It was a really nice concert! From my seat WAY up high in the balcony, I could almost make out the faces of faculty from my college (Greg Ewer, violin, Brett EE Paschal, percussion). I was impressed that I heard NO ONE clap between movements! I think it has to have been the first concert I went to where NO ONE clapped between the movements!!
The Shchedrin arrangement of Carmen featured a lot of interesting parts, some which were of great interest to me because they gave me ideas of how to write the tango movement of the string quartet I'm working on. Without the theatre aspect, this seemed really long at point.
The main attraction of the concert was soloist Colin Currie playing a percussion concerto composed by Jennifer Higdon.It was really interesting watching Currie race back and forth, especially after reading the program notes that mentioned how a composer has to consider travel time for a percussionist when they are playing multiple instruments.
I found it very interesting that the soloist joined the percussion section for Gershwin's Cuban Overture. But that wasn't quite as exciting as getting more ideas for my unfinished string quartet (the tango and chacha/salsa movements are left)
It was a nice evening out with friends - two of us went for hot chocolate before the concert - and gave me a break from my studies and usual entertainment (the television or hulu :) )
felt like a conversation between friends with the metamorphosing theme that returned throughout the piece. The second movement, “Larghetto”, brought soothing, lulling melodies—like a consoling talk with a friend. The pairing of the strings and playful interactions with the piano made for a pleasant listen. Smith did a brilliant job at balancing beauty with technique and interacting with the violinist’s cues. The cello seemed to act as the metronome throughout bulk of the piece but had its fair share of melodic prominence. The quartet was fluid, but the cellist and violist did not seem as comfortable participating in the theatrical aspect of the performance.
by Gioacchino Rossini. It was refreshing as a Classical music listener to hear the contrabass being focus of a piece. “Allegro” easily showcased the skills and extremes of each instrument—range, bowings, and quick fingers. The second movement had many exchanges of the theme that were completely fluid, as well as the switches from two-part harmonies to three- or four-part harmonies. The technical change to double-stops was likely unnoticed by the non-string players in the audience. The third movement was extremely playful, but the performers demeanour did not reflect such. During this movement, a group behind me kept giggling—never did find out what was so amusing in the back of the auditorium.
seemed like it was played to help the students say goodbye to the scintillating summer sun and hello to the cool fall rain—a perfect close to the summer. The piece—composed for violin, viola, cello, bass and piano—rotated through the excitement and nonchalance of summer to the advancing autumn with its playful folk melodies, false endings, varying accompanying and melodic structures. However, the visual aspect at the beginning of the piece was imbalanced; the visible emotion was not coming everyone. By the last movement, the emotion and theatrics seemed to be flowing throughout the group—like a child getting accustom to a cool pool. 
