Ear Fulla Culture.

Michael and I went to see the Philadelphia Orchestra perform last night at the Kimmel Center, which was absolutely astounding. We got free tickets through my school (wait, there are *advantages* to being a grad student?!), and we saw the Orchestra perform Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 with guest solo pianist Lang Lang and guest conductor Christoph Eschenbach. Lang Lang's performance on the piano was amazing--he had no sheet music in front of him for any of it; he simply played the nearly hour-long piece by memory. And with incredible ease, I might add. Then the Orchestra played Shostakovich's Symphony No. 5, which was also incredible. M and I are big Shostakovich fans, so we were thrilled. The Kimmel Center itself is an awesome piece of architecture well worth a gander, designed by architect Rafael Vinoly, who is particularly famous for his glass roofs. The interior of the main performance hall, the Verizon Hall also quite amazing. It was a great night. A little bit of culture now and again does a mind good.