World talking

So, what was it like when I went to hear what the world is talking about?

The Cleveland Orchestra
Pinchas Steinberg, conductor
Nikolaj Znaider, violin
Barber: Overture to The School for Scandal
Brahms: Violin Concerto
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 4

The program notes I thought did a wonderful of explaining the program.

Dignity, Despair, and Delight - that is what the headline in the program called the evening.

However, despair was in italic print. That is how author of the program notes Hugh Macdonald, Professor of Music at Washington University in St. Louis sees it. He also provided the preconcert lecture. He also wrote something like -

Russians may express gloomy pessimism more powerfully than any other peoples. But Tschakovsky's music does not stay eternally in this posture of resignation. His limitless
invention led him to express a world of feeling in a variety of colors, as the best orchestral always should.

Now there is something to think about.

He also wrote something like -

The Brahms concerto comes between two works of a more extrovert nature. Barber's Overture evokes comedy and intrigue and lingers for a moment in pastoral idyll. Tschakovsky's Fourth ranges from misery and despair to playful humor and relentless ebullience.

What else is there but misery, despair, humor, and ebullience.