The Slow Train to points beyond...
Mar. 2nd, 2008 07:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hildy89This afternoon I went off to the National Academies of Science for a lovely free concert by Quartetto Gelato. I'm glad I checked the address beforehand. Otherwise I would have wound up on the wrong side of town. This location was a solid four or five blocks walk from the Foggy Bottom Metro near the State Department building. You could see the side of the Lincoln Memorial and the top part of Washington Monument and a near straight shot to the Kennedy Center from there.
All you needed was a photo id. They'd give you a ticket stub to show the ushers. The line was loooong. I was pretty surprised. Fortunately once they opened the doors, it moved pretty fast.
The auditorium was fairly big and we nearly filled it. Since I was so far back in the line, I expected to be sitting somewhere in the rafters. But I checked up front and thankfully found an empty seat only a few rows back. I had a perfect dead center view of the quartet. I couldn't have asked for a better location.
If I thought I'd fare better not surrounded by the well heeled and knowledgable Georgetown crowd, I was completely mistaken. This audience was an older one and very international. One lady behind me had ridden what sounds like the Arlberg Express from the Paris to Zurich forty years ago and was showing off some memento. I felt very unworldly, listening to her stories.
On to the music itself:
Quartetto Gelato has changed membership yet again, acquiring a new clarinetist and new cellist. The current lineup features Peter De Sotto (violin and tenor), Alexander Sevastian (accordion), Kornel Wolak (clarinet) and Carina Reeves (cello). Reeves was a stunning beautiful woman. Her promo photos don't do her justice. She certainly stood out in her orange dress. Reeves didn't quite have Elinor Frey's intensity, but she made up for it with beautiful playing. I do wish she'd been allowed more chances to shine in the program. She'd only been with the group since August 2007, which I couldn't tell from her performance.
De Sotto early warned us to throw away our programs, which should have warned me that this wouldn't be the same performance I'd seen the last time. There are pluses and minuses to this. On the plus side, I heard them perform new things. On the minus, I had to struggle to note down what they performed.
The performance opened with my favorite "Slow Train", a Flanders/Swann piece that sets us on our journey from a London train station. Then we moved through Paris with the lovely threesome of "Under Paris Skies", Ravel's "Tombeau de Couperin" and the timely & timeless "La Vie en Rose". That music does put me in some Parisian cafe, struggling with my perpetual writer's block over croissants and hot chocolate. Why is that traveling quartet stopping at my table? And why does one play a cello of all things?
The music then diverged from the planned schedule. Even trains have unexpected stops. This one decided to leave Paris to Budapest and then Munich. "Hungaria" is still a fun little competitive piece allowing each of the quartet to shine briefly. Then Von Weber's "Konzertstuck Opus 79" allowed Sevastian to play his fingers off on the accordion. He unapologetically likes playing fast. He's found his match in the new clarinetist though.
At the intermission, I disappeared into the lobby initially to find a water fountain. But I also found that they were selling Quartetto Gelato "Orient Express" and "Favourite Flavors". They also had the "Concert in the Wine Country" dvd that I'd been looking for. I snatched one up, not knowing how quickly they'd go. I'm glad I did, since they were completely sold out by the end of the day.
The only piece I didn't catch the name of was the one right after the intermission.
De Sotto mentioned they were including pieces from their upcoming Latin inspired album, including the lovely Mexican standard "Besame Mucho" or as he put it "so beautiful a song, only a woman could have written it." And I quite agree. It's a lovely song.
Then De Sotto and Sevastian paired up for a duet of "Al Di La", a song from Roman Holiday. De Sotto credited a lot of his love of music to his father and that this one was one of the first pieces his father would let him play first violin on, rather than just accompanying him.
After that came the lively gypsy flavored "Czardas" by Vittorio Monti. The audience participation "HA!" fell a little flat. We needed a few tries to get it right. Then they allowed the clarinetist Wolak to play off Sevastian in Rossini's Theme and Variations. I actually quite liked Wolak's playing, compared to Shalom Bard.
If all you know Ennio Morricone for is the spaghetti westerns like "Good, Bad and the Ugly", you might be surprised he also has composed some other music, including a nice little love song.
We boarded the train back to Bucharest for the "Romanian Caravan", introduced by the deadpan and unapologetic Sevastian. Apparently there are only two speeds of Romanian folk music -- fast and super fast. Guess which he likes to play?
Afterwards, Quartetto Gelato were signing cds and dvds in the lobby and taking thanks and congratulations. I managed to get Sevastian and De Sotto to sign my dvd. My only regret is that I didn't thank them for so many years of music. I've listened to them for so many years. And as usual, I turned into a complete shy little introvert. Maybe they'll be back.
All you needed was a photo id. They'd give you a ticket stub to show the ushers. The line was loooong. I was pretty surprised. Fortunately once they opened the doors, it moved pretty fast.
The auditorium was fairly big and we nearly filled it. Since I was so far back in the line, I expected to be sitting somewhere in the rafters. But I checked up front and thankfully found an empty seat only a few rows back. I had a perfect dead center view of the quartet. I couldn't have asked for a better location.
If I thought I'd fare better not surrounded by the well heeled and knowledgable Georgetown crowd, I was completely mistaken. This audience was an older one and very international. One lady behind me had ridden what sounds like the Arlberg Express from the Paris to Zurich forty years ago and was showing off some memento. I felt very unworldly, listening to her stories.
On to the music itself:
Quartetto Gelato has changed membership yet again, acquiring a new clarinetist and new cellist. The current lineup features Peter De Sotto (violin and tenor), Alexander Sevastian (accordion), Kornel Wolak (clarinet) and Carina Reeves (cello). Reeves was a stunning beautiful woman. Her promo photos don't do her justice. She certainly stood out in her orange dress. Reeves didn't quite have Elinor Frey's intensity, but she made up for it with beautiful playing. I do wish she'd been allowed more chances to shine in the program. She'd only been with the group since August 2007, which I couldn't tell from her performance.
De Sotto early warned us to throw away our programs, which should have warned me that this wouldn't be the same performance I'd seen the last time. There are pluses and minuses to this. On the plus side, I heard them perform new things. On the minus, I had to struggle to note down what they performed.
The performance opened with my favorite "Slow Train", a Flanders/Swann piece that sets us on our journey from a London train station. Then we moved through Paris with the lovely threesome of "Under Paris Skies", Ravel's "Tombeau de Couperin" and the timely & timeless "La Vie en Rose". That music does put me in some Parisian cafe, struggling with my perpetual writer's block over croissants and hot chocolate. Why is that traveling quartet stopping at my table? And why does one play a cello of all things?
The music then diverged from the planned schedule. Even trains have unexpected stops. This one decided to leave Paris to Budapest and then Munich. "Hungaria" is still a fun little competitive piece allowing each of the quartet to shine briefly. Then Von Weber's "Konzertstuck Opus 79" allowed Sevastian to play his fingers off on the accordion. He unapologetically likes playing fast. He's found his match in the new clarinetist though.
At the intermission, I disappeared into the lobby initially to find a water fountain. But I also found that they were selling Quartetto Gelato "Orient Express" and "Favourite Flavors". They also had the "Concert in the Wine Country" dvd that I'd been looking for. I snatched one up, not knowing how quickly they'd go. I'm glad I did, since they were completely sold out by the end of the day.
The only piece I didn't catch the name of was the one right after the intermission.
De Sotto mentioned they were including pieces from their upcoming Latin inspired album, including the lovely Mexican standard "Besame Mucho" or as he put it "so beautiful a song, only a woman could have written it." And I quite agree. It's a lovely song.
Then De Sotto and Sevastian paired up for a duet of "Al Di La", a song from Roman Holiday. De Sotto credited a lot of his love of music to his father and that this one was one of the first pieces his father would let him play first violin on, rather than just accompanying him.
After that came the lively gypsy flavored "Czardas" by Vittorio Monti. The audience participation "HA!" fell a little flat. We needed a few tries to get it right. Then they allowed the clarinetist Wolak to play off Sevastian in Rossini's Theme and Variations. I actually quite liked Wolak's playing, compared to Shalom Bard.
If all you know Ennio Morricone for is the spaghetti westerns like "Good, Bad and the Ugly", you might be surprised he also has composed some other music, including a nice little love song.
We boarded the train back to Bucharest for the "Romanian Caravan", introduced by the deadpan and unapologetic Sevastian. Apparently there are only two speeds of Romanian folk music -- fast and super fast. Guess which he likes to play?
Afterwards, Quartetto Gelato were signing cds and dvds in the lobby and taking thanks and congratulations. I managed to get Sevastian and De Sotto to sign my dvd. My only regret is that I didn't thank them for so many years of music. I've listened to them for so many years. And as usual, I turned into a complete shy little introvert. Maybe they'll be back.
