Dallas Symphony Orchestra

Last Thursday Steven and I went to see the Dallas Symphony Orchestra using the tickets I won at the basket auction (see below). We had SUCH a great time!!! The lady who put the tickets up for auction (she's a season ticket holder & was going to be out of town) told me that she always eats at Allegro, which is one of the 2 restaurants at the Meyerson. So we made reservations and it was so good! Delicious. The menu changes every week, but we had seafood chowder (awesome, I wish I had the recipe), pork, pasta, Italian paninis, salad, and chocolate chip cookies, among other things. It was served buffet-style, which was awesome because we definitely both went back for seconds! After that, we still had some time to kill before the performance, so we went to the gift shop and I bought a new little toy for Jackson. It's a monkey with a round, flat body that jingles, and two teething pads. He's not really a big fan yet, but I hope that changes. I also got a beautiful wine stopper. The top is made of blue glass, and shaped like a feather. After we exhausted the gift shop, we walked around, had a glass of champagne, and went to find our seats. When we got to our seats we found out that we were in the fourth row, right in the middle!! It's not the greatest picture, but here's the view of the stage from our seats (no zoom!)


Steven's reaction was "We're going to be able to see the conductor sweat!"

The first movement was Beethoven's Leonore Overture No 2, which I don't remember hearing before, but it definitely sounded like Beethoven had composed it. It was the shortest piece of the night. After that, they brought out the guest cellist, Alisa Weilerstein, to perform the solo for Shostakovich's Cello Concerto No. 1. Ok, first of all, she's basically amazing. Second of all, she's only 26. I couldn't believe it! I have a lot of practicing to do over the next two years to catch up with her. Ok, I'm kidding. I suggest that anyone who enjoys classical music check her out because she was really incredible. I could tell that she really felt the music. At the intermission Alissa came out to sign autographs, so we bought her CD and talked with her a little ("You're so amazing... I couldn't take my eyes off of you... but I guess you hear that a lot." I'm such a dork.) and she was really nice.

After intermission, they finished off with Brahms' Symphony No 1. Of course, it was wonderful, but I had wanted to see the guest cellist back again. Steven wants to get season tickets now, but I told him that this would be a "once-in-a-while thing" for me. It was a great "date night" and gave us an excuse to get out of the house and just be us for a few hours. Huge thanks to Steven's grandmothers and his mom for tag-team babysitting our little boy.