Tonight the Seattle Symphony and conductor Ludovic Morlot performed a brand new piece for the first time, and an old piece for the umpteenth time (well maybe not for us Seattlites - we don't get tons of Strauss). What they required in common was a very large orchestra and patience. The program:

1. David Lang: "Symphony Without A Hero" (World Premiere)

   Though Lang lives in New York, this was a commission from the SSO, and the composer was in the audience. This was odd music. It grabbed hold at first with irregular but relentlessly repeating patterns, pounding and interrupting then pounding again, threaded with a melody that would never escape. Neither would the audience it seemed, but after an actual eternity the music did change, mutating into a humming or vibrating sort of texture, a kind of hope. But just as the title suggested there was no hero, and the energy drained away. Psych!

2. Richard Strauss: "Ein Heldenleben"

   This is some wacky shit. I can hardly stand to listen to recordings of "Ein Heldenleben", but in person there are striking passages, and many examples of what a master orchestrator can do with a giant orchestra. There's one part in particular that is fascinatingly weird and modern. In person it was pretty great. Other parts are pure soup, or brass-tastically loud. I rarely feel like Richard Strauss is actully there emotionally (there's emotion, dramatically speaking, but not his own), but heard live it's obvious why so many composers were influenced by his music.

This photo was taken before the David Lang piece (the Strauss had even more of everything — brass, winds, harps...)