Like cheese, classical music is best enjoyed when in string form. Snack on the sounds of cultured composition with today’s GrouponLive deal: for $44, you get two loge-section tickets to a Classical Series performance in the Great Hall of Valley Performing Arts Center in Northridge (a $92 value, including all taxes and fees). Doors open at 7 p.m., and performances start at 8 p.m. Choose from the following performance options:
- The Mariinsky Orchestra on Tuesday, October 18
- The Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra with pianist Garrick Ohlsson on Thursday, February 23
- Violinist Vladimir Spivakov and pianist Olga Kern on Thursday, March 1
The Valley Performing Arts Center’s stunning performance hall unites the timbres of plucked strings and tapped piano keys in harmonious compositions performed by some of the world’s most esteemed classical musicians. Powered by a belief in communication and shared understanding through art, the center’s Classical Series features a trio of virtuosic performances that pull from monolithic Romantic composers such as Brahms and Chopin as well as 20th-century sound-weavers Stravinsky and Shostakovich. The series commences with a moving performance from the Mariinsky Orchestra, founded by Catherine the Great in 1783 and renowned for giving Russian ballets more layers than a matryoshka doll shoved inside a wedding cake. Still reveling in his triumph as winner of the 1970 Chopin International Piano Competition, Garrick Ohlsson marches with the well-tuned troops of the Wroclaw Philharmonic Orchestra through fields blossoming with Romantic symphonies and concertos. Vladimir Spivakov and Olga Kern team up for a fitting conclusion to the series, capping off the performance by shooting fireworks out of their respective violin and piano.
The Great Hall’s variable acoustical system ensures that guests seated in level C of the loge section will hear every instrument as if they were in the orchestra themselves. While ears wrap themselves in blankets of warm sound, eyes can indulge in the sinuous wood ribbons extending from the proscenium and the lights reflecting off the onstage shark pool, which serves to remind musicians of the consequences of forgetting their parts.
Groupon Says
The Groupon Guide to: Vinyl Records
Like the dull-witted dodo bird, vinyl records have gone extinct. But just as the dodo was cloned and revived by hungry scientists curious to see if dodos really tasted as loathsome as reported, vinyl LPs have also made a comeback. Here's a step-by-step guide to playing these spinning sound receptacles:
1. Purchase a Record: Unlike "digital" music, which can be purchased by shoving nickels into your laptop's headphone socket, gramophone LPs must be acquired from a physical location, such as a junk shop or the trunk of a transient's Studebaker.
2. Find a Phonograph: Your record machine has three settings: 33, 45, and 78—these numbers refer to the number of times you can listen to your record before it melts into worthless iron ore.
3. Stay on Your Feet: Be prepared to turn your record over multiple times throughout its playing time. The A (or flat) side contains the record's best songs, and the B (or bottom) side contains a soothing aloe that lubricates the gramophone's mechanisms.
4. Reverse the Record: Listen to your LP backward to reveal hidden messages from band members and any and all allied satans, as well as a hypnotic suggestion from record-company executives to disobey your parents.
5. Understand the Sound: To truly appreciate the audio fidelity of a record, you must understand the simple process behind it: rubbing a needle on anything produces awesome music.
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