Musings on ballet, classical music, the violin, and life
Concerts, recordings, reviews, musings, you name it. I’m a lifelong classical music fan.
The San Francisco Symphony is right across the street from the San Francisco Ballet. I attend both. I sharpen my skills as a dance reviewer while watching the ballet, so it would stand to reason that I learn more and more about composers and their music while at the symphony. Except when it comes … Read more
Handel’s Messiah has “Easter” written all over it for me. It must have been a family thing growing up in a Catholic household, hearing the Hallelujah Chorus blaring from the speakers on Easter morning, a sound as embedded in my memory as the crinkle of the cellophane covering the Easter peeps (that I always … Read more
… Or at least that’s what my friend Grace is promising me. I’d asked her for a list of favorite arias, you see, because I am illiterate when it comes to operas and arias. It’s odd that I’m not an opera person. I’ve always loved classical music, and revel in the luxury of attending performances … Read more
Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” is one of those pieces of music, like “Beau Soir” and “Girl With the Flaxen Hair” and “Afternoon of a Faun” (all Debussy compositions, BTW), that has condensed its flavors and sensuous textures into one delicious, snack-sized morsel. A brief five minutes, … Read more
Hansel and Gretel waited deep in the forest for their father. When noon came, each ate a little piece of bread. It grew late, but still the woodcutter did not return. As they had been sitting such a long time, their eyes closed with fatigue, and they fell fast asleep. When at last they awoke, it was already … Read more