Memorial Day Concert

Long awaited ticket

Memorial Day concert! I was searching for things to do in NYC during the memorial day weekend and chanced upon an event ad that said the New York Philharmonics was going to play for free at this Cathedral, St. John the Divine. 

The concert was to start at 8pm. As with all free things, you definitely gotta queue. So, the plan was to queue for tickets at 4pm and be the first few in line so that we'll be one of the first to receive the tickets at 6pm and then we can go for dinner at 6:15pm. The cathedral is located on Amsterdam avenue, where restaurant street is, so it is very convenient. 

Handicap friendly taxis

We spent almost 2 hrs in the queue by 6pm, so we made friends with the japanese ladies in front of us and other people from California behind us. Such a joy it is to make friends in a foreign land. They were all americans, and one of them asked if Singapore had good handicap services. This taxi above shows a ramp that can be extended from the taxi to allow people on motorised wheelchairs to get on themselves. The taxi driver would then have to secure the wheels and stow the ramp.

I haven't seen such fancy taxis in Singapore but we've taxi drivers who help the patient in and store their wheelchairs in the boot. But ya, that also means that someone who knows how to take care of handicapped people will have to be around to assist the driver. 

So, okay, it was 6pm and performers from the orchestra had arrived. Finally at 6:30pm (not 6 as stated on their official website), people started giving out tickets. I finally got mine at 6:45pm. The seating time for the concert is 7:30pm. There's barely enough time to sit down and eat. 

Then, the organisers said that they were going to keep the queue. Ie, the queue for tickets is now the queue for entry. Meaning if I stepped out now, I would have my ticket but I'd have a lousy seat in the 'concert hall'. We refused to go for dinner and stayed in line till they began seating the people at 7:30pm. 

:( It was a whole tonne of waiting, but there was a sense of achievement when I entered. Got a seat in the first few rows but I was annoyed. Because in front of the rows of seats open to public was a partitioned area with 10-15 rows of seats for people with special tickets - friends of the orchestra. I think these people must have made huge donations to the orchestra in order to get those seats.  

This cathedral is long and narrow, so it is important to be seated in the first few rows. This is because,  it takes time for those sound waves to travel down the narrow cathedral. And while it moves, it loses energy, causing the dynamics to go softer and tone to get muffled and hence compromises on the sound quality.

From where I was seated, the sound wasn't too muffled but it definitely isn't as clear as if I was in a concert hall. The stone walls of the cathedral did little to absorb noise as well, the sound wasn't as pure as I hoped it would be. But its the new york philharmonics! I am amazed they can still sound so good in a place with this kind of acoustics. But I did lower my expectations while listening to them as I took into account the place. I wish I didn't need to lower my expectations and still think they were awesome.

Shostakovich & Beethoven lets go!

Anyway, I always thought Playbill was a production of companies or something. I saw that sign on the bottom of my Lion King booklet too. Then I was told by the sister that it is a company that prints the programme notes for an event. So I guess, new yorkers don't call this the programme booklet but the 'play bill'.

The hour and a half concert was over :) Shostakovich's piece written after the cold war lasted over 40mins. This was abit too long for my parents to take, I think even my sisters found it a little too long. But none of them complained which was a huge surprise! Aw. I think they really do support my love for music, not even complaining after a day of waiting and discomfort sitting on the ground outside only to finally watch a concert that they couldn't appreciate. 

In that moment after the concert ended I was exhilarated of course! The music was so good! So angry, sad, sinister and then so happy and joyous. Very Shostakovich. Did you know? Shostakovich uses his initials DSCH as musical motifs (D E-flat C B-natural in German musical notation)? How cool is that :O

Now thinking back, if I had known what the whole experience queuing for tickets and not getting to have dinner till 10pm, I would have skipped the concert without much thought. This isn't a kind of activity that's worth the time if you're only gonna be in New York for a short while. Neither was it a pleasant experience queueing under the summer sun. And to put my parents through that was horrible. Glad I did it once, won't do it again.