Attending a Performance of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra...

The performance that I attended was of the Ottawa Symphony Orchestra playing the Overture to The creatures of Prometheus, by Beethoven, the Concerto for Orchestra by Kodaly, and Harold in Italy, by Berlioz. The orchestra was conducted by David Currie, and I think that they played very well overall. The stage was brightly lit from both on stage and the front of house and the musicians were arranged in a semi circle around the podium. The back rows of the strings section were mounted on risers and high stools. They were all wearing black formal wear. They seemed confident in their playing and very relaxed and used to the stage. They all had excellent posture and were concentrating on the music without talking. The music that was performed†¦show more content†¦The musicians were able to make their horns sound more muted and solemn without losing volume or emotion. I think that the performer’s ability was appropriate for their location and for their audience because the tone quality of the musicians sounded very rich and clean. When I listened to the performance, I was able to hear all of the different parts of the piece clearly, which has made me much more conscious of the balance and dynamics of each phrase when I play. The texture of the pieces played was very rich and full because an orchestral piece is designed to have a good balance of instruments and good range of frequencies of sound that has lots of different things happening at the same time. The concert was performed on the Southam Hall stage at the NAC; this is a large hall with extremely good acoustics. It is a nationally known stage, so the quality of the hall is very good. Generally, the audience was very receptive as it was composed of adults, who were all silent. The acoustics were very good as the hall spread the sound throughout the hall without making it echo. This had a positive effect on the performance, because it was possible for the orchestra to be clearly heard from any point in the entire hall. I was impressed by the large number of students that I saw that night because the show deserved to have been heard by many young people. My overall impression of this