Saturday, August 07, 2004

Ravinia

For the past 100 years, the Chicago Symphony has held summer concerts at it's outdoor pavilion and gathering spot called Ravinia a beautiful location located in Highland Park. It really is quite an operation. People gather hours before hand (and these are serious listeners of music unlike the rather rookie crowd in Madison) who bring lawn chairs and these amazingly elaborate picnics. I saw more crab salad than I have ever seen in one place. The lawn dwellers can hear the symphony, but can't see it. I chose to take a seat in the pavilion, which holds some 3,000 people.





The pavilion at Ravinia


I got seats in the sixth row. I don't actually think these are premium seats.





The view from my seat


The reason I wanted to hear this specific concert was that the Chicago Symphony was playing Dvorak's New World Symphony, in honor of the 100 year anniversary of his death. The performance was magical and I was totally moved by this piece. We can thank Dad for being such a classical music buff that it rubbed off on me. I was totally engrossed. The two opening pieces was some modern horn thing by a living composer and a piece by Mozart that I actually didn't recognize. It was New World that was unbelievable.





Chicago Symphony Conductor James Conlon


A magical evening!

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