A Night at Carnegie Hall

I’ve always wanted to go to Carnegie Hall. and when I discovered the Philadelphia Orchestra was going to be there the night I arrived in NY and they were going to play the longest symphony on record (1 hour and a half, with six movements) complete with three choirs and a mezzo soprano– Mahler’s Third, the symphony about creation and God…. well I had to go, even if I had to sit  in the seventh deck, near heaven, which is just about where my ticket placed me.  This hall has a reputation of being the most acoustically clear and best hall in America, if not in the world– and it lived up to its billing— I could even hear the triangle tingling at some points.  And this symphony involves a huge assembly of strings, horns, drums, and much else besides–  apparently Mahler’s philosophy was go big or go home.  This was also the case when my wife and I saw the Lex Philharmonic two weeks ago do Mahler’s  First. Here are some shots I took before the performance.