My office this morning is at a restaurant-chain-that-must-not-be-named, known for its signature Light Roast coffee (when the pot actually has some in it!).
As soon as I finish this, I will pack up and go to the office where I’m working on a screenplay and a book project.
For now, though, I watch people meet, eat, use their laptops, mobile phones or iPads (even a geezer on my right – who looks to be about 75 – is using an iPad)…and listen to people drone on about the stuff of life.
For example, a man and a woman beside me are talking financial planning. I think he’s trying to sell her on his services. For awhile, he did all the talking. Now, she’s talking and he’s pretending to listen. She just said, “Yeah. If I end up joining the team…”
A man and a woman directly ahead of me are also talking about financial matters. Or, at least, business matters. They’re both very intent on getting some point across, using their hands to gesture, sometimes jotting notes in a planner, etc.
I wonder how many relationships – business and personal – have been started (or ended) at restaurants like these?
While the drama of life unfolds around me, I sit here I listening to Sir Simon Rattle (1955- ) conduct the Wiener Philharmoniker playing Beethoven’s Symphony No. 2 in D Major.
I first heard Maestro Rattle on Day 15 of my musical journey. After listening to Rattle’s performance, I wrote this:
But here’s what I know: This recording bored me to tears. I wasn’t excited once. The performance – although, I suppose, technically great – seemed lifeless to my ears. I wasn’t caught up in the excitement of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1. On the contrary, I felt nothing. A total “Meh.”
So how does the same combination of conductor, orchestra, and composer fare this morning?
Let’s find out.
Beethoven wrote his symphonies in four parts (except for the Sixth, which is in five). The time breakdown of this particular one (Symphony No. 2 in D Major), from this particular conductor (Rattle, at 47) and this particular orchestra (Weiner Philharmonker), at this particular time in history (April 29-May 14, 2002) on this particular record label (Warner Classics) is as follows:
I. Adagio molto – Allegro con brio………………………………………………………………12:03
II. Larghetto………………………………………………………………………………………………….10:20
III. Scherezo. Allegro – Trio……………………………………………………………………………3:31
IV. Allegro molto…………………………………………………………………………………………….6:13
Total running time: 32:07
My Rating:
Recording quality: 4 (seems to lack depth and breadth; doesn’t feel full and rich)
Overall musicianship: 4
CD liner notes: 3 (one essay about Beethoven in English, German, and French; nothing about Rattle)
How does this make me feel: 3
This performance has all the energy of a cat in a sunbeam.
It’s more like a lullaby than a symphony.
Not once did I feel my blood stir, my pulse quicken, my toes tap.
I can’t tell if my “Meh!” reaction to this recording is due to the way it was recorded, the play-it-safe-at-all-costs manner in which it was conducted, or a bored orchestra. But this seemed so lacking in dynamic punch and passionate playing that I might as well have been listening to an emo contemporary radio singer wax whiny about the vicissitudes of life.
Sorry, Sir Simon. So far you’re batting 0-2.