Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners classical concert

Out here at the Hollywood Bowl, it's OK to bring an ice chest full of wine and grub. I don't know about Philly.

Jason, ditto Peter and Ken, but you can pass on Mark's suggestion. There's certainly no obligatory dress code, but many in the front rows will have tuxes or lavish evening gowns(hopefully the latter will be women). So, wear a suit and tie.

To increase your enjoyment of the program I'd suggest that you read up on the history of the items being played, preferably in materials borrowed from the library although you can find a little info online. It's interesting to read how and why a composition came into being. While you're at the library it would also be a good idea to borrow all the CDs with those compositions that they have. Enjoy.

i say wear flip-flops and a wife beater.. and after a particularly good movement, stand-up and do the fist pumping, arsenio hall style, WHOOP! WHOOP! WHOOP!!!

bigjohn

Remind me to never attend a concert with you, will ya. Ya just can't take some people anywhere. Sheesh!

Now a football game would be a whole 'nother can o' worms.

yes, now i wear a classic black and white tux with ducktails to most football games. i accessorize with a silk billed top-hat, and diamond and onyx cuff links.

its a real hoot!!

bigjohn

Well, tomorrow evening is the show. The PHL orchestra was close to striking but it has been averted for at least 30 days. I was starting to wonder if I was even going to have a show to go to. No show would have been a good way to kill my interest in going. Fortunately, the show must go on! I'm looking forward to hearing Wagner and hoping I will like the others as well.

Jason, we'll be looking forward to your concert review and will certainly place greater stock in it than the one from the Inquirer critic. Enjoy.

How about if you go in the wife beater and your wife goes in one of those nordic opera outfits with the metal bra and horned helmet with the blond ponytails. Please make sure that both of you sing along at the top of your lungs.

Oh, I wish I'd seen this thread sooner! I lived in Philly until recently and went to see the orchestra often. However, since they moved to Verizon Hall I've only been a few times. An interesting sidelight for people here: that hall has a high-tech acoustic design, with adjustable panels etc. It's interesting that when it first opened, people described it using the same language they would use to describe a speaker -- it has a lot of bass, extremely clear, unforgivingly so, as opposed to the rich, warm sound of the old Academy of Music. Apparently that warmth was part of the classic "Philadelphia sound" and people didn't like the sound of the first season or so -- orchestra break-in, if you will.

I would guess that acoustics are pretty good anywhere in the hall, given its high-tech design, but I always to try sit in the center, not too close, and certainly certainly not behind. The seats behind the orchestra are for people who want to be seen, not people who want to hear the music. The whole layout of the orchestra (brass and percussion in back, first violins in front) presupposes the listener is behind the conductor. Moreoever, I'm told that good orchestras are trained to play a little ahead or behind of the beat depending on where they're sitting.

I agree, the Brahms-Prokofiev concert sounds fantastic.

Edit: here are some articles about Verizon Hall:

Sound Judgements
Progress Report (sidebar)

Out here at the Hollywood Bowl, it's OK to bring an ice chest full of wine and grub. I don't know about Philly.

At the Mann Center yes, but at Verizon Hall (just as at Disney Hall in LA) absolutely no...