Excuse me while I talk shop...

In case you didn't catch the Dallas Symphony Orchestra's performance this Sunday because you were, oh, i don't know, watching the Super Bowl game or something, here's what you missed: Brahms Hungarian Dances (1-6), Liszt's First Piano Concerto (with 21-year old Natasha Paremski), and Béla Bartók's Miraculous Mandarin Suite.

Thoughts:
Without a full symphony in the second half, the concert felt light and easy to swallow, perfect for a Sunday afternoon. (I say this despite the Bartók, which is not light and probably hard for some to swallow. Its brevity counterbalanced its heavy dose of German expressionism.)

The Brahms dances were split in the program with three at the beginning of each half. I found I enjoyed them more when presented this way, mostly because 2, 3, and 4 didn't get lost in the middle and each one was able to shine when grouped so sparsely. Guest conductor Gilbert Varga (who is Hungarian) treated the Brahms more subtly than I expected but still reveled in the happy, lurching, hemiola-filled energy of the dances. And 5 pleased the crowd. No disappointment there.

The Liszt was thoroughly engaging. Natasha Paremski's rich, bold, touch made me want to hear her play Beethoven. Also, bold: red patent leather shoes on stage. Thank god (and Natasha (and Liszt?)) for a wee bit of fashion on the concert stage. Also, thanks to Liszt (or Natasha (or god?)), I became intensely preoccupied with the idea of purchasing a piano ASAP during the last movement. I was insanely jealous of Ms. Paremski and felt an urgent need to practice every day. Specifically, I felt like practicing Chopin's A Maj. "Military" Polonaise, a piece I have not played since I butchered it in 8th grade.

This intense desire to practice was an unexpected urge. (Brace yourself for impending unnecessary and over-wrought metaphor...) Imagine owning an ice cream shop. (I told you.) You clearly love ice cream - one might even say it is your passion - but after years of excessive frozen consumption, you have to take a break from eating ice cream every day. You still love serving ice cream, picking out flavors, etc., but you just don't want to taste it for a long time. Then imagine you are at the beach on the hottest day of the summer and the kid next to you is eating two enormous scoops of the drippiest, most indulgent scoop of chocolate ice cream you have ever seen. Suddenly, you want ice cream. You have to have it. Anyway, Liszt is chocolate ice cream for pianists and I still want to buy a piano... (Apologies for the last paragraph. You can't say you weren't warned.)

Back to the concert. After all that chocolate ice cream (there I go again) and Hungarian dancing, Bartók's decidedly modern work was the perfect finish. I was not terribly familiar with this piece and I really enjoyed it. Originally written to accompany a "grotesque pantomime," it is hyper-programmatic (you can read the sensational and somewhat pornographic plot here). Before the performance, Varga took the time to explain the story and the musical relationship to each character or image. His conducting was at its best during the Bartók. The piece is busy with rhythmic and melodic interest and is orchestrated uniquely (and expansively). Interesting musicological factoid: Boulez attributes his conducting career to a performance of this piece. Less musicological but still interesting factoid: Michelle Kwan skated to this piece.

Oh, and I did watch some of the Super Bowl after the concert. At a bar. Like a good American. Perhaps I should have titled this post, "From Brahms to The Boss."