Concert Review

On April 5th, I went to the amazing Walt Disney Concert Hall to see the Green Umbrella and I was very surprised with what I saw. The first piece I heard was amazing. It was a piano piece written by Thomas Ades and played by Ades himself! This guy was one great player! He played with great expression and feeling. Every note was very articulated. He put a lot of thought into this piece. I really enjoyed it the mood changes throughout the piece. The acoustics were absolutely amazing as well. From any area in the hall, the music sounds perfect. The piano also had the most beautiful tone. Ades is very talented, he played piano that night and conducted two pieces, one of which was his own composition as well. After Ades on the piano came a singer and percussionist piece written by Ligeti. It was very interesting. They used instruments I’ve never seen before as well as instruments you usually wouldn’t see in a piece. For instance, a whistle and a kazoo were used in the percussion piece. It was really cool! Then next two pieces I heard were written by Nancarrow and arranged by Ades. Nancarrow composed his songs for player pianos. They were very geometric and rhythmically difficult. It was very interesting the way his pieces were put together. They were very entertaining. I heard that he composed a piece where there was a chromatic glissando on the piano, which can’t be done unless it is programmed into a player piano. That was a really cool idea. The next two pieces were my least favorite probably because I couldn’t understand what was going on. Overall, the show was great and I am very happy I got to go!