Music on Mid-Autumn Night

Last week wasn't a good one, but I felt infinitely better yesterday night when I attended the first performance of the YST Conservatory orchestra series. My friend, Peiming, who has been pregnant for the past two years (a few months after bringing sweet Paige into the world, she became pregnant again with Mitch, due in December), performed for all of ten minutes on the harpsichord to accompany The Conservatory Orchestra. She'd given me a complimentary ticket, which I would gladly have paid for because the music selections were simply wonderful. Faculty members also performed, so that meant I was treated to the T'ang Quartet playing Edward Elgar's sublime "Introduction and Allegro Strings, Op. 47." To my amateur's ears, the performance was spirited and evocative, and I had to resist the storm of emotions welling up within me. And then there was Richard Strauss' "Mondscheinmusik" from the opera "Capriccio." By the intermission, my heart was in pieces.

After the performance, we went for a late dinner (for her) and dessert (for me) at PS Cafe. We had a delicious salad with seven kinds of mushrooms and a generous slice of cheesecake with berries and chocolate. We talked of many things - music, books, books about music and the mind, teaching music to toddlers, my writing, her paper that she'll present in Houston in October (which I promised to help proofread), her children, my journeys, the startlingly youthful appearance of the T'ang Quartet members (whom she promised to introduce me to), and the mushroom salad. I went home full - of music, food, memories, dreams.

Introduction and Allegro, Op.47, by Edward Elgar; performed by the Allegri String Quartet and the Sinfonia of London, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli