Outside Perspective

usher - Elizabeth Perry

As the concert began, I enjoyed watching the usher as she listened to Aaron Copland. Later on, she sat in one of the chairs, but for the first piece she stood, and looked out over the audience.

continuo - Elizabeth Perry

During the first part of tonight's concert, I began drawing the continuo against the wall on stage, thinking about all the formal lines of the architecture, and then the playful feel of the Poulenc Sinfonietta crept into my pen. Perhaps this is a continuo as seen in the wild, once nature reclaims Heinz Hall for the season.

ceiling detail - Elizabeth Perry

During intermission on Saturday night, I looked up at the ceiling above our Family Circle seats and noticed a dozen faces looking down on us.

conducting - Elizabeth Perry

Manfred Honeck conducting - so much to follow in his gestures. Watching him, I can see the shape of the music differently, as the baton shows me how to listen, what to notice.

Rachmaninoff Festival Finale - Elizabeth Perry

I painted during the first half of the concert, delighting in Vocalise and Symphonic Dances. The Piano Concerto in the second half was... breathtaking. Another piece of music I'd never heard in person before. Until I hear a live performance I forget that the dynamic range in a real concert hall, the nuance and the power, are utterly compelling.

audience - Elizabeth Perry

I've often wondered what it's like to sit in the fanciest boxes for a concert. Is the sound better? worse? How is the view from that angle? From other parts of the hall I can tell that the seats are separate chairs. Beyond that, I know little.

ceiling - Elizabeth Perry

As a counter balance with the organic structure of the oceanic music today, I looked at the semi-abstract geometries of the Heinz Hall ceiling. 

chorus - Elizabeth Perry

I began this as a sketch in fine-point fountain pen during the Braunfels Te Deum, then decided I wanted bolder lines.  I changed to brush with ink and found the mood of shapes and contrasts better suited to Carmina burana...

grounded - Elizabeth Perry

Was struck tonight by how still this violinist kept her feet - the light gleamed off her shoes - no matter how wild, how thrilling, how dynamic the music.  Beethoven, Lalo, Ravel - all her physical expression went into playing, while her feet were motionless, as if drawing energy from their contact with the stage floor.

rhapsody - Elizabeth Perry

Context. Three days after the inauguration of Barack Obama. The Steelers are headed for the Superbowl. The city is giddy with gratitude and anticipation, hope and delight.

And in this environment the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra offers a breathtaking performance of Samuel Barber's first symphony. And then Gabriela Montero plays Rhapsody in Blue. And then, with the audience suggestion repeated and supported by the musicians onstage (bass section, I'm looking at you...), Montero yields to our wish and improvises incredibly on the theme, "Here we go, Steelers - here we go." The shouts and standing ovations delay intermission for a few minutes. And then we return from intermission to the surprise performance of John Williams's quartet, "Air and Simple Gifts." Montero had only just played this at the inauguration, yet we can feel that it's already part of the American canon, part of our shared history. We conclude with Mendelssohn's Reformation symphony.

O.k., so that's just a list. A series of pieces. You've read it on the website or seen it in the paper.  What I'm failing to express here is how context and content, circumstance and performance, came together to form a whole. Reflection. Tears.  Pride. Humor. Passion.  So much emotion was so close to the surface for us to begin with, and then the musicians built it, shaped it, and made simple feeling take complex flight.   

This is only possible in a particular moment, a particular place, and why I love live performance.  I'm grateful to have been there.