An Evening With New York Philharmonic

Madame K is back in town for a bit and of course we had to meet before she flies off home. We had a couple of choices, one of which involved a dinner at Tatsuya. However, the date we arranged to meet was exactly during the performances of the New York Philharmonic with Alan Gilbert.

There wasn't much of a tussle. Tatsuya lost. Out of the 2 nights, we picked tonight's programme featuring Frank Peter Zimmermann on the violin doing Brahms' Concerto in D major for Violin and Orchestra, Op.77. We kept an ear out for Allegro non troppo, Adagio, Allegro giocoso and ma non troppo vivace- Poco più presto.

I really really wanted to see and hear the violionist virtuoso at a live venue, not on cds or youtube. I figured Madame K would enjoy too. What I did not expect was the man to merrily (voluntarily) come along. Well....honestly, it wasn't his sort of music. But the man surprised me. He did not fall asleep and in fact, paid rapt attention to the instruments.

For the second part of the performance, Madame K and I especially enjoyed the full orchestra's very familiar selections from Mahler's Symphony No.1 in D major. We proclaimed Fierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen as tonight's personal favorite part. Fairly safe picks by the orchestra for tonight's audience who wouldn't be too critical.

Off stage, I couldn't keep my eyes off the many bags on the arms of a well dressed crowd. Chanel and Hermès dominated the entire seating at the stalls and foyer stalls. Big totes, shoulder slings, small rectangles, evening purses...... I had a fun time eyeing the neverending parade of bags. I thought it was kinda cool that there were many men in the audience who still bothered to throw a jacket over their jeans for a night out at Esplanade Concert Hall.

The best part of the evening- receiving a big bouquet of cheerful yellow flowers from Madame K. You know what babe? You're uncanny. I'm not sure how you selected these out of all available species at the florist's. These are flowers that belong to my favorites.