stravinsky's petrushka

Rex being one of Sydney Symphony's regional tour partners, was invited to attend their 2009 regional tour meeting at the Sydney Opera House board room. I attended the meeting on behalf of a colleague and got two complimentary tickets for the Emirates Metro Series: Stravinsky's Petrushka which I went for with a friend. This was the first time I actually watched a performance in the Opera House.

An excerpt from the program booklet: "In the Petrushka ballet the Showman plays a hypnotic flute tune to snare his audience before he unveils his magical living puppet show. Music as curtain-raiser. Mozart's symphony in this concert bears all the signs of a curtain-raiser too - one of the best kind. It's in three movements, just like the old Italian opera overtures from which the Classical symphony was born, and captures attention with music that is brilliant and arresting."

I never thought I'd attend another orchestra performance in my life, having been made to go for what seemed like hundreds of thousands of such concerts when I was in secondary school. I was in the school symphonic band then and attending such concerts was a must as that was part of the whole learning package.

I expected to be bored this time. But I really enjoyed it, to my own surprise. I was listening intently to the different instruments: I was very proud whenever the flutes played because I played one myself; I chuckled to myself every time the bassoons came in cos their sounds always create visions of toads in my mind; the oboeists reminded me of the Dutch conductor who tutored my band for a while who performed the oboe solo in Pavane in Blue with our resident conductor Mr Wong who took the trumpet solo; the majestic french horns remined me of Sunshine23; the trumpets brought me back to the days when my bro was learning it at home and I would always scream for him to stop making those horrible noises; the violinists always wow me with their synchronised playing; and I just love the sound of cellos so much. Towards the end of the performance, I suddenly remembered the piccolo solo piece I liked so much when I first learnt to play that tiny intrument - Procession of the Sardar, and kept humming it to myself.

My friend and I had a walk around the Opera House after the concert to admire Sydney's bright city skyline, and then had the best chocolate milkshake we ever had in our lives at Guylian chocolate cafe.

I ended up having a very pleasant Friday evening although it stormed crazily through the night.