On Friday, Patrick and I saw James
Galway perform with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at Walt Disney Hall.
A disclaimer before I commence with my report:
Though I am a flutist who performs mostly classical music, I don't really
listen to classical music. Sad, but true. I know what I've played (to the extent that my mind retains past performances, which is to say, not much), and I know what I like, but I'm not a huge listener. I'm also a huge gigantic sap. Keep that in mind.
So Friday was my
RDO, and it rained, all day. Lotta rain for Los Angeles, and I had errands to run, one of which involved an appointment at Kaiser - I've been trying to get Kaiser to write me a referral to get acupuncture, and it's been a time-consuming effort. Friday I had an appointment with Dr. Jan Li of the Pain Management Department, and Dr. Li was awesome. She listened, she wasn't condescending (another doctor I had to see with the PM department was), and she totally got where I was coming from. In two weeks I should be receiving my referral, which is totally cool. So that's a huge relief. Anyway, after that, I went to the Post Office, Trader Joe's, the Christian bookstore (on an errand for my mom. I swear to god the woman who greeted me crossed herself when I walked in the door).
Anyway, after all that I came home and did my usual activities for my day off: paid bills, watched TV, sat around, took a nap, played with the cats, and got ready to pick Patrick up at work so we could head downtown early, in one car.
Traffic was surprisingly light, so we got downtown early, and did a few things like eat dinner and wander around, and then it was time for
Galway. I had decided to buy $40 tickets, figuring that there can't really be bad seats at Walt Disney Hall... and they weren't terrible, if you consider that the place isn't that big. We were in the last row, though, with actual wall behind us. We've sat all over the place there, and except for the Orchestra View seats (which are cool, visually, but hurt your butt), these were the worst seats we've had. However, I was optimistic.
(Spotted at
WDH, one row in front of us:
David Shostac. Our seats sucked, I'm not sure why he was up in the cheap seats with us, but maybe he knew something about the acoustics we didn't. It was pretty cool to see him: I haven't seen him since the flute convention. He doesn't know me.)
This was a casual Friday, which I really like. The orchestra was in their street clothes, and that's really the only reason I wished I'd had some binoculars: there was one player in the viola section who looked like she was wearing something
Bjork would be comfortable in. She looked cool. The rest of the orchestra was basically dressed like I had been when I was running errands: jeans, sneakers, fleece sweater. (
Galway wore a baby blue suit with what appeared to be matching shirt, and shoes. Yes.
Baby blue shoes.)He switched the order of the program, and instead of starting with the Mozart Concerto in D Major, he started with the other Mozart on the program, the Andante in C. It was kind of cool to hear music that I am so totally familiar with. I've played both these
Mozarts, and when I bought my
headjoint in 2004, the D Major was the only piece of music I remembered well enough to know if I was getting something magical out of it (does that make sense? I mean, I
could've played anything, I guess), or if I was just fooling myself, or if magic was even possible. Player optional. Anyway, Patrick, who, throughout the years has heard these two pieces performed many times as well (all Patty's students perform them both, as they should!, at some point in time, so he's heard all sorts of different renditions), was just as familiar with them. But I keep digressing, don't I. So he comes out, and he plays the Andante first. And the first notes out of his flute - those familiar, notes! - were beautiful. Having an orchestra backing him was different, for us - we're used to hearing the piano play all the orchestra parts, so having the orchestra was a treat. But it was the flute part that got us. It was as wonderful as I'd hoped, and yes, we were both crying.
Such saps.
Unfortunately the rest of the concert was kind of a let-down. I am not a professional classical music critic, so maybe it's because of where we were and the nature of the instruments in the orchestra... but during the Concerto, we both were disappointed. The horn section was just so loud, and Sir James was covered up more than I would've liked. Now, maybe that's
because brass instruments carry and are naturally louder than the flute. But it was distracting. Maybe down on the floor in the good seats it wasn't an issue. And, while there were moments in the Schubert where the flutes and the oboes and the clarinets were perfectly together, totally in
sync and gorgeous, there were also moments when the orchestra was just off. After the genius of the first piece, I got a little squirmy as the night went on.
Still, I'm not complaining.
Galway was inspiring and charming, and has a gorgeous, sweet sound that speaks beautifully. Of course he does. He is who he is, and I'm glad we went.
Last night, I was having a weird dream, though, the only part I recall involved my standing in my kitchen opening a can of corn.
