Do you like music? Do you like being outside? Do you like explosions?
Since the correct answers are yes, yes, and DEAR GOD YES, you should know that the Oregon Symphony's 2016/17 season is kicking off tonight with a free outdoor concert in Waterfront Park.
Here's what I had to say about it in this week's paper—it's much more than a bunch of violas and piccolos tootling out gravely serious tunes by dead white guys. In fact, this thing starts right... about... nnnnow with a host of performances from local performers and ensembles all day long. Then, at 7 pm tonight, the Oregon Symphony plays a pretty impressive concert which includes Dvořák, the E.T. score, some opera and ballet, before it concludes with ACTUAL CANNONS FIRING.
There's a lot more on tap for the Symphony after tonight; check out our preview of their fall concerts, a preview that focuses on the classical program and not the pops stuff like Pokémon and Frozen and all the other fluff that subsidizes all modern American orchestras these days. Classical music sound stuffy to you? If a one-act dissonant opera by Bartók with glass-sculpture scenery sounds stuffy, then I can't help you. If a concerto written for percussion instruments sounds stuffy, then you're just too hip for words. If hearing Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony (admittedly only his fourth or fifth best symphony, but still an astonishing masterwork) live and in person sounds stuffy, then, well, get stuffed.
Check out the preview here, and think long and hard about buying a ticket to one or some of them. For now, don't miss the free epic concert down by the river tonight.