The lesson from this story seems to be: If somebody from the BSO calls, don't even talk to them, just hang up right away.

Stacie explains why she came close to kicking the woman next to her at Symphony this past Thursday.

Joel Brown was there last night:

In last night's all-Ravel opening program at Symphony Hall, the full awesomeness of James Levine's command of the orchestra only really showed during the closing piece, the Second Suite from Daphnis et Chloe. It was especially noticeable in the final few minutes, with waves of mini-crescendoes in which he demonstrated his vivid control of the band ...

Geoff Edgers has the scoop.

Here's proof. And here's an explanation (James Levine is involved).

Will raves about Deborah Voigt's performance during the BSO's Beethoven/Schoenberg combo this week:

... Schoenberg, to put it mildly, isn't everybody's cup of tea, particularly his compositions after abandoning traditional melody and tonality. ... Star soprano Deborah Voigt sang the Schoenberg and the concert aria thrillingly. ...

Friday night, we took our children to see the Boston Pops' Holiday show. Barenaked Ladies were the special guest.

To read the chronicle of our adventures in Symphony, read more here.

We go over to Symphony Hall, and everyone there is dressed impeccably. There is fur, there are gowns, there are ties, there are bow ties. There are dress shoes, there are glittery blouses. Everyone is there, dressed to the nines, and my son finally kind of gets it. It's not a rock show -- it's a symphony. And now he's pissed because he doesn't want to see the stupid orchestra. He wants to see Barenaked Ladies. I tell him again and again, you WILL see Barenaked Ladies. I promise you, they are going to be here.

Just in time for Mother's Day, the BSO presents Stravinsky's Oedipus Rex - which gives Tim Jarrett, who will be part of the performance's chorus, an interesting conundrum: A co-worker says the concert sounds interesting for his 13-year-old daughter, who's taking voice lessons; should Tim recommend he get tickets, given the subject matter?

... Stravinsky wrote some of the most amazingly inventive, sinuous melody lines for this work, which sports a libretto by Jean Cocteau. I think my personal favorite is the herky-jerky chromaticism of the passage where Oedipus batters down the door, kills his mother/wife, and puts out his own eyes. ...