Respite

Sometimes you just have to get away from it all.  That seems increasingly hard to do these days.  There are distractions everywhere, noise, people, devices…continuous clamor.  How do you get away?

It’s nice to go to a park, and find a forested trail, but even there you are likely to find people (talking on their phones!), folks walking their dogs, kids enjoying the fresh air—all wonderful things (except the phone maybe), but still not quiet enough.

My go-to solution is getting out on the water, a large body of water, in a small kayak.

The phone may or may not work.  The few people I see are fishing, quietly waiting on the shore for a fish to come along.

It’s wonderful.

I saw a fox that had come to the water’s edge for a drink.  There was a yearling deer, no bigger than a large dog, foraging calmly on a hillside.  A kingfisher bird dove with a loud splash into the water and came up with a small fish.  A great blue heron waited quietly at the shoreline for a fish to come along.  Turtles sunned themselves on logs and looked on as I silently glided by.

It has been a rainy summer in my region, and the water levels are high, which means that little inlets, once short and clearly connected to the main body of water, now extend, meandering well into the forest.

I followed one such inlet, and soon heard the sound of cascading water.  It got louder and louder as I followed the stream as far as I could, until the water was only a few inches deep.  The water I heard was pouring over a fallen log.  It was surprisingly loud in contrast to the tranquil forest.

I remained there for a long time.  And I took the picture you see at the top of the post.  There was a great temptation to leave the kayak and explore…what was in the distance, beyond the bend, that I couldn’t see?  But some things are better left as mysteries, untouched, explored only in the imagination.

I know that not everyone can do what I did.  Not everyone has the time or opportunity.  But we all can spare a few minutes to enjoy some peaceful music, and go to the place that makes us happiest in our minds.

Here is Mendelssohn’s Song Without Words, Op. 85 No.1.

Peace.

Live Concert Webcast: Beethoven, Haydn, and More

On Saturday, September 15, 2018 at 9PM EDT (GMT-4) the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra will present a live concert on its website.  It is also viewable on the SPCO’s app for Apple and Android.  Conductor Thomas Zehetmair and the orchestra will present the following program:

Ludwig van Beethoven:  Romance No. 1 for Violin (Eunice Kim, violin)

Jean-Féry Rebel: The Elements (this take on the creation of the world includes a movement, Chaos, which is strikingly modern even though it was written in 1737).

Claude Vivier: Zipangu

Franz Joseph Haydn:  Symphony No. 95 in C Minor

Here’s the link to watch the concert.

The concert will be added to the on-demand concert library thereafter (great collection, check it out), which is available on the website or via the SPCO app.

Haiku Wednesday: Chopin on Period Pianos

What would Chopin play
If given the choice today:
Fortepiano
By Erard, Pleyel,
A Broadwood, Buchholtz, or Graf?
Or would Chopin choose
A Bösendorfer,
A Steinway D, or maybe
A Fazioli?
We’ll never know, but
We can hear his music on
Antique pianos.

Today’s post was prompted by a livestream of the 1st International Chopin Competition on Period Instruments presented by the Chopin Institute.  The institute will hold international competitions using period instruments once every five years.  You can read about the pianos here.  You can see a recording of the first stage, AM session here and you can see the PM session here.  The early stages of the competition will also include pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach.  Videos of the entire competition will be made available on the Chopin Institute’s YouTube channel and its Facebook page, and, if you’re on the go, via a free app for iOs and Android.

Watching people play 19th century instruments on a cell phone.  Surreal.

Performances from previous years’ competitions (on modern pianos) may also be viewed on the institute’s YouTube channel.

It’s an interesting concept, and I am curious to see how competitors may tailor their performances to the different responsiveness of period instruments.  Will they coax from these more delicate instruments a sound similar to what Chopin might have heard as he played?  Will they select a piano with two foot pedals…or with four?  The pianos also vary in the number of keys on the keyboard, varying from 6-1/2 to 7 octaves (a modern piano has just over 7, a Bösendorfer Imperial has 8).

You will certainly enjoy hours of piano music.  The last phase of the competition will feature performances with an orchestra.

Here is a video of a performance of Chopin’s Fantasy Impromptu on Chopin’s own piano, an 1848 Pleyel.

_____

Image attribution:  Drawing of Chopin by Maria Wodzińska (Own work copied by Nihil novi) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AChopin%2C_by_Wodzinska.JPG