On Friday, May 24th, 2002 at 7:30 PM, we went to see the Colorado Symphony Orchestra perform Mozart’s Requiem at the Boettcher Concert Hall. It was a big hall, but not all the seats were filled. Many of the people were decked out in tuxes and dresses, but some weren’t quite so dressed up. Basically, the audience ran the gamut from frequent patrons to once-a-year types to first time SCO concertgoers.
I was expecting only the Requiem, but we heard two classical era pieces instead. To start off the show, they played the 20-minute-long Symphony No. 35 in D major, K. 385, “Haffner” by Mozart. It had 4 movements, which implies to me that it’s sonata form, but I didn’t listen for the exposition, coda, etc… to make sure. The orchestra performed this piece without vocalists. The lead violinist came out and got the orchestra tuned to the oboe. Everyone clapped for her when she came out, and she bowed graciously. Then they clapped again after she came back from the intermission, to which she smiled sheepishly and bowed again, which makes me think they clapped because they like her, not because it’s traditional. After she got the orchestra tuned, the conductor came out and got right into the music. I was surprised that you actually play music in class louder than they play it live. We were pretty close to the stage and could hear every instrument fine, but they just weren’t thunderously loud. From where I was sitting, I could see everyone except the upright basses. The performers were all great – I could see their fingers flying and they were a cohesive group. One thing I found weird was that the only percussionist was a guy playing timpani. You’d think Mozart would have included at least a bass drum, but I could feel it in the ground when he hit the timpani.
The conductor was pretty lively, thought not as lively as that Japanese guy with crazy hair who conducts the Boston Symphony (I think) on Channel Six sometimes. She appeared to do a good job handling the orchestra, chorus, and soloists in the Requiem, but she was kind of annoying as well. She telegraphed the dynamic changes with her body language before they happened, so you always knew when a huge blast was coming, and thus it negated the shock/surprise value. I noticed after reading the program that there was a separate conductor for the chorus, but I didn’t see him during the performance. He seemed kind of useless though, since Ms. Alsop (the conductor) was mouthing many of the words and conducting the choir as much as she was the orchestra.
The Requiem was supposed to last an hour, but it seemed shorter than that. It was cool listening to the huge chorus because I’d never heard a couple hundred voices singing in tandem before. The choir also gave the double fortes a lot more power than the orchestra alone did. There was one gradual crescendo where the chorus and orchestra started out quiet, then got louder and louder while the different vocal registers interplayed with each other and with the orchestra. Simultaneously, the conductor was motioning to everyone with her hand outstretched like, “C’mon, give it to me. Let’s see what you’ve got.”, while they got louder and louder. That was a cool part. Another part I liked was when Mozart had different combinations of the soloists (who came out to sing the Requiem) singing with each other. The progression went something like baritone to tenor to alto to soprano to baritone to tenor to alto/soprano to baritone/alto to tenor/soprano. The constant shifting of singers added a good flow to the song. I liked the tenor and soprano the most. They blended well with the instruments, while the baritone and alto sort of stuck out. The baritone’s and alto’s singing also seemed more boring, like they cared more about technique than feeling. I thought the soloists sang surprisingly little, which was just fine with me. Finally, I liked the brass-only parts of the Requiem. They were a good break from the mostly-string orchestra playing all at once.
After the last note was played everyone started clapping, and they kept clapping like a runaway train. They clapped until the soloists and conductors came back onstage twice. Finally, the orchestra started filing out and the clapping frenzy ended and people went home. We saw some nuns in the parking garage, which was interesting. This concert was kind of like a high-class, entertaining church service.
Another thing is that our tickets didn’t really cost 70 bucks. We got there and the cheapest ones left were 30 bucks, so the guy behind the counter gave us some from his stack of radio promo tickets for free. Apparently, there were 7.50 tickets at one time, but they sold out before we got there.
