At home in Spokane . . .

We are settling into our new home in Spokane, somewhat in the suburbs to the south of the city, an apartment complex with views of pine trees and a winter landscape. Each day we stroll past a pond just now covered partly by ice to see if the mallard ducks are at home. The houses are all gray, the sky is gray, the trees are bare. They say spring comes in late March. Some mornings the fields bristle with white ice. But inside our new place, we've begun to unpack books and put prints and textiles up on the walls. I'm cooking again (and writing), internet is up, and a somewhat normal life resumes.

Highlights for this week (aside from seeing Canada geese fly in large arcing circles): Rachel and Nick (with cello colleague John) played Mozart's Divertimento in E-flat for Violin, Viola and Cello (K563) at the Spokane Symphony's Chamber Soiree. Ah, beautiful! They played with verve and balance, intense feeling and discipline. What a delight and privilege to be in the audience. Rachel's love of Mozart came through in her comments: she made us look at this well-known piece with fresh eyes. Altogether a lovely evening of chamber music.

On Perseverance . . .

The outdoor grand finale of the Spokane Symphony at Sand Point was superb! We were seated outside in a natural ampitheater, the symphony under a large tent, as dusk faded to night, and the sounds of ospries perched atop their nests mingled with the all-Beethoven concert. The triple concerto was beautifully blended with piano, violin and cello, and the symphony sounded so harmonious and mellow. We listened with pure pleasure as the moon rose.

The second half featured the very moving "Pastorale", the composition turning again and again on itself, in grander circles of beautiful sounds. Young children danced in the dark, some turning cartwheels, but they never detracted from the swelling sounds of the symphony. And for an encore, fireworks filled the sky, perfectly in synch with the orchestra. We left, floating.

Now for the perseverance part. It was a summer night. Hot. The only lights were those under that white tent. Rachel said after the concert that she never would have supposed the focus required to create a perfect sound from her violin would have her ignoring the hundreds of bugs that swarmed under that tent. Flying, crawling, and biting bugs drawn to the lights, crawled under her glasses, down her blouse, up her sleeves. At those very moments the audience was appreciating the glorious music, the musicians were ignoring the bugs to concentrate entirely on creating a pure and beautiful sound. Bravo!



The video of the first movement comes from U-Tube.