Next, this most recent past weekend:

Consisted mostly of concerts of various kinds.

FRIDAY night, I went to another classical music concert at the Mariinsky Concert Hall, after enjoying the "Soireé of Cello Music" so much the other night. This concert was a string ensemble called Divertissement, consisting of 16 main members, but then expanding to 24 or so for the second piece they played. The first half of the concert was "Death and the Maiden" (String Quartet No. 14 in D Minor) by Franz Schubert, arranged for string orchestra by Gustav Mahler (Gus's namesake). I absolutely loved this, I got chills and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The second half took a little more effort for me. They played "Concerto Grosso No. 1 for two violins, harpsichord, piano and strings" by the Russian-Soviet composer Alfred Schnittke. It started out as one of those pieces from the 70s with a lot of dissonance and pizzicatto and lacked any real harmony..... not my cup of tea.... but the ensemble was so damn talented, especially the two soloist violinists, that the piece actually grew on me and I found I really enjoyed certain parts of it a lot.

SATURDAY night I went to a more modern concert at a club up on Petrograd. Remember that video I posted for the song "Весна" ("Vesna" -- "Spring") a couple months ago? The depressing, Soviet-nostalgic video of the 1980 Moscow Olympics? Well, the band I saw was the Russian "rapper" (his style is too eclectic to be described as rap at all, in my opinion, but that's how he is known) Дельфин ("Delfin" -- "Dolphin"). His "band" consisted of just him, singing and playing the drums, with one other guitarist and some synth playing behind him. The club was smokey and full of those Russian hipsters with dreadlocks, but the dark and the swelling beats of his songs really got to me and overwhelmed me. And, of course, when he played "Весна" everyone sang along. I'd see him again for sure.

SUNDAY afternoon I had a girly outing with Carrie to see The Magic Flute (finally!) at the Mariinsky Concert Hall. It was the first thing I had seen at the Concert Hall that wasn't just a pure classical music concert, and it blew my mind how they transformed that space for the show. (It always blows my mind the effort they put into each show's deecorations and whole design and scenic situation as it is a repertoire theatre, so it's always a different show every day, sometimes two different shows in one day -- I don't know how they change everything so drastically so frequently.) They added bird noises playing in the lobby, and a strange Egyptian-esque monk-like statue in the front lobby (something out of Sarastro's palace?) and inside the theatre itself they draped fake vines all over the sides of the modern walls. They also completely utilized the space as theatre-in the round. Part of the floor of the stage flips open to reveal a pit for the orchestra, and they added seats -- bleacher like -- all along the sides of the stage. The action and singing was not restricted simply to the stage though -- Carrie and I were sitting in front of a parqué towards the middle of the main section of seats in the theatre, and we had the pleasure of having Papageno sing one of his songs standing on this divider, a mere four inches from my face. Over all the show was super modern, and they did some crazy costuming, such as the three maidens who help the Queen of the Night where basically Russian goths, but it was interesting nonetheless and the singing was great, even if the man who played Tamino was a little older and a little heavier than I ever pictured the handsome prince to be. Oh, and did I mention it was all transposed into Russian? That was certainly a trip, to hear these songs I know and love so well sounding exactly the same, but a little bit off and then figuring out why..... And it was cute because it was a Sunday matinée and it was the Magic Flute, so it was a family affair, with little kids all dressed up in their finest, running around, touching everything and the Mariinsky being ok with them touching everything because they make a point to make the show interactive -- they left the glockenspiel and all of the percussion instruments out on stage during intermission (as the glockenspielist, the percussionist and the flutist were basically actors in the show due to the important roles of their instruments) and the ushers let the little kids touch it and play it and try to play things on it like Moonlight Sonata.