I was not too excited before tonight's concert, which was part of our subscription. Brahms' Academic Festival Overture was a fine start, but I'm not too fond of the Bruch Violin Concerto, and I'm definitely no fan of Schumann, whose Third Symphony was featured tonight. We kept the tickets primarily because Sarah Chang was the soloist on the Bruch. We had seen her ten years ago at the bowl, when she was only 16. She is an amazing performer. Not only is she impeccable technically, she is one of the most emotional players I have ever seen. Only she could breath so much life into a mundane work like the Bruch concerto. Unfortunately, the notoriously weak horn section clammed at least three times in the Brahms and Bruch. The strings, however, sounded fantastic. Conductor Alexander Mickelthwate had trouble keeping the orchestra together all night long.
The"Rhenish" symphony by Schumann is a snore-fest, but at least the last movement came to life for an nice ending to the evening. Nonetheless, it was a fun evening.
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