Seeing — or rather hearing — classical music in New York is always a mixed bag of experiences. 
This month was a great example.
On May 5, we saw pianist Thomas Schultz at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall. Great space, fantastic concert. Had a great time.
The next day we saw Midori at Jazz at Lincoln Center. I can’t see enough concerts there. The space is amazing, the acoustics are amazing, and you can’t beat the view. DBF and I had balcony seats that basically hovered a few feet above the stage on the left side — amazing. Wonderful concert. Loved it loved it loved it. She’s just thrilling to watch, and it was the first time I’ve seen a Brandenburg Concerto (number 5, specifically) in concert. It was awesome to watch the harsichordists’ fingers flying over the keyboards. The tickets were about $60 each, if I recall correctly. Deal!
On Mother’s Day Sunday, I went to a free soprano recital: Brittany Palmer at Cathedral of St. John the Divine. The recital was inside the cathedral’s St. James chapel. And while the room has its acoustical challenges, it is a pretty cool place to hear live singing.
Last Saturday, I joined a couple of friends for the Wall-to-Wall Bach festival at Symphony Space. I had such a good time. During the 3 1/2 hours I was there (the festival featured 12 straight hours of Bach), I heard two Brandenburg concertos, the chaconne twice (on both guitar and violin), two partitas, and flute sonata, and best of all, the Goldberg Variations performed by Jonathan Denk! All free! (I did contribute a $5 donation, as I did at St. John’s…you feel bad about taking in free music ina freakin’ church…especially one that looks like St. John’s.)
So I was on a roll of great concerts, until yesterday, when I went back to Carnegie, this time in the Issac Stern (read: big) auditorium, for the Met Orchestra performing an all-Mussorgsky program. I love “Pictures at an Exhibition,” and will jump at any opportunity to see/hear it live. The tickets were an impulse buy after the Kathleen Battle concert I took in last month. I got $52 balcony seats. Never…sitting…on the balcony…again.
First of all, the stairs up there are weirdly steep: not so great for all the old folks sitting up there. There was so little room in front of the seats that if I leaned all the way back, my head would be hitting the person’s knees behind me. And my huge feet didn’t seem to really fit behind the seat in front of me, so I had to sit with them sideways. For the people for whom I had to stand up to let pass in front of me to get to their seats, there was barely enough room for them to pass. Two of them were a Chinese woman and her daughter, who was wearing a SARS-esque face mask. I swear to god: if you need to wear a mask, don’t leave the freakin’s house!
But the worst part: the old guy sitting two seats away. Was not only fast asleep from the first few minutes of the concert, but he was snoring!! And there was no one with him to elbow him and wake him up! Nice, loud snoring complete with aburpt snorts when the orchestra would play a few loud measures.
That’s an expensive nap, as the DBF would say.
