Sydney Symphony & Grieg's Piano Concerto

First of all, how beautiful is Sydney at night!

I was so taken with the Opera House, that I just HAD to attend a performance in it! I was tempted to see an opera, after all it IS the OPERA House, but since I fell in love with the Concert Hall, I decided to see the Sydney Symphony in this space.

(FYI: the Concert Hall is located under the biggest shell/sail and has the largest seating capacity of any of the venue spaces in the Opera House, including the Opera Hall.)

The Sydney Symphony was playing Grieg's Piano Concerto. Gabriela Montero was the guest pianist, and she was incredible! She is particularly talented at improvising on the piano. For her encores, she announced to the audience that she would like to collaborate with us - if we would give her a song or theme, anything at all, she would improvise on our selection.

If you're interested in hearing a sample improv, click on her name above and go to her website. I didn't go through everything there, but if you click on podcasts, she does some improv on that famous little diddy, La Cucaracha. Listen to the whole thing - I think the end is even more fun than the first part. (No, that's not your eye's going bad. It's just a blurry picture. Sad.)

In addition, how cute is the guest conductor!Ok, his tux DID look like he'd taken a nap in it, but when he's THIS cute, who really cares! ;) His name is Eivind Gullberg Jensen, from Norway.

The Symphony was incredible!