Skip to main content

BSO (Boston Symphony Orchestra) Reflections

One main highlight of my spring semester was going to the BSO (Boston Symphony Orchestra) on Saturday nights. In fact, it was something that I looked forward to when I felt miserable in class. Some nights, I was tired and didn't feel like going, but I would tell myself to go because each show was pretty much free ($5 for the entire season as an MIT student). I am glad I made myself go, even though there were times I was on a tight schedule. 

Here were all the concerts I attended: 

  1. Mozart and Bruckner, 2/19
  2. Shostakovich and Stravinsky, 2/26
  3. Ives, Unsuk Chin, and Berlioz, 3/5 
  4. Britten (War Requiem), 4/2 
  5. Tchaikovsky, Ellen Reid, and Sibelius, 4/9
  6. Strauss, 4/23
I really wanted to go to the Debussy concert on 4/16 but sadly Saturday tickets sold out and as a college card holder, I do not get first priority for tickets. Technically, I could have ditched class on Friday to watch it, but I felt guilty for having such thoughts. 

I don't remember each show that well, though I did write down my impressions in my journal. One of the most memorable performances was probably the Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 4 (Romantic) because I didn't really know who Bruckner was before the performance. I remember experiencing this rare feeling of realizing that I was a small part of a big universe and that so much was out there, waiting to be explored. It is a feeling that can't be achieved when you watch the symphony on YouTube or listen to it on the radio. It requires focusing on the symphony by seeing them play in front of you. I had trouble articulating these feelings and the closest description I found was in the book Cork Dork about what a sommelier experiences when he tastes very good wine. The music filled the entire symphony hall and everything blended well together. I really liked the crescendo and felt like there was this strong force of unity. The symphony reminded me of how beautiful nature can be, as the symphony was meant to depict aspects of nature. When they played, I imagined the picturesque scenery of Germany and the sunlight. I thought about the animals waking up. I thought of the song as some motivational piece to rouse an army of knights to seize the day. 

For the 2/26 performance, I was touched when the conductor (Andris Nelsons) made a brief speech devoting the pieces to those in Ukraine, as this was around the time Russia started invading Ukraine. When I listened, I thought about the people suffering in Ukraine and the pain they were going through. I realized that even though the symphony hall consisted of audience members from different backgrounds, what all of us had in common was our interest in classical music. I found it beautiful that music was a way to unite everyone because of the universal emotions one can understand through music. This may be a stretch, but I was reassured by the fact that despite increasing political polarization and differences, there are still a couple of things that people across the political spectrum share: food & drink, music, art, dance, etc. 

The 3/5 performance was an eventful one. The first piece was The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives. The whole performance took me by surprise. I wasn't the only person in the audience who was confused about why there were only a couple of flute players on the stage. There was some music in the background and a trumpet player was in the back (I have no idea where the trumpet player was). The purpose of this physical arrangement was probably to have the piece mimic dialogue between two people. These are all my thoughts. 

Afterwards, there was an interesting contemporary piece by Unsuk Chin. The music was pretty rough and jagged. It wasn't the type of mellifluous song that I usually enjoyed listening to, but I still appreciated being exposed to different types of composers. A cool thing about going to the BSO is having a brief chat with people sitting next to you. The person next to me said that the piece made her think of current events and increasing political tensions. The interpretation made sense to me because when I listened to the piece, it reminded me of some apocalypse or nightmare and my heart tightened as the piece approached fortissimo. 

The Berlioz piece that followed the contemporary piece was a pleasant way to end the concert because the long piece told a story that went through the highest highs and lowest lows of human emotion. It was a rollercoaster ride. I am glad that going to the BSO made me know more composers that I previously didn't really know of, such as Ives, Sibelius, etc. Before, my classical music knowledge was limited to famous composers such as Chopin, Debussy, etc. 

The 4/9 performance also had another contemporary performance with an intriguing title of When the World as You've Known It Doesn't Exist by Ellen Reid. I had to read that title more than once to understand what those words exactly meant. The piece was written before COVID and had to do with the 19th amendment (women suffrage), but I think the pandemic makes the piece more significant. It reminded me of how our normal lives (the world we have known) were upended and then quarantine quickly replaced our original lives (doesn't exist). Sadly, I don't really remember my impressions of the piece, but it vaguely reminded me of Chin's symphony piece, specifically the disjointedness and cacophony. 

Overall, the 2021-2022 BSO season was awesome and I can't wait for the upcoming season. There is Yuja Wang, Seong Jin-Cho, and other great performers that I am planning to watch. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Accepted BU RISE Essays

BU RISE is a 6-week research program at Boston University. In 2019, the acceptance rate was around 16% so it is a selective program. There are two tracks- internship and practicum. The internship is the one I applied to because I wanted to work in a lab. Unfortunately, BU RISE in 2020 was cancelled due to COVID-19. If you are applying to BU RISE, these essays may be a source of inspiration.  1.Why you selected your field of interest and what you would like to research (300 words)  First choice: medical laboratory research (biochemistry) Second choice: chemistry  Ever since 2018, I participated in a Science Olympiad event called Protein Modeling that sparked my interest in proteins. When I learned about the anti-CRISPR protein, it alarmed me that the protein stopped CRISPR from working. Wondering how this could happen, I used Jmol to build and visualize the protein model. Over time, I no longer viewed proteins as messy globs. Instead, I appreciated that the protein’s disti...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Funny Thing About Memory

 The more I stay in the U.S., the more I remember my years in Taiwan in a positive light. I feel like my nostalgia for Taiwan caused my memories to become distorted. When I lived in Taiwan, I disliked the humid environment and the gray skies after rainy days. I complained that the buildings had gray walls from the mold that grew on them. In elementary school, I wished that the city planning reflected the U.S. system where all the residential buildings were together instead of having commercial and residential buildings next to each other. After returning to the U.S. five years later, however, I don't really think those aspects of Taiwan were really downsides. Nowadays, I somehow manage to neglect those "downsides" whenever I think of Taiwan.  What I currently think about Taiwan is not what I expected to reflect upon the most as I boarded the plane to San Francisco in 2016. When I saw the green land vanish before my eyes outside my airplane window, I thought about how much...
Post a Comment
Read more

Why I Blog

 For the past two years, I have been blogging every so often, but I never asked myself why I blogged. The main reason I blog is to store and organize my thoughts that I keep hearing in my brain. These thoughts range from past memories to feelings of disappointment or anger. By writing my thoughts, I gain some clarity. Also, blogging serves as a form of self-reflection that I need to do on a regular basis or else my brain still acts fuzzy.  Although I write a lot of posts that aren't positive, I have a pretty good life. The reason that I tend to write a lot of negative things about myself on the blog is that if I don't write about bad things, then they keep bothering me. Worse, I may not learn from my mistakes or lessons. Still, I will try to balance out the negative content with some positive content because I want this blog to be useful for others. I don't want a blog where I all I do is criticize myself for failing to live up to my expectations. Instead, I want this websi...
Post a Comment
Read more