Seattle Symphony - Sibelius, Rachmaninov, and Adams

Last Thursday I went to the symphony and saw some great music. Guest conductor Robert Spano is intense and emotive (what more could you ask?). Sibelius' "Pohjala's Daughter, Op. 49" was beautiful. Then guest pianist Dejan Lazic killed on Rachmaninov's piano concerto #2. The piece demands an aggressive player, and Lazic got the job done. After the intermission (after 1/4 of the audience skipped out to miss the discordant Adams' piece) was "Harmonielehre." If kind of made me laugh because after the first movement, there was the little old lady rush for the door... "oh no... so crazy... must leave..." To me the harmonic language was barely on the brink of being out. The orchestration is beautiful... I loved the unison harmonics and false harmonics in the strings. The end of each movement seemed to me to have a nod to the minimalists. Very good concert, and if you're reading this and didn't go... you missed out!