I came to this excited to hear the violin concerto by Gyorgi Ligeti played live, but I ended up less enthralled with it than I expected, and came away with the Mozart symphony playing on repeat in my head.

The program:

1. Ligeti: Violin Concerto (1993)

   I know this music from a recording with Patricia Kopatchinskaja (Spotify: spotify:album:4H8kGEKZAN51fiuxuNbDkA). Live it seemed more dry and distant, with a high dynamic range partially swallowed by the hall, but I was still glad to hear it, and I'm grateful that the SSO took it on. It was preceded by a video of the conductor projected above the stage, explaining the music. This was nice in fact. Morlot is always warm and engaging. On the other hand I wonder if it contributed to the audience not being quite settled when the music began. Also there were quite a number of inattentive old people coughing through the quiet parts... In any case, the vioinist Augustin Hadelich crushed it, and for his encore he exemplified true violin wizardry with a Paganini caprice.

2. Stravinsky: Funeral Song

   This is an early work that was lost until very recently when it was unearthed in a library. It's interesting historically, in that it shows early influences, but it's not that great a piece.

3. Mozart, Symphony #39

   This is how they tricked people into hearing Ligeti, but man, this symphony is so freaking great! I haven't been able to get it out of my head ever since. It's something I absorbed many years ago, but it was still in there, so this time I could really sense what a perfect clockwork it is. My friend was quite taken with it, so I made a playlist with two different performances of it: spotify:user:1227240304:playlist:2DaY99Y6XcS4Ju4RI7A0O5