Program:

Richard Wagner	Béla Bartók	Ludwig van Beethoven
"Tannhäuser" Overture	Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No.1 , Sz 36	Symphony No. 7 in A major, op. 92

Gidon Kremer, Violin
Conductor: Mariss Jansons

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Music feeds the soul.
The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is a master chef.

Without question, this is the finest orchestra I have ever had the privilege of hearing live. The impressive acoustics in Isaac Stern auditorium at Carnegie Hall kept the venue from standing in the musicians' way. I was not expecting so much of the program to be familiar, yet the orchestra's dynamic control and musicality made it as though I was hearing each for the first time. The orchestra deservedly received a frantic standing ovation from the entire house.

The key skills this orchestra masters that set it far above average:

1) Dynamic control. When soft sections are clear, yet so soft that the audience holds its breath to hear it, loud sections explode with contrasting energy. Music so energized is a living thing rather than merely a picture of life.

2) Intonation. I could not believe how spot-on every player's intonation was. It never, ever wavered. Each string, each woodwind, each horn sang as one voice, perfectly in tune, caressing every note with aching sweetness. Impeccable intonation leaves the hearer's soul free to join in blissful harmonic perfection.

Wagner's "Tannhäuser", is the music in the quintessential Loony Tunes episode with Bugs Bunny and Elmer Fudd singing Mel Blanc's version of the opera's libretto. Previously, whenever I heard this piece performed, I could only hear Bugs and Elmer crooning "Oh Bwunhilda, you're so wovewy - Yes I know it, I can't help it" - but this time, I could hear the music as it was intended. This orchestra transported me beyond animation's abuse to heavenly spheres where singing rabbits could no longer be heard.

The first encore was one of Dvorak's Slavonic Dances - a piece of music that has the danger of being shallow and glib when played carelessly. Never fear: this orchestra plumbs the depths of the schmaltzy Slavic soul and returns with solid expression.

The second encore was a modern-sounding piece that I was not familiar with - another dangerous piece of music, prone to hardness and inaccessibility. According to their website, this orchestra specializes in modern music, and I believe it. Instead of inaccessible hardness, there was familiar fire and passion piercing the unfamiliar notes and rhythms.

If you ever have the opportunity to hear this orchestra live, do everything in your power to attend. I'm planning on acquiring a few of their CD's - and I fervently hope that the digital translation does not keep the music from translating me as well.

Link to concert description
Link to BRSO website

I am not a music critic any more than I am a gastronome.

Yet this is the internet, and I may expound as I please.

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The GJSO presented the following tonight:

"Made In America" by contemporary composer Joan Tower (who also conducted the piece)
"Huapango" by Jose Pablo Moncayo
"Estrellita" by Manuel Ponce
"Violin Concerto in D Major" by Johannes Brahms; guest violinist Linda Wang

Two of the pieces, Huapango and the Brahms, were familiar to me. The other two were not. I think I probably would've enjoyed the "Made In America" piece a lot more had I been more familiar with it. In addition, the piece apparently called for fewer orchestra members than usual, as once it was over 15 or so more people joined the members already on stage. To me it often seemed that the woodwinds/brass were significantly overpowering the strings, possibly due to the limited number of performers. This continued at times throughout the night but was more prominent with the first piece. I felt that it kept the orchestra from blending well. With modern music, it is imperative that everyone be in tune, on time, and blend well or it sounds more aleatoric than the composer intended. I didn't often feel that the orchestra was comfortable with the piece.

The Huapango was fun, well-played, and obviously one the orchestra felt quite comfortable with.

The Estrellita was nice as well. According to the program notes, it's quite a famous melody but it was new to me.

And then the Brahms. I love this concerto, and Ms. Wang did a fabulous job. There's something about hearing a piece live that you've only previously heard recorded. I caught plenty of musical nuances that had escaped my ears before. Overall it was an enjoyable experience, with just a few quibbles.

Again, the woodwind/brass had difficulty staying under the strings at times. I honestly think this has a lot to do with the fact that they are up on risers while the strings are arranged below them. In my opinion, they should be on the same level to keep their sound from sailing over the string section and hitting the audience. Perhaps an acoustic tile on the ground in front of each horn as well? I could really tell that the winds were doing their best to be quiet and subtle, but it just didn't work.

And the oboes, well, I'm extra critical of them because that's my instrument. They improved throughout the concert but were often slightly out of tune and the sound wasn't clear; note attacks were less than crisp. They had some gorgeous moments but plenty of not-so-gorgeous.

But at least they were better than the second violins. :)

Overall, not bad for a free ticket from Casey's work.

Casey and I visited this restaurant as a special treat while on vacation. It must be said that there are no bad restaurants in Beaver Creek, and I am no gastronome. But for what it's worth, here is my review.

This restaurant features farm-raised elk prominently on the menu. There is also seafood, duck, chicken, and lamb from which to choose. Everything sounded so enticing it took us a bit to decide what we wanted.

For the appetizer, we had a mushroom dish that I can't remember the name of. It consisted of three large mushroom caps filled with a blue cheese and ground elk mixture. These were lying in a butter sauce (I think it was a simple roux) that had very little salt in it - the perfect counterpoint to the highly salty mushroom filling. The mushrooms surrounded a central dollop of mashed potatoes. In the mashed potatoes was a garnish of something fried golden brown and waffled so thin that it nearly looked like a piece of screen - it was a fancy potato chip!

Casey had the "Pepper-Crusted Elk Medallions". This was a strong, rich, american-to-the-core dish. The melt-in-your-mouth-tender elk was sliced 1/4" thin, coated with a wonderful pepper rub, and lightly seared. These slices were laid over a mound of perfectly buttered and salted mashed potatoes. A cherry-balsalmic vinegar glaze was ladled over either side of the elk, and a mix of bean sprouts, snow peas, and julienned carrots smothered it. The whole dish was topped with what I think were deep fried chives. They reminded me of super-fancy version of the fried onions that top green beans at Thanksgivng. Actually, it's probably what fried onions dream they could be someday.

I had the special of the evening: sushi-grade ahi tuna with orange-pepper crust. The tuna was cooked even less than the elk was - just a scant millimeter of cooked tuna surrounding beautiful red raw center. Like Casey's dish, the slices of tuna (probably about a half-dollar in size each, and a scant 1/4" thick) were laid over a mound of "black thai rice". This rice looks almost like caviar at first glance - fat nearly round shiny black grains that stick together. The rice was cooked in coconut milk (a wonderful way to cook rice, by the way) with a touch of curry, enough to give it a bit of a pleasant bite. This was also topped with the bean sprout/snow pea/julienned carrot vegetable mix.

My entree was so much more delicate than Casey's, and to me, seemed to show the range of the chef's abilities. While Casey's punched you in the mouth with flavor and made you beg for more, my dish took your hand softly and whispered sweet nothings in your ear. It promised orange pepper, but delivered coconut milk and curry.

For dessert, we chose the "Wild Blueberry Peach Mango Cobbler". It was served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on one side and two dollops of freshly made whipped cream on the other. The cobbler top wasn't soggy (wish I could do that with *my* cobblers) and had enough chewy-crispy texture to offset the soft fruit. Never really tasted the mango, it was mostly blueberry flavor, but still wonderful with the whipped cream and ice cream. Pretty good for a non-chocolate dessert (the one chocolate dessert on the menu had raspberry sauce on it. Raspberries make me ill. Feh.).

All in all, a good experience. And expensive enough to be a once-a-year experience.

We bought this book in order to discover hikes around our hometown. It boasts 69 hikes with 48 maps.

Honestly, we're not impressed. It's kinda useful to pick through and find hikes we never knew about. Unfortunately, the directions on how to get there are sparse at best, and misleading at worst. They usually start out well, and get you from the Visitor Center off of I-70 to the main road the hike is on - but from there you're on your own.

For example, we recently tried the McDonald Creek Canyon hike, and the directions stated the hike began 2.5 miles from the first cattle guard (0.5 miles from the highway). Maybe our odometer is wrong, but it was nearly 4 miles to the trailhead. We had a good time hiking around on rock formations where we were (cuz we stopped at a parking area 2.5 miles in), but didn't find the real trailhead until too late in the day.

The maps in the book are nearly worthless as well. It does list different BLM maps for each hike, but it seems to me that if I'm going to shell out 17.00 for 135 pages, the maps should be a bit more helpful.