No, it's not André Rieu. Wolfgang Amadeus earns another spot in the Hall of Fame with his Symphony No. 41, 'Jupiter', one place higher than the opera I discovered last week. This time I actually got to watch the musicians play, which massively changes the listening experience. I saw things that would have escaped my ears alone.
Firstly, the orchestral line-up. There is only one flautist. There are no clarinets or trombones. They hadn't become prevalent enough yet, so Mozart composed without.
On a less musical track, I noticed a lack of jewellery among the players of the Sinfónica de Galicia. An unusually low number seemed to be wearing any sort of wedding ring. It struck me that either classical musicians take vows of celibacy in order to devote more time to practice, or they take their rings off to play. Can a gold band throw your finger off-balance? Some people think so.
I enjoyed each of the four movements, but these are my video highlights:
- Lorin Maazel's emphatic finger pointing at 29:49 should be a GIF (mostly he seems fairly restrained in his gesticulations)
- Basses getting a work-out at 37:37
- Bearded chap in the back really going for it at 39:03