Avery Fisher concert

I went to the 11/10 concert, which was rather disappointing. The first piece was some weird Chinese modernist thing, which frankly just sounded noisy. I wanted to like it - supporting my sort-of countrymen & all - but I didn't. Gimmicky orchestral stuff isn't my thing. The young composer is quite handsome though. I was excited about Vadim Repin playing the Lalo Symphonie Espagnole, one of the staples of the solo violin repertoire, and yet again disappointed. He was out of tune a lot. At first I blamed it on nerves, but as it kept happening I couldn't figure out a good excuse for him. Also, he was wearing some kind of weird Nehru jacket & suede shoes that made him look as though he was playing in his pajamas & socks.

The only unqualifiedly good thing about the program was Beethoven's Seventh. I recognized a lot of the melodies, which had been floating around in my head unattached to any particular work. Yes, I was a typical diva violinist, only paying attention to concertmaster solos & the violin repertoire. I also pretty much stopped listening to classical music after I got out from under my mother's thumb 7 years ago so whatever I did know about orchestral music got jumbled up or forgotten.

I liked the whole experience of going to the concert though. It felt very grown-up & cultured; dressing up, having champagne beforehand, reading the program notes, etc. We used to go to concerts almost every week when I was growing up. I hadn't been to a New York Philharmonic concert since I moved here several years ago, & the only times I'd been in Carnegie Hall or Avery Fisher were when I was playing. Fortunately Sexy Englishman quite liked it as well, so we'll probably go to another one.

Sadly, I can't say as much for the ballet. A few months ago I begged him to take me to Sleeping Beauty, which was much more old-fashioned than I expected, with lots of solos & irrelevant (though beautiful) parts, & he hated it. He refuses to go to the Balanchine retrospective thingy they're putting on soon. I keep explaining that it was choreographed at least 100 years later but he won't listen. Maybe my lovely friend Dancer wants to go...