BSO: The City & Mahler's 5th Symphony (2016)

I have had the pleasure of attending countless (I have actually lost count) concerts at the Baltimore Symphony for the last three years through the unbelievable Student Select Program. Some of my favorite concerts have been Nobuyuki Tsuji performing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg performing Shostakovich's Violin Concerto, and the concert I heard this evening which might be my last. I don't usually write about classical music, but I will use this concert to reflect on why I love classical music, the BSO and Baltimore.

Marin Alsop led the orchestra in a fabulous rendition of Mahler's 5th Symphony. I thought his 9th was my favorite, but I totally change my mind. Every movement of the 5th is a knockout, especially the famous, gorgeous Adagietto. The difference between listening to a recording and hearing the orchestra live is that it is an experience. You are not just listening to music--you're feeling the music. There are so many moments in the 5th Symphony that give you goosebumps and make your hairs tingle. You can physically feel the music flowing into you. There are moments that allow you to just exhale and release all the stress in the world and bask in the beauty of the music. And it is incredible.

Maestra Alsop has proven herself time and again as a force to be reckoned with and has led the BSO to become a truly modern orchestra. She is a really big deal and she has done some wonderful things with this orchestra. She helped start OrchKids, a program for underprivileged youths modeled after Venezuela's El Sistema using the power of music in a humanitarian way to save children. She was the first woman (and she is openly lesbian) to direct a major American orchestra and was the first woman to conduct the Last Night of the Proms (twice!) and she is the only conductor to be a MacArthur Genius. She is a trailblazer--for sure a future Kennedy Center Honoree.

As part of the BSO's 100th Anniversary, a piece was co-commissioned (with Carnegie Hall) about Baltimore to be composed by Peabody professor and Pulitzer laureate Kevin Puts. The result was "The City" accompanied by a short film by James Bartolomeo. The piece makes great use of percussion. Instead of putting the percussion all in the back as usual, they were spread out, with a percussionist on the left and right sides of the orchestra and another in the back, spreading the sound and creating a call-and-response in the concert hall. The film cut perfectly with the rhythm of the drums. It included stills, video, news and time-lapse footage of "The Greatest City in America": Baltimore. It is ostensibly about the attractions of Baltimore at first, but it soon becomes clear that it is really about the people. While the music was amazing (the best 21st century piece I've ever heard), I was especially moved by the video and found myself tearing. I've been thinking about my final months in college but it really hit me while listening to this piece about Baltimore. I'm going to miss Baltimore. I never would have thought that I'd say that one or two years ago, but finally in my third (and final) year of college I began to explore the city more and have grown fond of Baltimore. Baltimore has a strong sense of community that is almost unheard of in New York. I regret that I wasn't more involved in the community beyond Hopkins and I wish that I had left the Hopkins bubble more and earlier. Absence, or anticipated absence, makes the heart grow fonder. The video made me feel nostalgic and I think nostalgia is the most powerful sentiment (I think that's why I like Cinema Paradiso so much). That's right, I teared even before the part about the uprising. But like Stravinsky's Firebird, Baltimore musically rises from the ashes and the people rejoice in song and dance. Meyerhoff Hall (which is beautiful) is without a doubt my favorite place in Baltimore. And I'm so lucky to have enjoyed so much time there.