By America’s #1 Love and Marriage Experts.
Tonight, we heard the sounds of love! Over the years we have seen love, felt love, heard about love, observed love, and been in love. But tonight, we heard the sounds of love!
We heard love tonight through the magnificent sounds of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO), the second oldest symphony orchestra in the United States of America. David Robertson joined the SLSO as its conductor several years ago after a highly successful tenure as Conductor in Lyon, France. The Maestro is incredibly energetic and the audience loves his passion, emotion, and enthusiasm for his work. The audience tonight, as on all nights, adored the Maestro and the Orchestra during the concert, and the feeling was clearly reciprocated by them.
The concert we watched was their Carnegie Hall Preview Concert. As usual, their actual Carnegie Hall concert a few days later received wonderful reviews from the New York critics! Their renditions of Wagner and Sibelius were especially stirring and breathtaking.
But how you say does this have anything to do with love and marriage? Our response – it has everything to do with love and marriage! The beautiful sounds we heard tonight were about joy. They were inspiring. They were heart pounding. They gave you cold chills. They made you feel good all over. They sounds we heard from this magnificent orchestra tonight were the sounds of love. The reciprocal relationship between orchestra and conductor was a clear demonstration of the power of love. Much like a successful marriage.
Music has a way to touch your heartstrings. It has a way to make your heart sing. Music, perhaps more than anything else, has a way to magically transform your body and soul to a place of love, peace, and serenity. Tonight, we heard the sounds of love. We experienced the throbbing pulse you feel every time the someone you love walks into the room and into your life.
For many years, we have viewed a symphony orchestra as a metaphor for successful love and marriage. Every player has a part to play. No one player is more important than the other. Each person playing an instrument must play his or her part. When one doesn’t, or when they play it badly, the music written by the composer suffers. Beautiful sounds become noise. Harmonic structures sound like fingernails on a chalkboard. But when each player plays his or her part to perfection, you hear lovely and breathtaking music, like we did tonight.
Which brings us to the point of all this. Tonight at the SLSO concert we experienced a special moment. We saw a house full of people at magnificent Powell Symphony Hall in St. Louis, Missouri fall in love tonight. The conductor was extraordinary, the orchestra played wonderfully, and the audience responded with love, affection, and admiration for both. Love was in the air. You could feel it. You could sense it. You could hear it.
Following the final standing ovation, exultation and joy were present everywhere. It was like love. It was amazing. We heard the sounds of love tonight and it felt good.
So for you lovers out there, here is the “Doctors List” of the Top 20 Symphony Orchestras in the United States. We compiled this list after reviewing many, many sources. And we know, some will quibble over our list, and we encourage that! The truth is, we want you to experience the joy with your favorite orchestra that we experienced with ours tonight and all those other nights throughout the year.
Here they are, “The Doctors Top 20” --
1) Chicago Symphony Orchestra
2) Cleveland Orchestra
3) Los Angeles Philharmonic
4) Boston Symphony Orchestra
5) New York Philharmonic
6) Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
7) San Francisco Symphony
8) Minnesota Orchestra
9) Philadelphia Orchestra
10) Cincinnati Symphony
11) Pittsburgh Symphony
12) Atlanta Symphony
13) Houston Symphony
14) National Symphony (Washington, DC)
15) Miami New World Symphony
16) Dallas Symphony
17) Seattle Symphony
18) Baltimore Symphony
19) Detroit Symphony Orchestra
20) Colorado Symphony Orchestra
One final reminder – Conductor David Robertson and his wife, Orli Shaham, have a beautiful marriage. We are sure their marriage would parallel very closely the many successfully married couples we have interviewed over the past quarter century across cultures, countries, and continents. Come to think of it, when the Maestro and the SLSO play their beautiful music, they are probably expressing the beautiful sounds of David and Orli’s marriage – a symphony of love and marriage!
The Simple Things Matter in love and marriage. Love well!
By Dr. Charles D. Schmitz and Dr. Elizabeth A. Schmitz
Authors of Golden Anniversaries: The Seven Secrets of Successful Marriage
Winner of the INDIE Book Awards GOLD Medal for Best Relationship Book
Winner of the 2009 Mom’s Choice Awards GOLD Medal for Most Outstanding Relationships and Marriage Book
2009 Nautilus Book Awards Winner for Relationships
Now you can order the Doctors' award winning marriage book, Golden Anniversaries: The Seven Secrets of Successful Marriage at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com or www.GoldenAnniversaries.com, the 2009 Mom’s Choice Awards Gold Medal Winner for Most Outstanding Relationships and Marriage Book. With 26 years of research experience on successful marriage and their own 42-year marriage, Drs. Charles and Elizabeth Schmitz know what makes marriage work. From their hundreds of interviews with happily married couples, representing 15,000 years of marriage, they've discovered the seven pervasive characteristics present in all successful marriages. Their book exposes the secrets for success through these poignant, real life stories.
Get started with America's #1 Love and Marriage Experts by taking their Marriage Quiz or asking them a question at Marriage Advice or downloading their FREE eBook at Salad Recipes For Love and Health.
During their distinguished careers the Doctors have received some 65 local, state, and national awards; published nearly 350 articles and manuscripts; delivered over 1000 speeches, workshops and public presentations; traveled throughout the world; and appeared on radio and television and in the print media. Dr. Charles D. Schmitz is Dean and Professor of Family and Counseling Therapy at the University of Missouri in St. Louis and Dr. Elizabeth A. Schmitz is President of Successful Marriage Reflections, LLC.
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