A Day at the BSO

Today I was a "chaperone" for a school field trip to Boston
to see the Boston Symphony Orchestra presentation,
"Great Beginnings".

Beethoven (the 5th Symphony, of course)
Mendelsson (Symphony No. 4 in A, Op. 90)
Schubert (Symphony in B minor, D.759 Unfinished)
Prokofiev (Symphony No. 4 in C, Op. 47)
Bartok (Concerto for Orchestra)

Now, if you're familiar with these pieces, you will see that they
put the "nice" stuff up front. Then, it gets more challenging.
And then they finish up with Bartok. I guess they could
have hit the kids with some Berg or Webern, but maybe
those don't have "great beginnings"....

I thought it was kind of like seeing a war film, and then
seeing a recruiting poster on the way out of the theatre:
"If you can handle the gore, there may be a payoff in the
end for you".

Yes, you may have to play the sugary "favourites", but
there are some hairy pieces waiting for you, too.

Or, as someone once said, "Does this kind of life look
interesting to you?"

Sometimes the endings are greater than the beginnings,
but I guess you have to convince people to hang around
for them!