“This is the only thing happening in town tonight,” said Ed Baskerville, head of the local Revolution chapter, amateur cellist, and graduate student in ecology. “This is what it’s all about.”
Baskerville was among the first group to play. He, another student, violist Joanna Patterson, and concertmaster Preucil kicked off what turned into a long evening by playing movements from Beethoven quartets. “I’ve never been so nervous to play a quartet in my life,” Baskerville said afterward.
More and more players showed up as the night went on, and subsequent performances featured Smith, principal oboe Frank Rosenwein, violinists Jung-Min Amy Lee and Sonja Braaten Molloy, cellists Charles Bernard and Martha Baldwin, basses Charles Carleton and Scott Dixon, and many others. Even music director Franz Welser-Most stopped by for about an hour, to observe.
Perhaps the most surreal moment came when Pierre-Laurent Aimard, the internationally renowned pianist touring with the orchestra, showed up to play Brahms on a modest upright piano. He played a challenging work that almost certainly isn’t in his current repertoire.
RTWT and find out why these musicians from the Cleveland Orchestra wound up where they did! Cool!
I have yet to attend a Classical Revolution event. Truth be told I haven’t been terribly interested, and from what I’ve read I think I’d bee seen as too old to participate. Maybe that’s partially what puts me off. Maybe I’m overly sensitive about my age.
Me? Overly sensitive? Hmmm.
