I went to the Kennedy Center tonight (hmm, I should say last night) to see the National Symphony Orchestra perform “Composer Portrait: Antonin Dvorak” at Concert Hall. It was an hour and a half performance and the music was really beautiful! The feature performance was Dvorak’s Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88. Even though his more famous piece, Symphony 9 (New World Symphony) is a favorite of mine, I was still very impressed by 8. I like to watch them playing their instruments, all moving in unison. Leonard Slatkin conducted.
For the first half of the show, they gave a biographical presentation with photos interjected with a few measures of some compositions. After the intermission, they played the 8th in its entirety with a breakdown and explanation of some of the passages of the symphony at the beginning. That was probably my favorite part, when the conductor explained the music of each of the sections of the orchestra and had them play their parts separately, then together.
*sigh* I love live music. It just takes you away. The only thing I would’ve preferred is that they played more of his songs in their entirety. I would’ve loved to hear the Slavonic Dance, Carnival Overture, and New World all the way through instead of just snippets. But I guess that would’ve kept us there all night. Overall, it was a good show.
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