Carnegie Hall

I made it there and didn't even need to practice! Hardy har.

I ended up having another business trip to NYC and decided it was about time I took in a concert at this famous hall, since the hotel I always stay at (Parker Meridien) is on the same block and I walk past it every day. The Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique was in town playing two nights of Beethoven. On Thursday, they did a Prometheus overture and symphonies 3 and 4 (Eroica). This group is a period instrument group and the orchestra was a lot smaller than I've seen in groups with a less 'period specific' focus. The other major difference that I could see was that the horns and trumpets didn't have valves (and the horns in particular really sounded like the hunting horns from which modern French horns evolved). It's likely that the wind instruments also differed from their modern counterparts, although the only thing that was clear to my eyes was that the clarinets and oboes were mostly in a light coloured wood, rather than the typical black of modern instruments.

I don't know if it was the hall or the ensemble (maybe both), but the instrumentation was particularly clear, with particular solos easily picked out. A couple of times, the clarinetists played with their instruments lifted so the bell faced the audience (rather than traditionally pointed down) and it made them sound almost brass like, but with a beautiful reedy quality. The hall itself was lovely, in a deep horseshoe shape. The stage doesn't have wings or back drop so the performers sit in front of a beautiful paneled wall. The first two tiers are entirely composed of six seat boxes.

I had dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant, Trattoria del'Arte that I'd been to before, and enjoyed. Again, I was treated with a wonderful friendliness and warmth (the host shook my hand when I entered), the food was superb and I had a lovely chat with a couple in town from Michigan.