Dvořák and Beethoven

I'm over at my mother-in-laws running numbers right now trying to figure out why we're still hemorrhaging our savings, and just realized that when you're hopped up on narcotics for your bad back, even if you're largely immune to opiates (Russ and I seem to shrug off opiates like it's science-fiction), that's not a good time to drink a beer. Tipsy squared!

But since I'm feeling a sudden need to worship at the alter of Procrastinus, I thought I'd mention that Maddie and I were comped some tickets to the San Francisco symphony, to which we got gussied up and went last night. It was the 8th of the Dvořák's famous dances, followed by the Emperor Concerto and, after intermission, From the New World (one of my very favorites).

The woman who played piano for the Beethoven was wonderful -- she came out in a totally black gothalicious gown and candy-red 4" FMPs, and gave what I must declare to be the geekiest performance I've ever seen from a pianist in my life. It was magnificent. She was totally into it in a nonchalant, "this is such cool stuff, and, oh hey, there's an audience there!" kind of way. Really sweet. And her pianissimo attacks were sublime -- it was like hearing a butterfly stomping its feet. Just maginicent.

The 9th was more of a mixed bag. The conductor, who's apparently the heir-apparentto Michael Tilson Thomas (or, to his coterie of would-be boyfriends, "MTT"), the guy came to the podium with the score, which I didn't take to be a good sign. He started the piece in exactly the kind of gentle, sweeping way that Toscanini didn't do it, and I was inclined to be disappointed, but as time went on, things got better. You could really tell the portions of the music that he was concerned about, because they tighted up and you could really get knocked over by the subtle conversations going on, but then it would be back to grand-sweeping mediocrity. The beginning and ending of the piece were so-so (granted, so-so for this piece still makes me happy), but in exactly the middle portion where folks tend to gloss through things he really did a bang-up job. Overall it was a very nice experience, even where he let things go on autopilot -- I'll never be able to afford the kind of sound system at home that can rival tenth-row orchestra seating, so all I've gotta say is if the lady who comped them to my mother-in-law has more of them, I'll be giving a hearty "yes please".