The story of Daniel's spectacular day

I had a spectacularly wonderful day today. :) My flute teacher had this wonderful idea to take as many of her students as could make it on a bit a of  "school tour". So this morning, we toured to two local elementary schools and played a short concert (about 35 minutes long) for them. It was really fun, and they were great listeners. I have to say that I was also impressed and appreciative that the teachers were willing to take time out of their class schedules to bring their students to listen. Music is always worth the time. We all went to Subway for lunch afterwards. Yay for Subway, (always my lunch-out place of choice). I went home and slept for 1.25 hours,  even though it was only mid afternoon. I was really tired for some reason, more than just mid-afternoon drowsiness. After my nap, I cut the grass, sang for a bit, made myself a good, strong coffee, and practiced some piano. After my mother reminded me that I was on supper-making duty, I made some delicious barbecued chicken, roasted potatoes and salad. I'm not just bragging, it really was tasty! Anyway, after supper, I got out my shirt and tie and headed off to the symphony. Amazing. The program included Shostakovich's Concerto for Piano, Trumpet and Strings, Debussy's masterpiece La Mer ("The Sea"), as well as some other fantastic pieces, two of which were composed by Canadian composers. Brilliant stuff. The Debussy though, was just exquisite. Debussy never wrote a Symphony, but La Mer is the closest he got though. It's an incredible piece of music and just indescribable when heard live. It's so full majestic and full of life, and so beautifully textured and colourful. I found it pretty moving and inspiring. The concert tonight was exactly what I had been needing for a long while- a chance to reflect, get inspired and have a "night out" with myself. Ha. I feel ready to tackle new challenges and endeavours. All in all, a good day. Tomorrow- busking at the farmer's market, a talk/workshop about efficiency, and the last performance of Word Problem in the evening. Which reminds me that I haven't posted about Word Problem yet, so some of you won't know what I'm talking about. I'll blog about it soon. I promise. Until then, take care.

-Dan

Beethoven, and Wagner and me, oh my!

I just came back from a mind blowing symphony concert. Katherine Chi playing the Beethoven Emperor Concerto (Piano Concerto No. 5) and Die Meistersinger: An Orchestral Tribute (Arranged by Vlieger).

Katherine Chi played the concerto magnificently, every note just perfect. The first movement was just exquisite. Ahh. Gosh, I just love this concerto, and this being my first time hearing it live, it was pretty darn fantastic.

*A side note: Okay, between movements, if you ever attend the symphony, you've probably noticed that people tend to cough between movements. It confuses me, but I tolerate it (what can ya do, anyway?) Well tonight, the audience positively erupted with coughing. It was thunderous. I just don't get it. When I get a cough, I can't usually control when I cough, so I try to do it quietly. But it seems that for the majority of symphony goers, they can hold in their coughs and spew them forth at every possible break. Weird, imho.

Anyway, the Wagner. Oh my goodness, the Wagner. It was heavenly. I could live on it. The orchestration was so lush, and rich and delicious and beautiful that I just wanted to shout with joy. I didn't. As much as I adore the Beethoven (it's one of my favourite concertos), the Wagner was the highlight of the evening. Just glorious. The musicians were evidently loving it too, and I saw of number of them with happy grins on their faces at certain places. It was exquisitely, beautiful, satisfying, nourishing, exhilarating. My goodness, it's good stuff.

All in all, a brilliant concert and one that I shall remember for a very long. Anyway, thanks for reading, and stay posted for more posts!I have a bunch coming up. It feels great to be back blogging.

Concert Update!

Okay, so I went to the concert today. And I saw the Britten Violin Concerto live. And it was mind-blowing awesome. Almost the best concert I have ever seen. The work itself is incredible, so amazingly beautiful and just great. But this performance was better than I ever could have expected. The soloist, Livia Sohn was so good. Every note that she played was perfect and crystal-clear. Even when she got into the very high register of the violin, the notes were pure and clean. And the cadenza! It was amazing. Her phrasing was just amazing and then she would let the notes hang in the air for a few moments. It was just exquisite. I was soo thankful that I was able to see it.