So here I am in the exciting (not) city of Irvine! What got me here? Let’s see … Tuck & Patti to begin with. Nice latté and lemon-zucchini muffin music. Then I decided it was time for Flying Dutchman. Since rehearsals begin next Tuesday, and I’ve never played the thing before, I thought yet another listen couldn’t hurt. I’m looking forward to the opera! I have some good lines in it, and it’s beautiful music. Next I moved on to Mahler 9. (Yes, Dan, I did bring it with me!) Now listening to both the opera and the Mahler in our little Mazda Protege isn’t exactly the wisest thing to do, but I did it anyway. (No one ever accuses me of being wise.) Our car is far too noisy, and our speakers are too cheap. But that’s life.
The Mahler is really something else. Funny thing is, I remember the last movement so well, but the rest is sort of “in and out” of my memory. I honestly don’t know if I’ve actually performed it or not, but the English horn solo in the last movement makes me think I did. If so, I’m embarrassed by my memory and I’m hoping I played it a LONG time ago so I won’t feel so bad! I guess I’ll have to ask some San Jose Symphony (RIP) members if they have a list of all our repertoire (from 1975 on). I’d like to get that list anyway. I’m sorry now that I never saved programs. Rats.
Anyway, it was all good music for the trip.
Once Mahler ended (it finished prior to arriving in LA, thank goodness; driving up the grapevine to Mahler is great, but I don’t think I’d care for it as I drove through the traffic of the LA basin). So the radio station went on and for a while I put up with the classical station, and then switched to jazz. That worked for me.
And then I arrived. Just in time to see the end of Othello (with Fishburne and Branagh … never actually heard of this one). What a happy little thing to happen upon, eh? Lots of blood. Oh well. Makes me want to see the whole thing.
Oh, and one other little note about the Mahler. There’s this one snippet that occurs frequently that makes me think a particular musical composer must have heard this prior to his writing music for his rather popular Disney flick. I wonder. But I won’t tell you what it is because it may spoil Mahler 9 for you. (Or your favorite Disney musical! Heh.)
Handel’s Israel in Egypt has a can-you-top-this series of chorus describing the Plagues visited on the Egyptians. If you start off driving, say, 65 mph, by the time you finish them you’ll be going 90 at a minimum.
For staying sane (and safe), I prefer Bach.
Heh … I’ll keep this in mind! Thanks for the information. (I’ve actually never played that work.) Driving 90 mph on I-5 isn’t such a bad idea!
But I suppose staying safe and sane is the better choice. 🙂
I still like the quote by Oscar Levant:
You can’t possibly hear the last movement of Beethoven’s Seventh and go slow. ~Oscar Levant, explaining his way out of a speeding ticket