Pacific Symphony, Segerstrom Concert Hall – January 16, 2026
My connection from the Buy Nothing group scores again! Since I seem to be the only one who takes her up on these symphonies and operas, she texted me directly and I of course said yes. She offered me a choice of dates and I chose Saturday because it seemed like the least awful traffic-wise. When I loaded Maps it said 49 minutes and then while I was on my way there was an accident and a traffic break to get it off the freeway. I still made it with 20 minutes to spare. Parking was $15. Julie got there before me and was all sparkled up. This time our seats were fairly high up in the balcony, but close to the center. As far as free goes, we were pretty happy.
Alexander Shelley conducted the evening’s program, which began with John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine. I liked the piece. It was fun and conveyed exactly what the title implied. Next up Aubree Oliverson took the stage in a lovely orange gown with matching orange shoes to play Korngold’s Violin Concerto. All I can say is WOW. She was great. She totally did the piece justice.
After intermission, we had Stravinsky’s The Firebird with a full-length accompanying animation. The Firebird itself is a lovely piece. The animation, however, was awful. And I mean truly awful. We’re talking AI generated, weird, choppy, and totally distracting animation. I wanted to look away and just concentrate on the music but the screen was practically right in front of me. Fowler Amusement, who created the animation is a legit company, and they said they were pulling inspiration fro NC Wyeth, Arthur Rackham and Howard Pyle. I’m not sure how it went so wrong.
Despite the awful animation, it was a lovely night. We took a little time after the show to take some pictures and stop at the kiosk for a 3 photo GIF. I really do like that venue. I hope to go back soon!