So I was at the NEC (New England Conservatory) earlier, buying some violin studies, and noticed that the Boston Pops were being conducted by John Williams in Tanglewood this evening – I just drove more than 250 miles.
Heck, I like being spontaneous sometimes, and I had burned a collection of Guns N’ Roses greatest hits that needed playing as I drove down the highway, on a mission. I got to Lenox (Tanglewood) in time for the intermission, and the front gate staff decided that my 2 hour driving quest didn’t warrant me still paying for a ticket…so they let me in. I watched the “Harry Potter” themed second half…and the “ET” encore.
John Williams is a great composer and conductor. To a point. The only real problem I have with his stuff is that it all sounds the “same” – there’s always that “Williams” signature to it that tells you “it’s another one” and tells Hollywood execs that they’re onto yet another sure bet. It would be nice to see a little creativeness, or so I thought, as I heard Home Alone coming through in the performance of several Harry Potter pieces.
Tanglewood was good. I did nearly 5 hours of driving tonight, to see the Boston Pops perform for under an hour, but I enjoyed it anyway. I will definitely have to go back next summer to see the BSO (I can’t wait for the fall season to finally begin so I can have my fix). I would love to hear from people interested in going to BSO concerts, or who know about any other performances, recitals, or other events happen in Boston. I especially would like to see a performance of Messiah sometime this year…it’s just something I like to see from time to time. You don’t have to be religious to appreciate great works of choral art.
The only negative thing I’m going to say here is that I wish more people would appreciate good classical music, and I wish that those who choose to partake of performances such as that from this evening, would learn how to behave using some kind of civilized notion of behavior. We live in a very shockingly disturbing MTV generation, but even more shocking than that is when you see the older generation unable to figure out how to keep quiet, not stand in the way, and generally just learn how to not yell out “down in front”. Yes, we both want those people to sit down, and no, shouting is not the answer.
Did you know that the US doesn’t have any kind of national music grading system for theory either? The guy in the store (who sells AB books – I bought the pink one, and no Hannah, you can’t have this one! 
) tells me that there are some dudes in Chinatown who run AB exams, and that some British person comes over to invigilate them. I might actually finally get my grade 5 properly sorted out at some point.
Jon.