I always love going to the Hollywood Bowl during the summer. O and I had our opportunity when my cousin came to town for a visit. So together with a friend, we went to listen to Mozart under the stars.
Mozart was truly a genius. He knew how to push all those emotional buttons with his collection of musical notes. He did it again this time with the help of the conductor Nicolas McGegan, the L.A. Philharmonic and Canadian piano soloist Louis Lortie.
McGegan said that Mozart would think up of a symphony over a few days while eating breakfast wit his wife and then write it all out in 1-1/2 days. Talk about superhuman feat. Not to mention he wrote 600 pieces of musical compositions, 40 symphonies (there is a dispute as to whether it was 40 or 41), 25 concertos and 20 operas. All of this before he died at the age of 35.
What is great about the Hollywood Bowl (the place) is the fact that it's an open air amphitheater. People bring or buy dinner and sit on their benches or in their boxes and eat. So when you're there with everyone drinking and noshing, you feel like you're part of a larger community. This feeling is rare in a town like Los Angeles, where every place and everyone feels isolated from each other. That doesn't mean we chatted with everyone around us. And we didn't. But it is a nice feeling to be able to share for a few hours.
We heard:
Overture to the Marriage of Figaro
Piano Concerto N.23, K.488
Symphony No. 40
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