I was on my own this weekend, and as you might expect it was a very low key couple of days. Friday night after work I came home to do a TV marathon, finishing up Survivor and the Amazing Race, while eating Chinese food and drinking beer. It was a late night, but I managed to see the endings of both shows without being spoiled by reading something on the internet.
Saturday was just relaxing at home – reading, drinking and BBQ, and then yesterday I went into Amagasaki to see a concert. One of my students plays the oboe, and his orchestra was doing a performance of Gustav Mahler’s symphony no. 9. I got to Amagasaki a little early, so I grabbed a coffee across the street before the performance. The venue was actually pretty nice, and there were a surprising amount of people attending. The orchestra itself was quite big – more than a hundred musicians – and they sounded great. It has been a while since I’ve seen an orchestra play live, and I had forgotten how clean and clear it sounds.
After a few warm up tunes they started the symphony, which lasted about 80 minutes. There were four movements, but no breaks between the movements, so I think some people might have been a little uncomfortable. Luckily I had only one coffee before the show. As for the music, it was all over the board – slow at some points and lively at others, and it seemed like just about every instrument they could find was included. I even got to see my student do sort of a solo, which was great, since otherwise it would have been near impossible to pick his sound out of all the other instruments playing.
When the show completed I headed home, but stopped in at Swaad for some curry for dinner. I barely got in – they were pretty busy in there, and there were even two Indian guys eating there. That is certainly a good sign. The cook came out and said hello to me with a smile, and as they have done in the past he gave me a free lassi to wrap up my meal. It was delicious – as usual.
Now it’s time to get back to work. It’s a rainy day today, and I’m not looking forward to going out in it…
