In today’s era when technology refutes geographical distance, music helps me to cross the distance within. Music connects me to my inner self. I love spending my evenings sometimes filled with music; only music. It is to me is a tremendous mysterious element, a force of nature that I have to bow before. Recently, I got an opportunity to spend a musical evening with the San Francisco Symphony. I listened to Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique at the Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco and went through layers of emotions within. Remembering a beautiful quote by Charles Darwin,

If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once a week; for perhaps the parts of my brain now atrophied would have thus been kept active through use. The loss of these tastes is a loss of happiness, and may possibly be injurious to the intellect, and more probably to the moral character, by enfeebling the emotional part of our nature.

In today's era when technology refutes geographical distance, music helps me to cross the distance within. Music connects me to my inner self. #Travel #Music #SanFrancisco Click To Tweet

Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco

Before I write about the magical evening that I spent at Davies Symphony Hall with the San Francisco Symphony, I would urge you to do a simple thought experiment. Look at the pictures of the beautiful Davies Symphony Hall and imagine! You are sitting there with the hall filled with music. The penetrating and soft tune from a violin; the varied melodies from a flute; the flowing tune of a harp or the sound from a clarinet which will swell, decrease and die away slowly. How would you feel?

A musical evening with San Francisco Symphony, Travel Realizations, san francisco symphony orchestra, concerts in san francisco, davies symphony hall
Davies Symphony Hall (Credit: San Francisco Symphony)

How would you feel when you will listen to the effects of unrest, excitement and terror, all produced by the tremolo or the dramatic effect produced by the timpani?

A musical evening with San Francisco Symphony, Travel Realizations, san francisco symphony orchestra, concerts in san francisco, davies symphony hall
Davies Symphony Hall (Credit: San Francisco Symphony)

Would you not go through layers of emotion within, just like I did? Unsurprisingly, I reach helplessly for words like “divine” or “miraculous” to explain my feelings.

A musical evening with San Francisco Symphony, Travel Realizations, san francisco symphony orchestra, concerts in san francisco, davies symphony hall
That evening I visited the violin-land, where all is sweetness and delicacy and harmony!

Mendelssohn’s exhilarating Violin Concerto

Mendelssohn’s exhilarating Violin Concerto was performed by violinist Blake Pouliot and conductor Brett Mitchell. They took me to a distant land which was full of wonder and I wandered around freely. They unlocked me and I met me.

Life seems to go on without effort when I am filled with music.

George Eliot
A musical evening with San Francisco Symphony, Travel Realizations, san francisco symphony orchestra, concerts in san francisco, Blake Pouliot
Kudos to one of today’s most promising young artists, the award-winning Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot, for letting me flow in the music that evening. (Credit: San Francisco Symphony)
A musical evening with San Francisco Symphony, Travel Realizations, san francisco symphony orchestra, concerts in san francisco, Brett Mitchell
Thank you, Brett Mitchell, for gifting us a magical evening!
(Credit: San Francisco Symphony)

Berlioz’s Symphony Fantastique

Symphony Fantastique is a program symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is an important piece of the early Romantic period. 

Overview

In 1827, Berlioz saw Harriet Smithson for the first time, playing Ophelia in a production of Hamlet. Hopelessly smitten, he turned his entire life upside down to meet her. Frantic months turned into years when he suddenly heard rumors about Harriet and another man. Believing himself cured, he wrote a ‘fantastic’ symphony complete with a special theme, the idée fixe, to represent his former obsession. 

Love cannot express the idea of music, while music may give an idea of love.  

Hector Berlioz

Aftereffect of a beautiful concert in San Francisco

Now even when a few days have passed, I can still hear the music with my eyes closed and with no effort. And almost instantly, my anxieties and humdrum of daily life take a sidetrack. Music is magic. Music is power.

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.

Bob Marley
A musical evening with San Francisco Symphony, Travel Realizations, san francisco symphony orchestra, concerts in san francisco, davies symphony hall
Just when Berlioz’s Symphony Fantastique ended!
One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain. #Music #Travel #SanFrancisco Click To Tweet
A musical evening with San Francisco Symphony, Travel Realizations, san francisco symphony orchestra, concerts in san francisco, davies symphony hall
Without music, life would be a mistake. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
 

Practical Tips for visiting the San Francisco Symphony

  • Do you want to plan a beautiful musical evening and gift it to your friends or family? Then refer to the San Francisco Symphony Calendar.
  • Look at their seating chart and choose your favorite seat.
  • If you are all set to immerse yourself in classical music, then buy a ticket to any of their concerts.
  • Don’t forget to look outside the 1st floor. The San Francisco city hall sparkles at night.
A musical evening with San Francisco Symphony, Travel Realizations, san francisco symphony orchestra, concerts in san francisco, davies symphony hall
Music is the shorthand of emotion. ~Leo Tolstoy
A musical evening with San Francisco Symphony, Travel Realizations, san francisco symphony orchestra, concerts in san francisco, davies symphony hall
Inside the Davies Symphony Hall 

Travel Realizations

No matter how expensive the sound system we use in our car or at home, they can’t give us the feeling of listening to a concert from inside a hall. I loved sitting amidst an audience mesmerized by the charm of music. Even my three-year-old daughter watched and listened to the concert till the end, patiently and lovingly. In the cult of continuous production and consumption, it is painful but possible for human beings to become a production machine. Once we become that, it is hard to return to a realm where happiness and joy are unbound. Music always helps me to wander in a realm brimming with joy and peace and stops me from swimming in the sea of relentless productivity.

Music always helps me to wander in a realm brimming with joy and peace and stops me from swimming in the sea of relentless productivity. #Music #Travel #SanFrancisco Click To Tweet
A musical evening with San Francisco Symphony, Travel Realizations, san francisco symphony orchestra, concerts in san francisco, davies symphony hall
A spellbound spectator!

If you live in the San Francisco Bay area or are visiting the city, spend an evening with the San Francisco Symphony. Each and every moment will be a treasure. If you love to float in the medicinal air of music then listen to the San Francisco Symphony orchestra.

A musical evening with San Francisco Symphony, Travel Realizations, san francisco symphony orchestra, concerts in san francisco, davies symphony hall
San Francisco Symphony from outside. (Credit: San Francisco Symphony)

Similar articles from Travel Realizations

Chirasree Banerjee

Hello. My name is Chirasree. I have been traveling for almost 11 years to places all over the world. I enter into a separate reality during my travels and enjoy the allure of escape from the mundane. I seek beauty through nature and human-made creations. Because beauty is powerful. I seek knowledge. I observe, absorb, and write about the places I visit and the profound realizations and inspirations that each place has to offer.