What people don't often realize about Wolf Trap is that it's an actual national park. Just like Yellowstone and Yosemite, it's managed by the US government, has a ranger staff and occasionally you'll even see cool wildlife! This year is the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service and the NSO did a concert honoring this occasion and the coming 4th of July. I'll use this post to give a little background on the NSO. The National Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1931 and since then has become one of the preeminent orchestras in the United States. Its main residence is at the Kennedy Center but it performs over 150 shows a year. They have had six conductors in its history but Emil de Cou often does the performances at Wolf trap. Time and again I've seen them give incredible performances and I always love when they come to the Trap.
While this show was no different in that regard, I thought the title was a bit misleading. I figured that there would be a continuous montage of National Park pictures while the NSO played patriotic American songs. Instead, they offered a wide range of pieces including some operatic pieces. The pictures they showed were nice but it was only shown during a small bit of the performance and they weren't as multimedia as I thought (maybe that's because I just spent a semester in New Zealand aka photographers paradise). So while they of course sounded great, it just wasn't what I was expecting so I couldn't help but feel a bit disappointed. The show overall was easy but people for some reason really wanted to take photos so I was running around the lawn making people delete their pictures. Luckily though, the weather was perfect and it was still a good night.
The best part for me was the end when they finally got everyone jazzed up with Stars and Stripes Forever. It's such a classic tune and even if it wasn't quite as good as the version we do with the USC Marching Band, it was still fantastic!
P.S. Mary Chapin Carpenter is tomorrow but since I saw her two years ago I won't write a post.
As always, looking forward to more shows in the future!
DC
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