Move to F#. Then you'll get a very lightweight, far more expressive syntax, while still keeping the upsides of .NET/VS, and using whatever libraries you want.

Indeed, if libraries were designed with F# in mind, they'd allow even more expressive code. The downside with F# is that libraries usually take advantage of C#-specific hacks and workarounds due to C#'s limited type system and expressiveness.

But in general, I've found that even if you aren't gonna commit to F#, using F# as a "better C#" still results in a lot less code.