back to woodruff

Accompanied S on a pair of free tix to a Summer Sampler of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra yesterday evening. Following free dessert samples from Mary Mac, Jake's and Intermezzo and a splash of over-iced coke, we sat down for a mixed treat of music. My pick was Wagner's celebrated The Ride of the Valkyries (who can forget the choppers in Apocalypse Now), which was the closer for the evening. Aside from that, art music continues to leave me cold overall. I can do without the effulgent richness of a string-laden set of movements (with most of the appeal relegated to a theoretical subtlety) of the famed masters. Give me the discrete daring of Herrmann, Crumb, or Stravinsky.