Thursday, April 10, 2008

The New York Philharmonic Concert on Wednesday Night

At Avery Fisher Hall @ Lincoln Center they don’t let you up to the concert area until 30 minutes before the concert is to begin. You have to pass through a rather ho-hum bag check by a security officer and then have your ticket scanned by a ticket-taker. Then you ride up the escalator one level for the entrance to the concert hall itself.

I usually get in line just before it opens so I can get a concert program and make one last pit-stop. For a 7:30 concert I like to be in my seat no later than 7:20. They are very strict about late arrivals and don’t allow seating while the orchestra is performing

Tonight’s concert was 7:30 and I was in line at 6:55 with about 5 people ahead of me. Both the ticket clerk and the security guy were in place but 7:00 came and nothing happened. The gate was not opened. At 7:10 the line had gotten long and people were getting restless. I heard someone ahead of me say that the scanning machine was broken and they were waiting for a replacement. Hum ...

Upon hearing this a very small fur-clad Jewish women in her late 70s pushed ahead and went up to the ticket-taker guy, glared at him and then said in a shrill ethnic New York accent ... “Well, why don’t you just tear the damn tickets and let us in?” You could hear a pin drop as the ticket-taker guy just stared at her. I thought ... this is going to get bad ... and then he said: “Yeah, I can do that,” and he did and we went up to our seats, with smiles on our faces. People were giving Jewish lady smiles and thumbs-up.

I had plenty of time for the pit stop and to find my rear orchestra seat. The concert was part of my 3 series subscription with all 21 concerts either on Tuesday or Wednesday, with the seating always rear orchestra, house left. When I found my seat I was astonished to discover that the 4 rows in front of me were filled with well-dressed teenagers who were talking, laughing, standing up, waving and texting on their cells. Oh my God, thought I, this ain’t gonna be good.

Well, I couldn’t have been more wrong. When the concert started they were all totally 100% focused on the stage. At intermission I found out that they were the band class from Brunswick High School, wherever that is. I guess this just goes to show the one shouldn’t make snap-judgements about young people.

The concert itself was awesome. The first part was the world premiere of a piano concerto composed by Tan Dun, commissioned by The New York Philharmonic, and performed by world class pianist Lang Lang. The work grew on me as it developed but I have to admit that I would like anything Lang Lang played, even if he just played scales. At the completion the audience gave a roaring standing ovation as the composer was brought onto the stage. Wow - another NYC first for me.

The second part of the program was the complete version of Stravinsky’s “The Firebird Suite,” and it was breathtaking.

So, it was another awesome night for me in the Big Apple.

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