Thanks, Grace, for the cute birthday shirt! I got lots of compliments on the flower and buttons :) And thanks, Mom, for the birthday skirt(s)! So comfortable....
James took me to the Houston Symphony last night to see Berlioz's Symphanie Fantastique. It was pretty fantastic! I got a workout jogging through downtown trying to make it there on time (left the wedding a few minutes late then got stuck in traffic for some sort of festival downtown, then had to park really far away... pregnant lady in heels jogging across the street after climbing 3 flights of stairs must be pretty funny to see...! So thankful we made it in time!)
The first half was a guest pianist (Simon Trpceski) who was incredible... he played Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, which totally blew us away. He got a standing ovation for about 6 minutes straight and then came out and played two encore pieces! The first time back out he sat down and thought for a minute and then turned to the audience and said "It seems like the whole world is celebrating the anniversary of Chopin," and the audience let out this delighted little sigh/giggle. Out of however many hundreds of pieces the man knew, he chose to play a "little waltz that [he] learned when [he was] 6 or 7 years old." It was so sweet to watch him play this piece that was a perfectly nice little waltz but was obviously one of his favorites. There's something about learning a piece as a child that makes it feel precious to you - it was so sweet to hear him play it!
And then, of course, Symphonie Fantastique was... well... fantastique! I've never seen it live before - the third movement calls for FOUR timpani players! They shared two sets of three drums and it really sounded like thunder!!! The two harps were also pretty cool, and the off-stage oboe solist was a neat effect. Then in the fourth movement (March to the Scaffold), which is my favorite, the snare drum is apparently revolutionary because it hadn't been used in orchestra before, and he wrote for 2 tubas (well, the tuba's predecessor), which was also revolutionary. And movement 5 (Witches' Dance in Hell) was super spectacular with two timpanists, two antiphonal bass drums (one on either side of the stage), and orchestral chimes (also revolutionary) off stage that were so tall the guy had to climb a ladder to play them. It was spectacular! Definitely one of the best concerts I've ever been to!
So I told James that once our kids are grown and we have money again I want season tickets :-P We'll see if he remembers in 30 years...
