Music Hall chandelier

Saturday
This evening we were down at Cincinnati Music Hall for a Cincinnati Symphony concert. The concert featured two very different works. The first half was Rituel by Pierre Boulez (in memoriam of fellow musician and friend Bruno Maderna) and the second half featured the May Festival Chorus singing Mozart’s Requiem. Rituel by Pierre Boulez was an interesting work, with the orchestra divided into eight spatially separated groups - for example there were three groups around the back of the gallery where. We were sitting - all supported by a huge percussion section, requiring nine players, similarly spatially separated. It was a work, that if I just heard it on the radio or a CD wouldn’t particularly appeal to me, since I’m not generally a great fan of relatively contemporary music, but watching the conductor, and hearing the different sounds come from different areas made for an interesting experience. The Mozart Requiem I love, though I have to say I didn’t find the performance particularly exceptional. Interestingly, our daughter Laura is going to be singing Mozart’s Requiem with her choir in Kuwait this week! My blip is of the beautiful Czechoslovakian chandelier hanging above the auditorium. In the recent restoration of Music Hall, there was discussion over whether or not to keep it, as it wasn’t part of the original design, but added at an earlier restoration, but public opinion was overwhelming in favour of keeping it. So instead, it was lowered, and each of the 7,000 crystals individually cleaned. The chandelier is 21 feet in diameter and weighs over 1,000 lbs!