Concert Critique on Mozart and The Height of Classicism

The concert began promptly at 3pm, when the conductor Nicholas McGegan entered the stage with the full theater clapping, along all the members of the orchestra. All the men and women in the orchestra including the conductor were wearing all black suits. Prior to his entrance I noticed that the orchestra began to play, it

Prior the third movement of the first piece, Allegretto, Mr. Robert Levin had the piano setup in the middle of the orchestra, between the strings and the winds. What was interesting about this was that he was facing the crowd and you couldn’t see his hands. Also, that the piano did not have a lid, it was fully exposed. Being sarcastic, he explained that this position was not deliberately placed that way so the audience could not see his hands, but for the acoustic reason of guidance for the wind instruments. He mentioned that if he would have the lid on the piano and open then it would block the sound coming from the wind instruments behind him, which the string instruments use as a guide also. This made sense to me due because the piano was a very important piece of the orchestra for this movement. Before the movement began he played a sample piece of C minor and D major, which is a symbolic note for the wind instruments like he said. He did this to get the audience in the mood for the sound. Promptly after the 5 minute introduction the orchestra began the movement by playing along. Not only did it get the audience, including my self in the mood for the following movement, but I think that without it I wouldn’t have enjoyed or understood the piece the same.

For the second piece, Symphony No. 36 in C major, K. 425, “Linz”, the piano had been placed sideways in front of the orchestra. This was where the conductor was standing, and for the first two movements Adagio-Allegro spiritoso, and Andante Mr. Nicholas McGegan, the conductor, did not participate. It seemed that the pianist conducted the orchestra those two movements. The first movement was a piano concerto, which is the solo I had mentioned earlier. The pianist had the spotlight all to him self. I did not like these two movements in particular. I enjoyed more the others where the violins, viola, cello, flutes, bassoon, French h

Some topics in this essay:
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