Smetana, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky at The Kennedy Center

Last night I had the delight of being able to attend a concert of works by Smetana, Beethoven, and Tchaikovsky at the Kennedy Center... I liked most of the music, and ran into a number of interesting people. I started out the evening by drinking some coke so I could stay awake for the concert... and while I was doing that, I ran into some French people, which was fun. :)

I then went and found my seat in the Orchestra Hall, which had a lovely view of the National Symphony Orchestra...

View of orchestra, leaning over the balcony

View of orchestra, sitting down

And a terribly self-pic, my camera didn't have time to focus!

The first piece was by a composer known as Smetana, whom I'm informed was a contemporary of Dvořák, but less popular. I actually rather enjoyed the piece (Overture to The Kiss). Afterwards, we had a very lovely performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 3 in C Minor, Op. 37. There were some absolutely delightful passages in the music... I think it would be difficult to find prettier music than some portions of this performance. Absolutely lovely! The pianist was also completely into the performance, you really should have seen him play! The last piece was Tchaikovsky's Manfred, Symphonic Poem after Byron, Op. 58. I found much of this to be random and at times boring... but the interesting parts were brilliant... and when they threw in the organ in the last piece, it was absolutely glorious! I had not anticipated the organ part, it was quite a delightful surprise!

After the concert, getting ready to leave

During the intermission in the concert, I ran into an acquaintance from the Academy of Saint Cecilia's Youth Orchestra (my sister used to play in the orchestra)... and surprisingly, after the concert was over I ran into ASCYO's conductor, Reverend Walt Edmonds, whom I had spotted sitting on the opposite side of my balcony level during the first portion of the concert! :)

All things said, a lovely evening indeed!