Thursday, April 22, 2010

The Boston Philharmonic concert last night was all 20th-century music:
Revueltas Sensemaya - engaging, rhythmic, cinematic music, and brief
Ginastera Harp Concerto - impressive virtuosic playing, but meh overall
Stravinsky Rite of Spring - I don't think I've heard this performed live before and I understand even more why people would respond so strongly to it almost 100 years ago at its premiere -- lyric then brutal, delicate then overwhelming, frightful then briefly calm -- and essentially unrecognizable as classical and romantic music of the time, yet still engaging and moving. Wow.