nineteen?! Oy vey.
L.P. and I went to the Ansel Adams exhibit at MoMA QNS this morning. I rather liked it, surprisingly. I suppose it's easier for me to understand landscape photographs, simply because I'm so easily affected by nature documentaries and nostalgic passages from Daudet. I think I understand why photographers prefer black-and-white, now. It seems crisper, clearer, I guess. L.P. and I also strolled through the permanent collection and made snotty comments on modern art. ^_^ I admit it, I'm conservative when it comes to art. I have a vague respect for the paint spatters because of that article in the Scientific American that found a high percentage of fractal patterns in Pollock's work, but I definitely cannot understand what the "meaning" behind a white mattress is. Oh, and there were these two paintings that basically said, "Dec. 12, 1979" and "Dec. 18, 1979". Were those dates significant to anyone? (It was a Japanese artist.) It really disgusted me though. I can tolerate the obvious pretention of a white canvas, but writing the date? In white type on black background? That's...just pathetic. Ugh.
I bought a Logitech optical mouse and a set of speakers on Thursday. They color-coordinate with my computer, which delights me in a weird way. I also got a multifunction printer and a set of blank CD-RW discs. Question: if you have a CD-RW drive, you can still burn on CD-R discs, right? The only difference would be that you can't rewrite, no? I wasn't quite sure, so I just bought the more expensive CD-RW discs. >_>
...Tari
Post-script: On scanning through some of my recent entries, I realize that I've sounded really scatterbrained for the past week. Never fear! You are not mistaken! I was indeed scatterbrained, typing my entries in a rush while trying to block out the sound of my parents nagging me: "Get off the Internet! Now!" I'll try to focus a little more later when time is less of a constraint. As it is, I've broken my time restriction for the tenth time. Ugh. Can't wait for college.
Last night I went to the Mostly Mozart Festival concert at Lincoln Center. It was my first time in Avery Fisher Hall, which was an impressive-looking place though not particularly amazing in the acoustic sense. (I mean, it wasn't bad, just not extremely good.) The program consisted of light Classical works, all easy listening and many downright familiar. The highlight however were the Gluck and Handel arias sung by mezzosoprano Susan Graham. In particular, the Handel arias were originally written for famous castrati of his time and had a whole series of difficult vocal flourishes that were really quite amazing. And the performer's voice was beautiful, rich without being thick, smooth and yet dramatic, with a near virtuostic technical control. I've mostly heard Puccini and Verdi operas, all from the Romantic period, so these arias were quite different in style. On the whole, more lyrical and more structured, and yet not any less emotionally moving. It's actually more accessible, I think, than the later Italian operas. Actually, Mozart's The Magic Flute and Cosi fan tutte are similar but they're comic rather than tragic. (Um, wait, never mind. Die Zauberflöte isn't really comic, is it? It's kind of a category to itself, I guess.)
Oh, and I never knew it before, but according to the playbill, Mozart composed his first five violin concertos at the age of 19. The one performed at the concert, the Strassburg Concerto, has a very famous first movement. So famous, in fact, that I, with my horrible memory for music, recognized it immediately. I'm just flabbergasted. I mean, I knew Mozart was a genius and started composing at the age of 7, but...nineteen?! Oy vey.
L.P. and I went to the Ansel Adams exhibit at MoMA QNS this morning. I rather liked it, surprisingly. I suppose it's easier for me to understand landscape photographs, simply because I'm so easily affected by nature documentaries and nostalgic passages from Daudet. I think I understand why photographers prefer black-and-white, now. It seems crisper, clearer, I guess. L.P. and I also strolled through the permanent collection and made snotty comments on modern art. ^_^ I admit it, I'm conservative when it comes to art. I have a vague respect for the paint spatters because of that article in the Scientific American that found a high percentage of fractal patterns in Pollock's work, but I definitely cannot understand what the "meaning" behind a white mattress is. Oh, and there were these two paintings that basically said, "Dec. 12, 1979" and "Dec. 18, 1979". Were those dates significant to anyone? (It was a Japanese artist.) It really disgusted me though. I can tolerate the obvious pretention of a white canvas, but writing the date? In white type on black background? That's...just pathetic. Ugh.
I bought a Logitech optical mouse and a set of speakers on Thursday. They color-coordinate with my computer, which delights me in a weird way. I also got a multifunction printer and a set of blank CD-RW discs. Question: if you have a CD-RW drive, you can still burn on CD-R discs, right? The only difference would be that you can't rewrite, no? I wasn't quite sure, so I just bought the more expensive CD-RW discs. >_>
...Tari
Post-script: On scanning through some of my recent entries, I realize that I've sounded really scatterbrained for the past week. Never fear! You are not mistaken! I was indeed scatterbrained, typing my entries in a rush while trying to block out the sound of my parents nagging me: "Get off the Internet! Now!" I'll try to focus a little more later when time is less of a constraint. As it is, I've broken my time restriction for the tenth time. Ugh. Can't wait for college.
