Mozart Symphony No. 35 "Haffner"

So yeah, I've skimped off on the blogs over the past couple days... >.<
But anyway, there's nothing I can do about that now- so let's get right into it!

One of the pieces I got to see the DSO perform Saturday evening was Mozart's Symphony No. 35 "Haffner." I've always liked Mozart for his Salzburg Symphonies, but before Saturday night I'd never heard this one before. I liked hearing this symphony a lot because I found it easy to listen to all the parts at once. It made me smile when I heard ascending melodic lines and a descending bass line at the same time- it's just a small idea, but it adds a lot more interest than the melodic and bass lines moving together. And of course, as a violinist, I loved to hear the focus on the strings :)

One of my friends described this piece as "Simple, with a bit of elegance"

So enjoy!
The Vienna Philharmonic, led by Karl Bohm

I. Allegro Con Spirito
II. Andante
III. Menuetto
IV. Presto

Artist's Life

So, last night's blog was really bad x___X and I was in a foul mood- I hope it didn't show through too much in my writing, but I feel like I didn't do the Firebird Suite justice. Unfortunately I don't really have time to make amends tonight, since I'm kipping at a friends.

One piece of music that I'd like to leave you with, if anyone is out there reading, is a personal favorite of mine- Artist's Life by Johann Strauss. About a year and a bit ago, I went through a phase of listening to a lot of Strauss. This piece I really like, I like the gentle harmonious beginning, and the waltz quality to it that Strauss is famous for. What intrigues me about this piece is the title- what did Strauss mean to convey? Was he talking about a musical artist in the title, a painter- or some other kind of artist. I also love how this piece sort of gains momentum as it goes along. Maybe that sounds weird, but I don't know how else to describe it :)

Here is Seji Ozawa (One of my favorite conductors!)conducting the Vienna Philharmonic