Symphony report

I went to the Milwaukee Symphony on Saturday with my friend Anne B. from work. The opening piece was "D&C from Surrogate Cities" by Heiner Goebbels (born 1952 and no relation to the infamous Goebbels from the Second World War). It was very interesting, particularly the percussion part, which included crumpling paper, ball bearings in a coffee can, large sheets of metal, and other unusual elements. Next the orchestra played Aaron Copland's Clarinet Concerto, which I had not heard before. The first movement was exceedingly beautiful and reminded me of watching dawn break in a green Irish field. The second and third movements were much more jazz influenced, which makes sense since Copland wrote the concerto for Benny Goodman. The final piece was Schubert's Symphony No. 9 "The Great," which is a favorite of mine. All in all, it was a very nice evening. I didn't realize until I read the program notes that Schubert died when he was 31. It's too bad that he couldn't have lived longer to compose more beautiful music.