Last night, I went to a concert by the Trust Waikato Symphony Orchestra, a community orchestra here in Hamilton. The concert was titled From Russia with Love – had nothing to do with the James Bond movie starring Sean Connery.
From Russia with Love
The Russian connection was Tchaikovsky.They were playing the overture fantasy Romeo and Juliet and the symphony no. 4. I quite like Tchaikovsky, but somehow Vaughan Williams’ Concerto for Oboe didn’t really fit in there. The oboe sounded quite often rather breathless, constantly babbling, never really giving the audience time to take in what they just heard. If that would have been a jazz guitar solo, my old jazz teacher would have scolded that person:
A solo is a conversation, if you just keep on talking without a break, people will stop listening to you after 2min.
That’s how I felt. It didn’t matter that the soloist, Jenny Johnson, was technically brilliant. It just sounded like she was talking all the time; a constant drone, you could say.
Anyway, I really enjoyed the concert. Was also funny that some colleagues of mine didn’t recognize me – wearing a suit for a change. 😉