The sixth movement was my favorite as well! The requiem as a whole was pretty relaxing, so when the chorus started singing forte, it held an urgency that captured my entire attention. I got goosebumps at that part.

I have never been a huge fan of choral music, but despite that I enjoyed the concert very much. I was impressed with everyone on stage and thought the orchestration and singing came together very nicely.

This was my first time listening to Brahms’s German Requiem fully, and I found it for the most part muted and reflective – totally appropriate for a requiem. Some of my favorite parts, however, were when the choir would sing at full blast, for instance, about joy in the second movement. My absolute favorite part has to be during the sixth movement when the choir was singing on the triumph of death; it was very powerful.

Rodriguez’s rhythms were crazy – it sounded like he was having fun with them though. Pedrito Martinez’s music was definitely more traditional. It distinctly sounded like latin jazz, whereas Rodriguez’s pieces were more ambiguous. There were many moments, especially during his his first piece where I thought, ‘This doesn’t sound like jazz!’

I was very impressed with Rodriguez’s playing. He seemed intent on showing off his technical skill, but I preferred his more melodic pieces. It was easier to stay focused when there was a familiar tune to latch onto. I also felt like the bass and drums complemented the piano very well. I especially liked the 2nd piece with the suave groove set by the drums, producing an easy-going mood.

I thought that the Pedro Martinez Group had great stage presence They displayed a lot of energy, but I honestly couldn’t respond to their music. Their vocal harmonization was excellent but overwhelming. I was also put off by their use of electronic instruments, which felt inauthentic and sounded messy, even though everyone was musically well-synchronized. I did like how PMG invited Rodriguez to play, and cheered when he came back on stage.

I know what you mean – it looked like there was a progression in both dances that seemed to tell a story, but it was hard to make it out exactly. But it was still fun to watch!

Wow that was so much fun! I love dance, especially hip-hop, and I very much enjoyed the choreography.

I liked both pieces, but Agwa has to be my favorite of the two. Their use of cups as a prop was quite creative. I felt nervous when members danced and jumped over the carefully arranged cups and cheered when they threw stacks of them up into the air.

Of note, I found their choice of music to be very interesting. It seemed like an eclectic mix of music from around the world (I remember hearing opera at one point), but a common theme (as stated in the titles: Correria=running for the first; Agwa=water for the second) unified the different styles of music and dance in a piece so that it didn’t feel disjointed.

Overall, it was a very interesting performance, and I would love to see them again in the future.

I attended the Saturday concert of the Kronos Quartet, and I really enjoyed it – it was unlike anything I had ever attended. I was actually a big fan of their use of the recordings in conjunction with the live playing. The pre-recording sometimes complemented the live playing (eg. Suite from Dirty Wars, …hold me neighbor, in this storm…), but also sometimes clashed with it (eg. Agency), which produced an interesting tension.

The encore pieces were very fun and were possibly my favorite parts of the concert. The Swedish folk song was different in style from all the other pieces, which was refreshing, and the following piece “Cupertino” was quite humorous. My absolute favorite was the last encore piece played “Death is the Road to Awe.” I felt like the pre-recording worked really well with the quartet’s live playing: it was subtle in the beginning, but then progressively became more prominent and helped propel the piece forward until it built up to something truly epic in the end. It was very powerful and continued to play in my head even after the concert.