Things I have gone to in October
Peter and the Symphony
Johannes Brahms' Third symphony. This concert was the first in the "Exposed" series, which promises to explore selected musical pieces in greater depth than a regular concert (not difficult to do, since regular concerts frequently contain very little except the music itself).
The first half was explanatory, with the conductor providing a context for the music (e.g. where and when it was composed and performed, a sketch of the composer's life and character, significant ties with other prominent figures, etc.) and the orchestra providing examples of interesting features of the music (e.g. comparing music at time t with music at time t + x for large values of x [e.g. 20 minutes], isolating the sound of instrument y at points where y is normally drowned out by louder instruments, etc.). The second half consisted of a full performance of the piece.
My musical education is essentially non-existent, so I cannot comment on the profundity of the explanatory portion, but I can say that I found both the historical context and the selected excerpts instructive, and that I fully intend to attend the remaining concerts in this series.
Oh, and the music was fantastic.
The Amazing Kreskin
He put on a three-hour long show, but it felt much shorter (except for the last part, which was kind of boring). He didn't do anything that couldn't be faked with the help of minions, and I can think of duplicitous ways of achieving some of the same effects even without external aid. Even under the assumption that his extraordinary powers are faked, he's still an entertaining performer, and if he (and his offer of $1,000,000 to anyone who can prove otherwise) is legit, then I'd say his moniker is something of an understatement.
Burton Cummings
a.k.a. "Yes, I saw his show on Friday and he was quite obstreperous."
I've taken advantage of my time in Toronto to go see and hear many live performances; some in small, intimate settings with only one or two performers, some in large venues capable of holding thousands of people with dozens of performers. In the first category, Heather Dale is by far my favourite; Burton Cummings fits into the second category.
Sadly, he did not play every song of his that I wanted to hear. Happily, this is because he was too busy playing other songs of his that I did want to hear. He played songs I had forgotten I knew (and they were good), songs I hadn't heard in 20 years (and they were good), new music from his latest solo album (and they were good), and chart-toppers from his days as singer/songwriter with The Guess Who (and they were good), among others (and they were good too).
He was also pretty good at chatting up the audience in between (and during) songs. You could really feel the love when he told us all to shut up and stop messing with his chicka-chicka-chicka, or when the ushers were trying to get people to return to their seats and he told us to ignore them, that if we were all up there "they won't be able to do a damn thing about it".
Also, wikipedia claims he was born on December 31 :)
Phantoms of the Opera
(Or "Orchestra", as the case may be, though I seem to recall the web site saying "Opera" for a while.) A Young People's Concert, only an hour long, and with mimes. The mimes scored higher on style than believability, but (a) I think that's how mimes normally are, (b) all the costumed six-year-olds in the audience didn't seem to mind, and (c) I've got a lot of six-year-old in me. I'm wearing my cape to the next Hallowe'en concert!
Johannes Brahms' Third symphony. This concert was the first in the "Exposed" series, which promises to explore selected musical pieces in greater depth than a regular concert (not difficult to do, since regular concerts frequently contain very little except the music itself).
The first half was explanatory, with the conductor providing a context for the music (e.g. where and when it was composed and performed, a sketch of the composer's life and character, significant ties with other prominent figures, etc.) and the orchestra providing examples of interesting features of the music (e.g. comparing music at time t with music at time t + x for large values of x [e.g. 20 minutes], isolating the sound of instrument y at points where y is normally drowned out by louder instruments, etc.). The second half consisted of a full performance of the piece.
My musical education is essentially non-existent, so I cannot comment on the profundity of the explanatory portion, but I can say that I found both the historical context and the selected excerpts instructive, and that I fully intend to attend the remaining concerts in this series.
Oh, and the music was fantastic.
The Amazing Kreskin
He put on a three-hour long show, but it felt much shorter (except for the last part, which was kind of boring). He didn't do anything that couldn't be faked with the help of minions, and I can think of duplicitous ways of achieving some of the same effects even without external aid. Even under the assumption that his extraordinary powers are faked, he's still an entertaining performer, and if he (and his offer of $1,000,000 to anyone who can prove otherwise) is legit, then I'd say his moniker is something of an understatement.
Burton Cummings
a.k.a. "Yes, I saw his show on Friday and he was quite obstreperous."
I've taken advantage of my time in Toronto to go see and hear many live performances; some in small, intimate settings with only one or two performers, some in large venues capable of holding thousands of people with dozens of performers. In the first category, Heather Dale is by far my favourite; Burton Cummings fits into the second category.
Sadly, he did not play every song of his that I wanted to hear. Happily, this is because he was too busy playing other songs of his that I did want to hear. He played songs I had forgotten I knew (and they were good), songs I hadn't heard in 20 years (and they were good), new music from his latest solo album (and they were good), and chart-toppers from his days as singer/songwriter with The Guess Who (and they were good), among others (and they were good too).
He was also pretty good at chatting up the audience in between (and during) songs. You could really feel the love when he told us all to shut up and stop messing with his chicka-chicka-chicka, or when the ushers were trying to get people to return to their seats and he told us to ignore them, that if we were all up there "they won't be able to do a damn thing about it".
Also, wikipedia claims he was born on December 31 :)
Phantoms of the Opera
(Or "Orchestra", as the case may be, though I seem to recall the web site saying "Opera" for a while.) A Young People's Concert, only an hour long, and with mimes. The mimes scored higher on style than believability, but (a) I think that's how mimes normally are, (b) all the costumed six-year-olds in the audience didn't seem to mind, and (c) I've got a lot of six-year-old in me. I'm wearing my cape to the next Hallowe'en concert!