Kennedy Center: National Symphony Orchestra - Saariaho, Mozart, and Strauss

 A friend gifted me a ticket to Saturday evening's National Symphony Orchestra concert at the Kennedy Center.  If you think that Classical Music isn't for you, then you've never been to a live performance.  No matter the piece being played, there is a vibrancy to the collective efforts of such a large group of musicians that is electrifying.  And in the hands of a gift maestra, it's magical.

The three works chosen for this concert were varied spanning three-and-a-half centuries.  The Guest Conductor, Simone Young, was born in Sydney, Australia and in her relatively short life, she's packed a helluva lot of credits onto her dance card.  Watching her conduct was pure joy.  She is in it to win it!  Her whole body moves and jerks and rises on the fullest extent of her toes as she swings her shoulders and waves her arms and uses her fingers to guide the players performances.  It's as if the cobra where in charge of the flutist.  To extend the metaphor, she was dressed all in black with a smock that pulled from her elbows to tug at the sides looking a times like a kite about to go airborne!

The first piece was "Orion" by Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho (1952-2023).  To be honest, I had never heard of her before--and shame on me.  This piece was dynamic in tone and rhythm launching the audience from one place to another like a bug caught in a jar that someone was shaking.  The practical effect kept me on the edge of my seat, even as moments of melodic clarity shifted to dissonant pounding cacophony. A moody, wild ride.

The second selection featured the renown pianist, Lise de la Salle.  She entered that stage wearing white slacks and a top covered in large, silver sequines.  My first thought was, a female version of Liberace?  The piece before her was Mozart's Concerto No. 9 in E-flat major for Piano and Orchestra.  The moment the first movement (Allegro) began, I recognized it well.  Sitting before the Grand Piano sideways, as she played beneath the spot lights, suddenly her arms began to glitter like some artistic electrical flow running down her arms from her shoulders to the keys of the piano!  (That's called outstanding costume design).

Perhaps due to the way that classical radio stations mince up compositions to fit time constraints, the second, Andantino movement was unfamiliar to me, and a revelation in the hands of Madam de la Salle.  At the end of her performance, she received a mostly majority standing ovation.  Her encore was a love little piece by Franz Schubert.  I could not hear the title from my seat.  It was utterly new to me, and sweet--like a lullaby.  She dedicated it to her desire for peace in the world.

The final work was by Richard Strauss, "Also Sprach Zarathustra" opus 30.  Short of Beethoven's 5th Symphony, I would be hard pressed to find a more recognizable introductory movement to a major orchestral piece.  And sadly, the intro was all that I knew of it.  Turns out there's another 30 minutes of music on the other side.  Turns out that much of it is romantic in style and sprinkled with melodic references to folk tunes and nature.  And as loud and dynamic as the introduction is, the ending is as soft and uncomplicated... which makes the intro that much more stunning.

Sunset over the Potomac River from the Veranda of the Kennedy Center in DC