I went to the TSO the night before I headed off to Paris. Originally, I was supposed to go with my parents, but because of the heavy snowstorm, they declined to go. Instead I invited Peter and Richard to come along. The night was titled Classical Legends and featured 6 pieces! However, the night was still short since there were no major pieces. Apparently The Star also thought the same way since they don’t have a review of the night online! Although they might have used the weather as an excuse.

I enjoyed the first piece, Smetana’s Overture to The Secret. It sounds like a “pop” Classical piece. Next up was Strauss’ first horn concerto. I was looking forward to this piece because I love the sound of the horn, however this and listening to the Mozart horn concerto’s again, I realized that the horn is not a good solo instrument. Mozart’s Symphony No. 32 ended the first part and even though it was a symphony, was only nine minutes.

Two Dvorak pieces were after the intermission. For The Midday Witch, the conductor, Charles Oliveri-Munroe, explained the themes to the audience by having the instruments play pieces of the themes. I found this really informative and it helped me understand the music. It’s too bad that other conductors don’t follow this example more often. Humoresque (the 7^th) was the second piece, and I enjoyed this one as well; too bad it is a rather short piece. The evening capped off with Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche which was a weird and eventful piece.

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: classical, concerts, tso