Saturday, December 2, 2017

We Were There!


The New York premier of the above at Carnegie Hall was another unforgettable date from about the same time. There were two standard 'warhorses' on the program and then this, the finale. You vant notes? Notes ve got - for you...


We had seats in the balcony. I presume those downstairs were subscription patrons. As the quartet of electric organ players got going, I was semi-prepared for the format insofar as being familiar with what Philip Glass was doing and the little bit I read in the reviews about Minimalist compositions. As you can hear, it went on in the monotony, headed toward a syncopated round of sorts. Don't know a thing about atonal music, but guess this is that. It was breakthrough stuff and the elitist hipsters ate it up.

As the musicians (who included the composer) went on, the crowd downstairs became agitated. The older crowd, I should say. They commenced booing and hissing. Toward the end of the piece - as the musicians played right through the commotion, folks were hurling their programs at the stage. QUITE the scene. Standing on their seats... raging, they was. Never seen anything like it. Dylan at Newport. Stravinsky in Paris.

We were exhilarated to be at such an avant event!
Of course, we hadn't a clue about the musical aspect. 

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