I was riveted by the performance. Ikeda beautifully combined visual patterns that I had always been fascinated with.

At times I got a bit dizzy by the sound volume and flashing lights, but maybe that is intended.

My wife hated every second of it, but my 15-year old son liked it a lot. I wanted to expose us all to a novel cultural experience and it worked on 2/3.

I was a bit disappointed that the hall was only half full. At the Penny Stamps lecture on Thursday, Michigan Theater was packed with undergrad students to see Ikeda, but it looks like only a handful went to the performance, despite the ticket cost being so low. There are 40,000 young, and supposedly open, minds in this city and when Michigan plays football, they pack the stadium, but when there are world-class dance music or theater performances very few come to see. Why is that? Is UMS maybe not advertising enough among students? I mentioned the low cost of UMS performances to undergrad acquaintances before and they did not know about it.

It was exciting because both the conductor and the whole Pioneer orchestra poured excitement and emotion into the performance.
This excitement transferred into the audience and the (surprisingly few) flaws in the performance mattered very little. They gave their everything and that was palpable (and a lot of fun).

To be fair, the other high schools were good, too, (for being teenagers), but Pioneer excelled. (and no, I am not a parent of a high schooler there) Probably the good work of the the conductor made the difference. And that is what I was hoping from Alan Gilbert: coax emotion out of his musicians and establish a more-than-cerebral connection to the audience. The Tchaikovsky symphony is nicknamed “Pathetique”- I hoped to feel some pathos, but found that very little was coming our way.

Not being versed in the language of music, I find it hard to express my view of Sunday’s performance in the right words: in plain words, I found it a bit boring. While technically brilliant, I thought the performance lacked enthusiasm and heartfelt emotion. The lackluster final applause from folks around me (in the the upper balcony) told me that I was not alone in feeling underwhelmed. The other day, I attended the AAPS middle and high school concert event at Hill. Pioneer High School, under tutelage from an enthusiastic New York guest conductor, vowed us with a riveting performance of parts of Beethoven’s 5th. Not quite flawless, of course, but intense and exciting. In comparison, the NY Philharmonics sounded like smoothly-programmed robots.

I had a seat in the upper balcony. It was so loud there that I could not stand it. The drums and voice completely drowned out the violin and accordion. Unbearable!

Hill’s fine acoustic is not suited for this level of amplification. Visiting bands should be warned of that and instructed to tone it down.

I manged to exchange my seat for one in the mezzanine and there I enjoyed the music very much.