Shostakovich & Svengali

I have been lucky enough to go to the Concert Hall twice recently: once to see the RWB's new production of Svengali, and then once to hear the WSO do an evening of Shostakovich. I had high expectations for both, and I was not disappointed. (Aside: Sometimes I wonder about this "cultured" side of me. Can I really love the classical world while also thinking the Joss Whedon is the best thing that has ever happened to television?)

Mark Godden's Svengali was a new ballet, and although it was based on Georges du Maurier's novel Trilby, it didn't really follow the story, and wasn't really a story ballet at all. Though some were disappointed by that, I, personally, was thrilled. I don't care if a ballet tells me a story, as long as it takes me on a physical and emotional and visual and musical roller coaster - that's what makes the ballet my favourite thing in the world. I got to see amazingly creative movement set to everything from Rachmaninoff to a Klezmer band, and my eyes and heart followed everything, even when I didn't know what I was supposed to be following.

Although I have loved Shostakovich - both his music and his story - since taking Russian history in university, I was not anticipating the symphony to be as amazing as the ballet. But it was. It was more than amazing; it was like hearing a language I'd never heard before but instantly understanding every word. (That may be a lame simile, but I like lame, just like Joss Whedon.) Although we got to hear his music for Hamlet and his symphony in response to the end of World War II, it was Shostakovich's violin concerto which really enthralled us, since it featured a violin soloist who seemed to know his music instinctively. He didn't follow a score, and instead moved through his music/through his violin as though this was also a dance. Like the ballet, it was mesmerizing.

I have been to many great shows over the last fifteen years, including everyone from Arcade Fire to Arlo Guthrie to Alanis Morrisette and Justin Timberlake, but nothing compares to what I get to experience when I go to the Concert Hall.