Last concert that gave me trouble was Beethoven's Ninth Racket as played by the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra -- would have been worse with a "full size" orchestra -- but luckily I knew the racket well enough to put hands over ears ahead of any sudden loudnesses. In those days I wasn't as skillful in placing ear plugs.
I have come not to like Beethoven's Ninth so much, part of my ever growing distaste towards orchestra in general. The Ninth is just too much. That day we also heard the Eighth, which I enjoyed more. But we quit subscribing, considering the SPCO more trouble for us than it worth to us, particularly with the way I disliked orchestra more the more I heard it. Orchestra takes the violin, and instrument capable of many voices, and blends those sounds together into an even gray paste.
