Pinchas Zukerman

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:25:54 GMT  <== Entertainment ==> 

On Saturday morning, my family, and a couple of friends, went to Tanglewood to see the dress rehearsal for the Boston Symphony Orchestra's concert of yesterday afternoon. The Saturday morning dress rehearsals are a relatively inexpensive way to see high-brow music for a lot less money ($17, 12 and under free). My wife went early with a regular to these rehearsals, and ran for seats when they opened the doors at 8:30 (performance at 10:30). She saved us front row seats. The "front row" for these rehearsals is about 10 rows back, leaving a buffer zone for the conductor to talk with the orchestra, but they were still incredible seats. Their program was Rapsodie espagnole by Ravel, Violin Concerto No. 1 by Bruch, and Scheherazade by Rimsky-Korsakov. Pinchas Zukerman (wikipedia) played the violin solo for the Bruch on the "Dushkin" Guarnerius del Gesù violin of 1742. I enjoy my recordings of Itzhak Perlman, a close friend of Mr. Zukerman, playing his Soil Stradivarius violin, but there is nothing like live music. To say that I thought I had died and gone to heaven would be an understatement. The Bruch is not a particularly notey piece, though it had it's fast parts, but Mr. Zukerman handled it all, with seeming ease. And the sweetness of the sound that he evinced from his violin was a wonder to behold. I did not cry, as I have done before at a concert, but I closed my eyes in rapture and opened them wide in wonder. At one point he motioned to the string bass section to get louder. He even made kicking motions with his foot. "Kick it! Kick it!" Hehe. What a heavenly experience! Thank you, Mr. Zukerman.

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Comments (1):

Thanks for the music!

Submitted by Iloilo Jones on Fri, 22 Aug 2008 04:52:02 GMT

I used to love to go to the open practices of the Chicago Symphony. It was such a marvelous gift of art.
Oh, what wonderful music you heard!
My inner ear is enjoying those melodies right now.
Thank you.
ilo

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