Wonders of the Moscow State Symphony by Haema

Three encores, amazing soloist, and jaw-dropping musicians are only a few bits from the incredible performance by the Moscow State Symphony. The gorgeous melodic sounds that came out of the orchestra astounded me, because I have never heard any orchestra that fantastic before. In fact, it feels like anything I will write will not seem to encompass the beauty that the orchestra played with.

There were numerous factors to the performance that made it so wonderful. Before the concert began I already had been informed that any Russian orchestra one could hear would be phenomenal. I looked ahead at what the group was performing and talked to my flute teacher about it. She informed me about the second flute and first flute duet at the beginning of the very first piece of the concert, The Moldov, which was supposed to represent waves in the water. Thus, when the piece began with the flutes I held my breath with excitement and could see nothing else but the waves of the river.

As I was absorbing the music of the evening, I wondered about the solo violinist the orchestra was to feature. This thought did not come soon enough, because in the next item the amazing violinist, Stephan Jackiw, performed. Never, in my life, have I heard such gorgeous sound from a violin. I have never been fond of the high notes in a violin, but in this performance the high notes were extremely beautiful. My astonishment with Jackiw continued throughout the piece; how he memorized a whole concerto, how young he was, how much he has achieved in music, the difficulty in which he played, and how he seemed to make the violin sing. When I think about it even now, it seems inconceivable.

When the show came to an end with the final piece I was speechless. The show was marvelous no matter how one could look at it. However, the end had not come yet. An encore was given, a short, sweet march, but, once again, the end had not reached. As the audience clapped enthusiastically, me included, a lively Spanish piece with the percussionist masters using castanets was performed. The audience didn’t want it to end yet. As the director conducted the last encore he quite calmly strolled off the podium as the orchestra continued to play. Being a musician myself, I know this is one of the most challenging tasks, to play without a conductor shows an immeasurable amount of precision, talent, and cooperation. The conductor ambled back on stage to finish the wonderful performance, and what a fitting end it was. The concert ended on a high note, which could not be extinguished.

As I stated earlier, even though I wrote nothing but positives about the Moscow State Symphony, I still feel that I did not grasp the total magnificent playing ability of the symphony. Without a doubt, I would see this orchestra again in a heartbeat, just to hear them play one piece.