Pittsburgh Philharmonic and Jean-Yves Thibaudet

Following an absolutely remarkable preformance by Monsieur Thibaudet on piano, the packed audience in Heinz Hall gave him a standing ovation, he came out repeatedly, finally sat down to play an encore. As the orchestra sat and waited, along with the audience, Jean-Yves thought for a few seconds, then said, ah yes, Chopin's Waltz in D minor. What else? What could a pianist play for an encore after so many ovations than a Chopin piece. The moment was so incredible, In political film, I try to explain why Chopin is played throughout the movie The Pianist, about Chopin's music, the emotion, the beauty, the heartbreak it captures. What else could accompany a film by Roman Polanski about his memories of the holocaust as a young boy?

So yes, jean-yves had to play Chopin, and he was amazing.

The performance after intermission was Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, written while he was high on opium. What? yes. Carlos Santana dropped acid and then was told he had to go out and perform at Woodstock (oops, bad timing) and Berlioz got high on opium and wrote his first symphony. It was great, the sheer number of bass violins, violas, tympany, large drums, and tubas suggested a loud and full range piece. We werent disappointed. What i liked was the second Tuba player, he had to wait until the last movement, final part, to finally play. It was worth the wait, the Tubas were important, including his part. Great performance.