Joshua Bell in Concert

2009.12.06 in school

Joshua Bell played at RPI tonight; Mike, Nate, Carol, and I all got to attend (we ran into Ryan, Nick, DJ, and Alex there, too, among others). It was without question the best thing I've seen at EMPAC (Mike disagrees, questioning whether it was better than Wynton Marsalis or Per Tengstrand, but I missed both of those). I don't expect that to change.

The music was fantastic. It's obviously impossible to describe, but believe me, it was! He played two pieces (I'm too lazy to grab the program right now to see what they were), then encored two more, then came out after a (rather longwinded) SAJ love-fest to perform "Yankee Doodle" without accompaniment, to everyone's amusement (and amazement).

The fact that he played without amplification made me happy, especially in a space designed exactly for that (most of the other events at EMPAC have left me entirely without hearing for many hours afterwards). I suppose it should have been obvious that it was going to be that way, being a classy classical music concert, but I was initially surprised.

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of any of us in our suits/dresses, but ... I'm sure it'll happen again, someday!

Afterwards, Mike and I hightailed it out of there because there was music and crowds of people dancing and such. DJ tells me that there was iced coffee in glasses made out of chocolate. I think that's pretty cute :-)