concert review: Symphony Silicon Valley
Jun. 9th, 2014 12:12 pmSaturday was my mother's birthday, and the first one since her birth that she's missed. Were she still alive and well, I'd have taken her out to dinner (probably to our favorite Chinese place in Willow Glen) and then to the symphony, for I was reviewing the concert. Beethoven and Haydn were the main dishes, with Weber on the side; not her absolute favorite composers (that would be Brahms and Schumann, with Elgar on the side), but certainly way up there, and the estimable and venerable George Cleve to conduct. And the rather frail George Cleve, too - he moved quite slowly, and needed an assist from his concertmaster to make it down from the podium. Whether that fact influenced the gentle and cautious, but still moving, interpretations, I did not venture to speculate.
What she would not have liked at all was the entirety of South First being closed off for a street fair, still going on when the concert ended, which led to noise and crowds and parking half a mile away.
Sunday B. and I meandered to the home of yon Tolkien linguist for a Mythopoeic Society book discussion, the topic being Digger, the graphic novel by Ursula Vernon, this year's Mythcon GoH, that appeared in print in a volume so large it looked like the title was a typo for Bigger. Ten people and several huge copies in a small living room. Also a copy of Tolkien's Beowulf translation, so at last I've seen that, though I'll keep comments till a closer look when I have my own.
What she would not have liked at all was the entirety of South First being closed off for a street fair, still going on when the concert ended, which led to noise and crowds and parking half a mile away.
Sunday B. and I meandered to the home of yon Tolkien linguist for a Mythopoeic Society book discussion, the topic being Digger, the graphic novel by Ursula Vernon, this year's Mythcon GoH, that appeared in print in a volume so large it looked like the title was a typo for Bigger. Ten people and several huge copies in a small living room. Also a copy of Tolkien's Beowulf translation, so at last I've seen that, though I'll keep comments till a closer look when I have my own.