Quick Take

Caught the PBS broadcast tonight of the Carnegie Hall opening night concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Renée Fleming, and Yo-Yo Ma in an all-Strauss program (Don Juan, Four Last Songs, and Don Quixote) conducted by new music director, Christoph Eschenbach. First time I've heard my native-home orchestra in some 20 years (I recognized no-one in the ensemble, all the faces I could see new to me), and my first time hearing them under Eschenbach.

Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all. Everyone sounded in excellent form, and in the Don Quixote particularly so: fine Sancho Viola (principal viola, Roberto Díaz), fine Dulcinea Fiddle (concertmaster, David Kim), and superb Quixote Cello (Ma). Contrary to some reports, the orchestra responded with precision and sensitivity to Eschenbach's every gesture, the latter, also contrary to reports, displaying a stick technique that was wonderfully expressive, cue-perfect, and beat-clear; a technique that could be unambiguously read by any professional musician not stone-cold dead. Can't comment on Eschenbach's preservation of the legendary "Philadelphia Sound" as that can be judged only live in the hall, but the playing throughout sounded both rich and detailed in the audio feed.

Good to hear my hometown orchestra again in concert, but I sure did miss all the familiar faces.

Ineluctable consequence of growing old.