Club Sandwich and Shostakovich

I was going to attend the UCLA Symphonic Band's concert at noon today but ended up just going to lunch instead. Normally I would be feeling guilty about this, but today De Neve had the most amazing club sandwiches on thick bread, which I ate two of along with the remains' of my friends'. Another exciting development in the world of UCLA dining is that desserts are now labeled; finally we know (at least vaguely) what we stuff into ourselves twice daily. Time will tell if this is a permanent change and whether or not it is exclusive to De Neve. Today there was a dessert called "Chinese Chew," which I found to be a misnomer because there was nothing Chinese nor chewy about it. However I have no idea what I would call it myself; apparently the dining hall staff don't either.

Last night was my first concert as part of UCLA Symphony. The program included:
Mozart - Overture to Don Giovanni
Rheinberger - Concerto for Organ no. 2 in G minor
Shostakovich - Symphony no. 5

It was probably one of the most enjoyable performances I have ever given, deeply reminiscent of my first concert with the NHS Philharmonic and Tchaikovsky's 4th symphony in Fall 2004. Something about Shostakovich's 5th is immensely moving to me. It doesn't quite connect with me on the same personal level that Tchaikovsky's music does - but what it does do is create sympathy, perhaps because it is so difficult to imagine a more perfect way to capture the suffering of millions at the hands of Stalin than with this symphony. I suppose Shostakovich is more difficult for the modern audience to understand than someone like Tchaikovsky, with over-the-top crowd-pleasing lyricism beginning to die out and modernism setting in. Plus there were a few bumps and bruises in our performance, namely at the end of the allegretto, where a missed clarinet entrance nearly resulted in a trainwreck. Despite this I believe we succeeded in conveying the proper atmosphere. The largo in particular is just absurdly tense throughout; and our director did such a fantastic job conducting it and drawing us into the music that it seems impossible that a single person in the audience could have not felt it.