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July17,2005

"symphony and pi" music: Beethoven - Egmont Overture
mood: eh, could be better

took kenji to davies hall on thursday to enjoy a night of beethoven performed by the sf symphony. they played the egmont overture, piano concerto no.5 in Eb major opus 73 (otherwise known as the emperor concerto), and symphony no.7 in A major opus 92. alastair willis, the conductor for the evening (where did MTT go?? ), did a rather, er, mediocre job, i'd say. he started out fine with the egmont overture, but symphony no.7 felt like a flop. i mean, beethoven was one of (and i quote from ron chase that evening) "the most radical composers" that ever lived. his music is beyond amazing as it literally overwhelms the listener. but symphony no.7 did not feel like that at all. i dont like homogenous harmonies in the first place, but i definitely didnt think that was a beethoven piece. sounded more like a mozart during his off-periods. the piano concerto was all right, although i must say that the concert pianist, kirill gerstein, was quite amusing to watch during the tuttis. he swayed to the tutti music like a happy branch in the wind, haha. brilliant pianist though. quite an impressive performance that evening. overall, the concert was satisfactory, despite our first tier seats, lol. but hey, free tickets are free tickets. thank you mr. ron chase!

nothing much on friday except ran a few errands, and got into life of pi. (i'm totally chickening out with the intense books right now, a.k.a. faulkner and the russian literary masters. >.<) pi patel is quite a character, and i'm thoroughly enjoying the novel so far, hehe. it's hilarious how i was attracted to the book. first, i saw the new cover at black oak books and thought to myself, "oh! what pretty colors!" :rollseyes: so i picked up the book, read the back (again because i forgot why i remembered the book title from last summer) and thought, "how quirky!" went home and read the review on amazon and became REALLY interested in the book when critics reiterated the spiritual aspect of the book. the book even claims to renew your faith in God. although i havent received that enlightening result yet, i really do enjoy reading this book. so i guess judging a book by its cover isnt always terribly misleading.

work was hectic on friday, but nevertheless, amusing, haha. i'm always scared that i'm screwing up the orders though. and i do screw up. oy....i hope i'm not disappointing the managers too much. >.< they're so nice to me too. the info desk at the asian art museum was rather busy today. group of 50 in the morning followed by ANOTHER huge group only moments later. nonstop bustling at the south court indeed. coat check was relatively calm, and i did get some more reading done. but yeh, busy day today. or rather, yesterday, haha. busy saturday, full of work. totally the opposite of the usual schoolyear. or maybe not because as i recall, my saturdays during the schoolyear were filled with work too. (i guess relaxing saturdays are just never meant to be.) oh well. life goes on.