Western Australian Symphony Orchestra. Benjamin Northey, conductor; Laurence Jackson, violin; James Crabb, accordion. January 31, 2020.

Perth Concert Hall, WA.  Rear Stalls (Seat CC11, A$74).

Program

Roman Carnival – Overture by Berlioz (1803-1869).

The Four Seasons: Summer by Vivaldi (1678-1741).

Porgy and Bess – A Symphonic Picture by Gershwin (1898-1937), arr. Bennett (1894-1981).

The Three-Cornered Hat – Suite No. 2 by de Falla (1876-1946).

Milanga del Angel by Piazzolla (1921-1992).

Adios Nonino by Piazzolla.

Bolero by Ravel (1875-1937).

Anne and I are visiting Perth for a few days (mostly because “it’s there”), so we got a chance to attend this first concert of the 2020 WASO season.  The music director is Asher Fisch, whom we saw in a Metropolitan Opera production in 2013 – unfortunately it was Wagner’s Parsifal.  The 2020 program is certainly ambitious, with many world-renowned musicians making an appearance.

The main auditorium of the concert hall seats 1729 people; it was first opened in 1973, and a bit overdue for refurbishment.  One complaint is that the seats don’t fold, so people find it difficult to get up to let others pass.  The seats are good, with reasonable leg room.

 

The Perth Concert Hall was completed in 1973.

Before the concert began.

Of course, the most important characteristic of an auditorium is its acoustics.  As tonight was the first time I sat in the auditorium and my first encounter with this orchestra, I don’t know if my impression should be attributed to the concert hall or the orchestra.  In any event, “unrefined” and “coarse” are the two terms that came to mind initially.  If the Wikipedia article on the venue is any guide, the hall “has been described as one of the best fine music acoustics venues in Australia.”  Not the most definitive statement, and Perth being the fourth largest city in Australia does not see much competition; that would still lead to “the orchestra is the problem.”

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons asks a lot of the violinist and soloist.  Laurence Jackson (WASO’s concertmaster) generally delivered on the technique, although there were hints of unsteadiness here and there.  However, as with the preceding piece by Berlioz, the sound from both the soloist and the orchestra sounded coarse.

Robert Russell Bennett, who per the Program was a prolific arranger, was commissioned by Fritz Reiner to take on Porgy and Bess.  Quoting the Program: opens with the sparkling introduction to Act I, … followed by some of the opera’s most memorable songs, including Summertime; I got plenty o’ nuttin; Bess, you is my woman now; There’s a boat that’s leavin’ soon for New York; It ain’t necessarily so; and Oh Lawd, I’m on my way.  I really enjoyed this American classic, even though I wasn’t familiar with all the tunes, and for a moment forgot about how the orchestra sounded.

 After Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.

I heard the same Manuel de Falla suite performed by the NJSO last November, and enjoyed it.  It wasn’t unforgettable as I needed my blog entry for that concert to remind me.  Tonight’s was also enjoyable, and in this case helped by the description in the Program, which helps explain how the three dances fit with the story of the ballet.  Seguidillas describes how the townspeople celebrate St. John’s night; Farruca was the vigorous dance by the miller which resulted in his arrest by the corregidor so the latter could try to seduce the miller’s wife, but ended up in a river and had to hang his clothes (including the three-cornered hat) to dry, this resulted in the miller – having escaped – and the corregidor’s switching clothes so the Corregidor got arrested; Jota is the exhilarating dance of the townspeople.

The Argentine Piazzolla studied in France and tried to make a name for himself as a mainstream composer.  When his teacher Nadia Boulanger heard him play the bandoneon, she told him “Astor, your classical pieces are well written, but the true Piazzolla is here, never leave it behind.”  Piazzolla is credited with taking tango into the classical realm and forged a new style called “nuevo tango.”

The Scot James Crabb was introduced by Northey as the “pre-eminent classical accordion player” (or some words to that effect).  I suppose there aren’t that many classical accordion players, so to some extent that has to be true (just like Perth Concert Hall’s acoustics is among the best in Australia).  In any case, the sound of an accordion is easy to like, and the two pieces of music are also easy to get.  Milonga is a forerunner of the tango, and is one of five “angel” pieces Piazzolla composed.  (He also wrote a set of diablo pieces.)  Adios Nonino was written in memory of Piazzolla’s father.  It is considered his most famous piece, and was sometimes touted as the national anthem of Argentina.  I had never heard it before, and thought it sounded too ‘giddy’ to be a haunting elegy.

 James Crabb is the accordion player.

He played an encore that stressed the melodic aspect of the accordion.  Since the accordion is used so little in the classical repertoire, I thought a piece highlighting the different sounds the instrument can make would have been more delightful.

Anne’s interesting remark was “shouldn’t they play Piazzolla’s Summer” so we get to contrast it with that of Vivaldi’s?

To me enjoyment of Ravel’s Bolero is found in how the different instruments sound, how steady the snare drum’s droning is, and how the volume of the orchestra builds up gradually to a climax.  In each of those measures, the orchestra didn’t do as well as I thought it could have.  On the first point, many of the soloists did well, but not all of them, and some of them sounded jazzier than I prefer – one appeal of Ravel is how a rigid line can be made interesting.  The snare drum did fine, if you paid real attention to it; I thought it could be several decibels louder.  The third aspect was most disappointed, the volume dynamic range was narrow until the very end.

 The conductor acknowledging the different musicians after Ravel's Bolero.  The snare drum player is in front of the timpani; he had to repeat the same "phrase" throughout the piece, which required a great deal of concentration.

The conductor Northey took time in both halves to talk about the music, which I thought was very instructive.  He also led the orchestra in a delightful encore.  I didn’t get the composer, but the title was “A sparrow in my cereal.”

Despite my misgivings about the performance, I was nonetheless glad to have gone.  Attendance was great, and the audience seemed enthusiastic.

We only had some light snacks from the hotel lounge before the concert, so it was MacDonald’s burgers afterwards.  We took advantage of free bus transportation to and from the concert.

Opera Australia – Mozart’s Don Giovanni. January 24, 2020.

Joan Sutherland Theatre at Sydney Opera House.  Stalls (Seat UXX, A$79.20).

Story.  See previous blog.

Conductor – Zhong Xu.  Don Giovanni – Luca Micheletti; Leporello – Shane Lowrencev; Donna Anna – Eleanor Lyons; Donna Elvira – Jane Ede; Don Ottavio – Juan de Dios Mateos; Zerlina – Anna Dowsley; Masetto – Richard Anderson; Commendatore – Gennadi Dubinsky.

Somewhere over the Pacific we decided to see this opera.  We saw this last May in Dresden during our European trip, and I wanted to see how the two companies compare.  The Sydney Guidebook one can pick up at the airport usually contains a discount coupon for opera tickets.  In our rush to get through immigration and customs we forgot to get a copy, good thing the Information booth at Arrivals level carries them.

Docked at the Circular Quay Cruise Terminal is this huge Ovation of the Seas.  It left this evening.

The director was David McVicar, who also did many of Met’s productions.  I saw the Met production many years ago, but what I saw was nothing like tonight’s, so most likely it was by another set designer.  The main stage didn’t change much from scene to scene, but there is an articulated set of stairs that drops down every now and then.  I am not sure what it signifies other than an interesting effect, but did worry if it would come down on someone’s head.  It didn’t, but managed to crush one of the silverware pieces used in the last dinner scene.  On the Opera Australia website the set is described as reminiscent of the catacombs of Vienna, and that the costumes are noticeable for their fine embroidery.  Okay then.

The women singers all sang very well.  The men were okay, but their voices a bit weak compared to their female counterparts.  I must have made the remark about some operas where it felt like everyone was trying to show off as a soloist; this was one of them.

The orchestra was excellent, doing Mozart in a most enjoyable way.  However, I thought they could use a few more musicians as the sound didn’t project that well.

We had seen this reference to The Marriage of Figaro in other commentaries on the opera before, this time we got it.  It was played during Giovanni’s last dinner.

This was our first encounter with Zhong Xu, who is also a pianist.  He was quite active in cuing in the singers, and the musicians responded well.

From left: Commendatore, Masetto, Zerlina, Leporello, Don Giovanni, Maestro Xu, Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, Don Ottavio.  The ghosts who carried away Don Giovanni were these grotesque looking women dressed in white.  The skeletons (to the right) are what make these the catacombs of Vienna, I guess.

We have observed that German opera productions are gratuitously violent, tonight’s opera was unnecessarily risqué.  Not overtly so, just a little more than necessary.  The early rape scene and the (simulated) sex scene in Act 2 are two examples.

Attendance was quite good, tonight being the first performance may have contributed to it.

We stayed at a hotel about 25 minutes away on foot, and the day wasn’t that hot, so walking to and back was quite pleasant.

New Jersey Symphony. Xian Zhang, conductor; Simon Trpceski, piano. January 18, 2020.

State Theatre New Jersey, New Brunswick.  Balcony (Seat A102, $49).

Program

Prelude to Act 1 of Lohengrin (1846-47) by Wagner (1813-1881).

Piano Concerto No. 2 in A Major (1839; final revision 1861) by Liszt (1811-1886).

The Ring Without Words (Ring Cycle composed 1848-74) by Wagner (arr. Maazel 1987).

As with the New York Philharmonic concert the day before, I was also looking forward to this concert.  I heard the Ring without Words performed by the Hong Kong Philharmonic many years ago, conducted by Maazel when he visited the city, and I enjoyed it very much.  I know one of Liszt’s piano concertos very well (turns out it was No. 1) and expected a lot of fireworks from Trpceski’s performance.  Overall the concert was okay, and I especially enjoyed the Liszt concerto.  Both Wagner pieces, however, wasn’t as thrilling as I expected.  Not all of that could be attributed to the musicians; I wasn’t as prepared as I could be.

I didn’t remember the Lohengrin prelude very well, but I did recall it had a rather mystic aura to it.  By that measure the orchestra didn’t come through.

It turns out I wasn’t familiar with Liszt’s second piano concerto.  However, it’s structure is quite similar to the first in that it was played without pause, and several themes were used to tie the piece together.  And it looked awfully difficult.  I mentioned in the prior blog entry that Tiempo had to reach to get to the ends of the keyboard; Trpceski is tall, and he was able to get there without having to reach, and there were many occasions where he had to do so.  It was an exhilarating ride, and thoroughly enjoyable.  The markings of the movements are (I) Adagio sostenuto assai – Allegro agitato assai – Allegro moderato – Allegro decision; (II) Sempre allegro – Marziale, un poco meno allegro – Allegro animato; and (III) Stretto (motto accelerando).

Zhang looking on from the podium as Trcpceski acknowledged the audience’s applause.

He performed a simple Chopin Waltz as an encore, as a tribute to Zhang (its her birthday) and to the Orchestra.  This is the second concert I heard him perform with the NJSO, I hope he comes back.

I had fond memories of the Ring Without Words performance I heard in Hong Kong, so was looking forward to it.

Zhang talked to the audience before the start of this piece, first thanking them for coming out in the snow (about 1” had fallen, although the roads were a bit messy), then talking about how Maazel was her mentor at the New York Philharmonic and when she learned this piece.  Words well said.

The performance, however, left something to be desired.  A large orchestra is needed (and they managed to find four Wagner Horn players), but precision suffered as a result.  Some of the playing was simply sloppy.

I counted about 90 musicians for the Wagner Ring without Words performance.  They managed to find four Wagner Tuba players.

I can probably provide a reasonably coherent synopsis of the four ring operas, yet I had trouble following the story along.  Part of that was due to the Program Notes – for the Hong Kong performance, I mentioned how useful the notes then were – which seemed to skip over quite a few passages.  Another possibility was perhaps some passages were edited out for tonight’s performance.  It was 60 minutes long, I recorded the Hong Kong one as being close to 80 minutes, and a YouTube video (with Maazel conducting) clocks in at 75 minutes.  I think it is important for one’s appreciation of the “drama” that one can follow the story, in that regard I think many missed out.  An opportunity lost.

The New York Times review on the performance by Maazel and New York Philharmonic (about 10 years ago) says the applause lasted 10 minutes.  While tonight’s wasn’t nearly as long, it was nonetheless longer than usual.

Tonight’s attendance was very low, which while disappointing wasn’t unexpected.  Traffic was light on the roadway, and I found off-street parking a couple of blocks away.

New York Philharmonic. Gustavo Dudamel, conductor; Sergio Tiemp, piano. January 17, 2020.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat CC13, $92).

Program

The Unanswered Question (1906-ca. 1941) by Ives (1874-1954).

Piano Concerto, Universos Infinitos (2011) by Benzecry (b. 1970).

Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op 95, From the New World (1892-93) by Dvorak (1841-1904).

A concert with Dudamel conducting should be exciting, and I did look forward to today’s concert with some level of excitement.  I must say I walked away with mixed feelings, happy that I got to hear a couple of new works (for me) that had some level of “programming” to them, but disappointed that the concert wasn’t as enjoyable as it could have been.

The Unanswered Question addresses the “perennial question of existence,” per the Playbill.  It is short, with the score stating that it would take eight minutes, the Program Notes saying around six, and probably lasted about five (didn’t time it exactly), and felt even shorter than that.  It left me with the suspicion that Ives gave up not long he started the exercise, and I am quite sure making it much longer won’t help with getting the answer.  The Program Notes contains a good description of the music: strings represent the Druids and are at ppp throughout; the trumpet asks the question; and the flutes hunt for the invisible answer, getting more agitated enough to be in a con fuoco state, and eventually (quickly in my assessment) realize the futility of it all.

Charles Ives was an interesting character, with a successful career in the insurance business in addition to securing himself a reputation as a well-known composer.  One could argue if his music was more startling than that of his contemporaries such as Bartok and Schoenberg, as the Program Notes asserts, but there is no doubt his work is not programmed as much as his contemporaries.

Ives asked but didn't answer the question.

Esteban Benzecry is a Lisbon-born Argentinian who now lives in Paris.  The concerto was composed in 2011, but didn’t see its world premiere until October 2019 at the LA Philharmonic, with the same conductor and soloist (to which the work is dedicated).  The work has three movements: I.  Un mundo interior (An Interior World); II.  Nuque Cuyen (Madre Luna/Mother Moon); and III. Toccata Willka Kati (Retorno del Sol/Return of the Sun).  Per the composer, the first movement is about the cosmic and interior universes of an individual and how he/she develops, it has a 4-note fanfare theme and a calmer second theme; the second movement reflects how the people from southern Chile and Argentina feel they are made of stardust, supported by the various sororities and tonalities of the orchestra; the third movement alludes to the “winter solstice” festival (June 21) and how the indigenous people celebrate the arrival of another planting season.

One can always argue if one hears the “message” in the music, and with the Program Notes it was relatively easy in the case.  The music itself was quite enjoyable.  The initial 4-note motif, which gets repeated in different forms quite often (also in the third movement), reminded me of Shostakovich’s cello concerto and the opening theme.  Tiempo is not tall, so he had to reach over for the two ends of the piano, that didn’t seem to hinder his excellent delivery of the solo lines.  The music is such that the orchestra plays an equally important part, often with the piano in support.

This is Tiempo’s debut with the NY Phil, and he certainly put in a great performance.  A lot is asked of the soloist, and he came through.  Great dynamics, clean tone, making short work of this difficult virtuoso piece.

The four principals in the performance of Benzecry's piano concerto: Tiempo (back towards camera,) Benzecry, Huang, and Dudamel.

With new music my faculty is used mostly to grasp what is happening.  That was true of the short Ives piece.  It was even more true with this large orchestra, including instruments like the cuica (a friction drum with a wide pitch range), waterphone, claves, and bamboo wind chimes.  The five or so percussionists were certainly kept very busy.  On top of tracking the instruments I also wanted to get the “story” behind the work, and the themes that tie it together.  While I certainly enjoyed the two pieces enough to want to listen to them again, I was so occupied with determining if it was “good music” that I couldn’t decide if it was a good performance.

Naturally I expected to enjoy the audience perennial favorite of Dvorak’s.  For me Dvorak’s Eight is a hit-or-miss affair, but his ninth is so easy on the ear that it is always enjoyable.  And we are talking NY Phil and Dudamel here.  Well, I was disappointed, not deeply so, nor slightly so (B+ grade then?).  One reason maybe how Dudamel has chosen to “dramatize” a particular phrase by adding a rubato and a glissando to it.  Some may call that original, but it just drove me further up the wall every time it got repeated.

The entire orchestra after performing Dvorak's "From the New World" Symphony.

Dudamel had a slightly different take on this phrase, don't remember hearing that a few years back when he conducted the Vienna Philharmonic.

I remember listening to Dudamel conducting the same symphony at Carnegie Hall, with the Vienna Philharmonic.  If my blog entry was any indication, I wasn’t blown away either.

I came across this NY Times review; the reviewer spends most of the article on the Dvorak piece and loved the way Dudamel brought new insight and new life into the piece. I of course beg to differ.

We originally had tickets for the evening concert on Thursday 1/16, but Anne had a commitment she didn’t want to break, so we ended up exchanging the tickets for the Friday 11 am concert.  The original tickets were bought on sale, and in the past few years NY Phil would not allow exchanges into a similar section with those tickets, so we ended up paying $38 additional for each ticket.  There were scattered empty seats in the auditorium.

We took the train in, and had enough time to eat at the Penn Station Shake Shack before catching the train back to New Jersey.

New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Xian Zhang – conductor; Inon Barnatan – piano. January 4, 2020.

Count Basie Theatre for the Arts, Red Bank.  (Orchestra Seat R7, $20).

Program

“The Moldau” from Ma vlast (1874) by Smetana (1824-1884).

Piano Concerto in A Minor, Op. 7 (1833-36) by Schumann (1819-1896).

Selections from Romeo and Juliet (1935) by Prokofiev (1891-1953).

As with the recent NY Philharmonic concert we attended, my expectations were not very high for this particular concert.  The only “positive” things going for it were Zhang as the conductor and Barnatan as the soloist.  In contrast to the NY Phil concert, however, I found tonight’s experience to be a lot more satisfying.  Perhaps it’s a case of meeting expectations, or perhaps tonight’s was simply a better concert.

The program began on a somewhat shaky “note” as I thought the initial measures of the Moldau were a bit too disjoint as a description for a river.  However, once the orchestra got to the first melody things improved greatly, and the piece became quite enjoyable.  That was probably helped by a more-detailed-than-usual description of the piece in the program notes which helped in one’s visualization of the tone poem.

After a lively rendition of "The Moldau" by Smetana.

I thought about but using “Clara Schumann” or “C. Schumann” in the Program listing above.  In my “tradition” of using the composers’ last names, I decided to use just the last name to confer “equal footing” on the composer.  Or I could have used her maiden name Wieck.  What would I do when it comes to CPE Bach?  I’ll cross the bridge when I come to it … or I can avoid him althogether.

Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn were two women musicians overshadowed by the much better-known Robert (husband) and Felix (brother).  Since their dates overlapped, and the Schumanns and Felix Mendelssohn lived in Leipzig, I do wonder if the two women had met.

The first draft for this concerto was completed in 1833, when Schumann was all of 14.  If the final product has a strong resemblance to the initial draft, then it is amazing what the composer could do as a pianist and a composer while barely in her teen years.  I was particularly impressed with the first two movements (Allegro maestoso and Romanze), and how Barnatan interpreted it. The Romanze, with a piano/cello duet, was simple yet lovely.  Despite the many “fireworks” of the Finale, I did find moments of tedium when I thought the music wasn’t moving along in any particular direction.

The Program Notes suggests one can both hear the influences of Chopin and pre-echos of Liszt in Schumann's composition.  Not this blogger.

Barnatan played beautifully, attacking when he should, holding back when he must.  As encore, he and Spitz played a Chopin duet (I thought Barnatan said it was from a concerto, but couldn’t find anything like it on the web).

Barnatan and NJSO Principal Jonathan Spitz played a Chopin piece as encore.

Prokofiev’s ballet music Romeo and Juliet was not allowed to be performed when it was completed in 1935 due to “political and artistic snags” (per Program Notes), Prokofiev extracted two sets of seven numbers each from the score of 52 numbers and published them as orchestral suites; he subsequently extracted a third set.

As did many other conductors, Zhang selected her own set of numbers to “show Prokofiev’s versatility and skill as character portrayer, also highlighting his gift to suggest both tenderness and high drama through music.”  What we heard tonight were: The Montagues and the Capulets, Juliet as a Young Girl, Minuet, Masks, Balcony Scene, Romeo at Juliet’s Tomb, The Death of Tybalt.

I have encountered this music before (both the suites and the ballet) so the music sounded quite familiar.  That is especially true of the beginning number.  However, I did get a little lost as the performance went on, that the music sounded quite different when describing a tomb scene versus a duel help me determine when the performance was about to conclude.

One can listen to music in an “abstract” manner, I have no problem with that.  I enjoy a lot of solo, chamber, and orchestral music without a story attached to it.  However, when I know there is a story to each of the numbers, I get frustrated when I lose my place.  Also, short descriptions to put the numbers in context (e.g., what minuet? what masks? How did Tybalt die?) would help the audience to picture the scenes as the music unfolds.

Brennan Sweet was the concertmaster for this evening.  Wyrick will be the soloist in the next NJSO concert series.

It was a good performance, I just wish I had gotten more of the story out of it.

I took the train down, Anne had to sit in the balcony for Smetana as she was late.  The main orchestra section was reasonably full, she told me the balcony was quite empty.  NJSO audiences don’t seem to cough as much as NY Phil audiences.

New York Philharmonic. Jeffrey Kahane, conductor/piano. January 3, 2020.

David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.  Orchestra (Seat NN103, $47).

Program

Piano Concerto in E-flat major, K. 482 (1785) by Mozart (1756-91).

Trittico botticelliano (Botticelli Triptych) (1927) by Respighi (1879-1936).

Symphony No. 96 in D major, Miracle, Hob. I:96 (1791) by Haydn (1732-1809).

The pieces on the program are ordinary enough, despite the great lengths the Program Annotator took to make them interesting.  In his words, Mozart’s piano concerto (that it is No. 22 isn’t mentioned in the Program Notes) was written when Mozart was enjoying increased acclaim as a performer and composer in Vienna, and the second movement (Andante) was repeated in the premiere.  The Miracle Symphony was probably first performed in 1791 in London and is classified as one of Haydn’s London symphonies, it was most probably written before Haydn arrived in London.  The miracle refers to the fact that no one was hurt by a chandelier falling during a concert, but the accident most likely happened when Symphony No. 102 was premiered.

For the audience the most informative was probably the write-up on Respighi’s Triptych, based on three paintings by Sandro Botticelli: La primavera (Spring); L’adorazione dei Magi (The Adoration of the magi), and La nascita di Venere (The birth of Venus).  All three paintings are in the Uffizi Galleries, the most famous one being Venus.  The Program Notes also quotes Respighi’s wife Elsa’s description of the three movements, which was most useful.

The Mozart concerto started well enough, but eventually devolved into a good but unexceptional rendition of this possible connoisseurs’ favorite (per the Program Notes).  The first and third movements are Allegro and Allegro (Rondo).  The way it was performed today, I couldn’t understand why the premiere audience wanted an encore of the slow movement.  Indeed this is not a frequently performed concerto, and I was familiar with only the third movement.

Kahane acknowledging the orchestra at the conclusion of the Mozart piano concerto.

There were quite a few solo lines in the Haydn symphony, one of which was the Trio with “an enchanting oboe solo, and the [delectable horn accompaniment].”  But these were some of the bright moments in another – again – good but unexceptional performance of the composition.  The movements are Adagio-Allegro, Andante, Menuetto and Trio-Allegretto, and Finale: Vivace (assai).

A "traditional" orchestra was used by Haydn in the Miracle symphony.  There were quite a few solo lines in the piece.

The Respighi turned out to be the most interesting and educational.  I am not one who usually associates paintings with music, but this piece came close to “breaking the code” for me.  The three paragraphs written by Elsa Respighi certainly helped, as one could indeed imagine a woman scattering flowers in Spring, the arrival of the caravan in Adoration, and the waves that brought Venus to the shore.  Interestingly the Magi painting has no reference to the caravan, and I frankly didn’t get the melody of eternal beauty in Venus.  Botticelli referenced various medieval tunes in the work, the most well-known one being “Veni, veni Emmanuel.”  A bit overused, in my opinion.

 Botticelli: La primavera.

 Botticelli: L'adorazione dei Magi.

Botticelli: La nascita di Venere.

We exchanged a concert for next week for this one as we plan to travel to Florida with our children and several grandchildren.  I did not put this concert in my original Create Your Own subscription because I have found past Kahane-led/performed concerts not quite measure up to the best of the NY Phil concerts.  Alas, tonight’s experience is yet another confirmation: enjoyable, but not inspiring.

The instrumentation for Respighi's Triptych includes a triangle, orchestra bell,s celesta, harp and piano.

We decided to take the train in, and I managed to set up Anne’s new phone with the NJ Transit APP.  We also used our cell phones to access the subway.  Dinner was at KFC in Penn Station, not the best place for a meal.