I was not ready
to see tonight’s concert and was not prepared for the wonderful musical
experience I had. And now I must say I was very fortunate to see Augustin
Hadelich’s amazing performance of Bartók’s
Violin Concerto No. 2 (the first performance of the concert in 1939 has
come to be regarded as one of the great 20th-century violin concertos,
according to the LA Philharmonic).
When you attend
a Classical Concert or an Opera you prepare yourself in advance. You see the
program and learn about the concert; you read the biographies of the composer,
the conductor and the concertist; and you buy the tickets in advance. Well,
until today, as I decided to attend tonight’s concert by the Houston Symphony
Orchestra only 40 minutes before it started.
As I have
been travelling these past few months between Caracas and Houston, I have been
able to see several performances by the Houston Symphony (@housymphony). Tonight
I just simply read that the Orchestra would be playing Mozart and headed
downtown Houston; and I was treated to an evening of sound, magic and
excitement.
Tonight’s
concert conducted by Gilbert Varga, was an incredible performance by the Houston
Symphony which started with Mendelssohn’s
Overture to A Midsummer Nights’ Dream and ended with Mozart’s Symphony No. 39.
Beautiful, elegant, enchanting and melodic concertos that make you start dreaming
as you listen to their first notes.
And then, violinist
Augustin Hadelich played Bartók’s Violin
Concerto No. 2. I have to say I had read about his concert at Carnegie Hall
in New York in December last year, but as I started to enjoy this very powerful
and fast paced concert, I realized I was seeing a very talented musician who commanded
the scenario with strong energy and a compelling dynamism.
Very
demanding of his 1723 Stradivarius Violin
(that at times appeared to be talking to us), he transmitted a level of
excellence that seemed beyond us at certain moments and that we very seldom
seen today. And Bartok’s very challenging concert was played with ‘beauty’, which was how the Washington Post described
Hadelich’s essence of playing. On my way back I read what the Houston Chronicle
wrote about his previous performance at Jones Hall which indicated that
Hadelich “exerted the kind of excitement that threatens to lift the listener
right out of his seat.” And of course, we all got lifted again this time.
As a Business Performance Coach I started asking questions in my head. How
do we get this kind of performance from our team members? How do you get that
kind of performance in your companies? How do we leave audiences in ‘awe’?
How do we get a standing ovation? We don’t if we do not prepare and work to
achieve our goals, our purpose and our vision.
This is why we need to constantly generate new ideas, learn new skills,
practice for perfection, and continuously train our co-workers and team members,
including ourselves. Not an easy task, but if we want to give a level of
performance that exceeds our customer’s expectations, we need to prepare,
practice, train and develop the abilities and qualities of the individuals that
surround us, that work with us and from whom we require the kind of excellent
performance level I saw this evening.
Tonight’s concert by the Houston Symphony was incredible; and Augustin
Hadelich’s and exquisite and distinguished performance was – simply –
inspirational, after which the audience gave a long and deserving standing
ovation, with sounds of ‘Bravo’ and ‘Bravssimo’ being heard,
while the Orchestra musicians were applauding along (he came back to the delight
the audience with a beautiful encore piece by Paganini; greeted of course with
his second standing ovation of the evening). One of those concerts and amazing
performances you will be able to cherish and remember forever.
