Monday, January 29, 2024

Love fest at the National Symphony


Seong-Jin Cho takes his seat to begin Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58/By Patricia Leslie, Jan. 26, 2024

The Kennedy Center was hopping Friday night with Chinese dance and music in the Opera House, tick, tick ...BOOM! at the Eisenhower Theater, the National Symphony Orchestra at the Concert Hall and plenty of ushers to smile, greet us, and answer questions like, "which way to the opera?" "The Symphony?"

At the Concert Hall, I was fortunate in my wretched seat (first tier, against the wall's perimeter) to be caddy-corner from a fellow on the row in front of me whose head bobbed up and down, like maestro Gianandrea Noseda's baton, affording me a milli-second glimpse every so often of the guest pianist Seong-Jin Cho playing Ludwig van Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 in G major, Op. 58.

Seong-Jin Cho returns to the stage again and a standing ovation, followed by conductor Noseda/By Patricia Leslie, Jan. 26, 2024


Before Cho finished Beethoven, the head of the man in front of me at last settled at a right angle and did not move until roused by the applause at the end which afforded me a long-awaited few moments of actual sighting of Mr. Cho whose fingers naturally were obscured from my view and hidden by the piano.

The piece thrilled the sold-out crowd, calling Mr. Cho back for five (or six? I lost count) returns to the stage where, at last, he sat down for one more time to play a bit of, was it Mozart?

It was a dreadful seat I had.

Once at Strathmore for the Baltimore Symphony, when I had one of those seats high up against the wall on the perimeter of the hall, I asked for another seat at intermission and got one! (This has worked for me every time on Broadway when two-ton Harry sits in front of you and your view is hidden. I tell you stage managers do a very good job!)

I had waited until the last minute to buy a ticket for the National Symphony and there were few tickets left. My fault.

My dreadful seat ($45.71) allowed me to see half the stage, smashed up against the wall, but, after all, we go for the sound, right? and not the visuals, but seeing is believing and sights do help!

You know the seats: The ones you spot when you look up from the orchestra level and are always thankful it's them and not you sitting up there, only able to see half the stage.

All three of the pieces on the program were huge hits and it was hard to judge which was the crowd favorite, but let me just say, they all were.

I went for the Shostakovich.

Conductor Noseda and composer-in-residence Carlos Simon at the conclusion of Simon's Wake Up!/By Patricia Leslie, Jan. 26, 2024


Conductor Noseda and composer-in-residence Carlos Simon bow their heads to receive the audience's applause at the conclusion of Simon's Wake Up!/By Patricia Leslie, Jan. 26, 2024

The evening began with the stirring Wake Up!, a NSO co-commission and the NSO premiere with the composer-in-residence, Carlos Simon, on hand to receive ongoing applause from the wildly enthusiastic audience. Mr. Cho followed before intermission.

Conductor Gianandrea Noseda recognizes members of the National Symphony at  the conclusion of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony/By Patricia Leslie, Jan. 26, 2024

But, truly, truly, I say unto you that the Washington, D.C. Symphony audience is madly in love with conductor Gianandrea Noseda who seems to sincerely enjoy the accolades thrust upon him and who wouldn't?

He was awarded with nonstop standing ovations and applause which drew him back three times to the stage after he finished Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony which the orchestra pounded out in militaristic style. (Take that, Stalin and Putin!)

Although the QR code was available for a digital-ugh-program, the ushers upstairs distributed printed programs to the welcoming crowd. (Thank you very much, ushers! Maybe I should not complain so much about upper-level seating where we can get printed - mon Dieu! - programs!)

What a night it was!

More! More! Please play and program more like last weekend!

Rock on, National Symphony!

Next up: The National Symphony Orchestra with Audra McDonald, Jan. 30 and Jan. 31, 8 p.m., Kennedy Center

The view from Tier I while standing/By Patricia Leslie, Jan. 26, 2024


patricialesli@gmail.com







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