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Time is always tight in HK. Maybe it’s due to our own unrealistic schedules, maybe it’s because of the traffic…whatever it is, I have worked out a ‘routine’ so that I feel like I am in ‘control’ when I go to concerts.
I would drive and park at Star Ferry, take the ferry over to TST and walk to HK Cultural Center. This always works well, and when I time myself right, it will give me time to sit down and compose myself before the concert starts.
Turns out I had two extra tickets to the concert last night, so I asked two of my friends to join me. Eric, my highschool and college friend, found out about my routine, and I think he unconsciously, but deliberately, tried to BREAK my routine! haha… really, we had traffic in the harbor. We were stuck in the middle of the harbor for 5 mins.
Well, we had to run from the Pier to HKCC, but we made it… all sweaty… (it was unusually hot today)
Anyway…
Concert.
Just one piece. Mahler No.2. Nothing else. That’s perfect. I always find it difficult to listen to anything before or after Mahler. Mahler No.2 (M2) is a large work, about 90 mins long. HKPO conducted by Edo de Waart, joined by the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus with JiaLin-Marie Zhang as Soprano and Carole Wilson as mezzo-soprano.
My two friends did not sit with us… us being my sister, and cousin, and his wife.
We sat at the first row of the upper balcony. The stupid bar was obstructing my view… kinda annoying.
But it’s Mahler! It’s live! And I am there.
I have no intention to go over the specifics of the performance. I am sure everyone felt something different in the concert hall. I am just always grateful to be there at a live M concert. And something like M2 is like an adrenaline shot. It is equally real as it is distorted. It is as much about destruction as it is about creation. And ultimately, it is spirtually cleansing and uplifting.
I just love Mahler.
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