One good way to get through a snowy New England winter is to go to a lot of concerts, which is what I've been doing this month, so pardon me if I drone a while to catch up. The trick is to not buy tickets in advance, since you never know what the weather will be like, and what with the concert-going public's habits shifting more towards last-minute decisions anyway, this works out just fine. When I went to the BSO last Thursday to hear James Conlon conduct Shostakovich 7th, they still had rush tickets (crappy seats, but discounted to $8) available for sale at 6 pm, even though they start selling them at 10am. More on that program later.



Monday night I went to NEC to hear piano faculty member Gabriel Chodos perform the Liszt Sonata and the Hammerklavier. Richard Dyer's review is here. I generally agree, Robert was there and didn't stay for the second half, but he missed out, since while the Liszt was pretty good, the Hammerklavier was stunning, the endless slow movement and the sometimes downright bizarre last movement especially. The audience was completely taken in by the performance. The first movement went about the same as the Liszt, sort of on the athletic side, but by the same token with a strong forward-moving drive. Sitting down front, as you can only do at NEC with a free concert, the piano comes out sounding a little muddled, as though he's using too much pedal sometimes, but since you can see that he isn't, there's something in the acoustic that works a little to the music's disadvantage sometimes. I have half a dozen recordings of the Liszt Sonata and they're all completely different, but the piece does hang together very well, I'm surprised I never heard it anywhere in my college days. But I don't think I'd ever heard the Beethoven before, and considering how overplayed the last three sonatas are, it's odd that more performers haven't turned to op 106 (and 101 for that matter). Back at NU there was a short list of pieces you shouldn't touch until you're at least 30. I think the Hammerklavier would be one of them.



On Tuesdays at lunchtime the music director of King's Chapel has put together short recital series which I've been going to the last few weeks. It's very sparsely attended, but maybe that's just because every week it's been about 30 below outside. There's no piano there, but I've been to three this month, including a medieval recorder group, a tenor, and a wind quintet. They're a nice little midday diversion from the otherwise wacky world of foreign exchange. The church, which is a million years old and was original Anglican but is now Unitarian, is kind of a neat setting, too. Down the street is St. Paul's Cathedral, which has a Wednesday series. I skip the organ recitals, but there was a noontime piano recital there last week featuring a teacher from the Rivers School who played some out of the ordinary Liszt and Schubert. This was even more sparsely attended (single digits, including a homeless guy who talked to himself through half the program), they at least have a piano, although it sounds like it needs some work, and it's a much more cavernous space to fill up.



These lunchtime concerts are good because they're cheap (generally $3) and don't require hanging around in the city all evening, so I can still see my family once in a while. I'm just surprised, cold weather notwithstanding, that more people don't go, but then I've been working downtown for four years and just managed to drag my keister to my first one three two weeks ago, so go figure.