It’s gotten to the point that I remember things I experienced 30-35 years ago more vividly than stuff I did 30-35 weeks ago. Even so, I will sometimes try to search for old concert reviews to confirm my memory of certain dates or performers or companion pieces on a given program.
In the course of one of such search, I happened across this: Philadelphia Orchestra concert listings from the 1980s and ‘90s, the era that formed the peak of my Philadelphia concert attendance – first as one of those who stood in line for an hour and a half, in all weather, outside the old Academy of Music at Broad and Spruce Streets, for a shot at a $1.50 amphitheater ticket (later raised to $2.00); then as a young subscriber.
How strange it is to revisit these programs from my current perspective, all these years later. On the one hand I can remember vividly being there in the hall, and the actual performances, as if next to no time has passed; on the other, not only does it seem so very distant, but like from another dimension entirely. Surely it is for elusive sensations like this that the word as “uncanny” was coined.
Looking back, I realize afresh how lucky I was to be able to see and hear so many of the greats in action. I can’t say that I took everything for granted, but with the passage of time, one starts to realize how seldom certain pieces are played in concert and how indispensable individual talents are.
Pay attention not only to the conductors, but also the soloists – some of them drawn from the orchestra’s personnel. So many no longer with us, or getting toward the end of their careers.
https://concertannals.blogspot.com/2018/12/philadelphia-orchestra-subscription_13.html
Those of you with even longer memories may appreciate this. Scroll down for Ormandy in the ‘50s:
https://concertannals.blogspot.com/search/label/Philadelphia%20Orchestra
PHOTO: Philadelphia’s Academy of Music, where I saw Mieczylslaw Horszowski, Rudolf Firkušný, Leon Fleisher, Alicia de Larrocha, Max Rudolf, Klaus Tennstedt, Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Erich Leinsdorf, Oscar Shumsky, Isaac Stern, Paul Tortelier, Mstislav Rostropovich, Heinrich Schiff, Lynn Harrell, Jessye Norman, Luciano Pavarotti, John Shirley-Quirk, William Warfield, Gian Carlo Menotti, Einojuhani Rautuvaara, and so many others. Entrance to the amphitheater is toward the far right of the photo. If you were in line back to the poster on the front right of the building (seen center), you knew you were in. You just had to be sure to bring a coffee and a book. No cell phones then!
