I’ve always been grateful to Haydn for inventing the symphony but have more often than not found his compositions a bit too tame. Until last week, that is, when I heard his Four Seasons performed under Carlos Kalmar’s direction at Millennium Park. At its 1801 premier in Vienna it was a success, but I can’t imagine that performance to have been as bold as the one we heard here in Chicago last week.
But back to visuals.
The woman at left was posing for a friend whose fumbling with a camera required multiple takes. This gave me time to pull out my pocket Sony. I immediately saw this composition and am showing the photo without later cropping or tweaking. My take on the scene will never make it as a having-a-good- time-wish-you-were-here postcard, will it. It’s funny, I hope that’s your reaction. It also has a warmth that the left-right flip lacks.
The flip is also funny, but in a weird way. Pessimistic, gloomy, just plain wrong. If this had been the scene in front of me—and that’s entirely possible—it’s unlikely that I would have “seen” it and taken the shot.
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