Symphony Season

Last Saturday marked the beginning - for us - of the season of the NJ Symphony Orchestra, and all of the concerts are at the State Theater in New Brunswick.

We're not happy about that but the NJSO decided that Trenton could not support a concert season and parking is very difficult in Princeton. They are offering a "best of" series in Trenton but S&P voted against that.

New Brunswick is about an hour from here, door-to-door. The State Theater has more comfortable seats than the War Memorial and we sit in the first row of the balcony.

Saturday's program featured Mischa Santora, a young, very tall, Swiss who was born in the Netherlands to Hungarian parents; and Vadim Gluzman, a Russian-born Israeli violinist. He played the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E Minor, Opus 64 and received a standing ovation. He plays a 1690 Stradivarius instrument lent to him by the Stradivari Society of Chicago.

The orchestra also played Mendelssohn's Ruy Blas Overture ("blah") and Symphony No 1 in C Minor, Opus 68, by Johannes Brahms. Not my favorite.

There's a "Best of Beethoven" on 10/24. I may just go to that one!