A Night at the Mann

Last night we took the boys to the Mann Center for the Performing Arts here in Philadelphia. There running open air concerts performed by the Philadelphia Orchestra. We heard a Ginastera suite from Estancia, Mendelssohn’s “Violin Concerto in E Minor (Op. 64)” and Mursorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition.

I’m a huge fan of Mendelssohn. His music is wonderful and his revival of Schubert in particular should be enough to warrant high praise. The violinist (Leila Josefowicz I believe) brought through the piece with feeling and beauty.

The high point of the night for the boys was Mursorgshy’s symphony. My older son (age 11) had been reading through the shorter pieces, but the darkening skies and sheer power of the music brought his full attention to the event. My younger son (age 9) spent the entire time simply transfixed by the music. He’s been studying cello this year, and so we sat where he could get a good view of the cellists. The piece is quite fun and watching Giancarlo Guerrero conduct is always entertaining.

Good times. Now back to writing and teaching….