I am a sucker for 'free' stuff so how could I turn down a pair of free tickets for a high brow evening with "Prairie Winds" wind instrument ensemble. It was one in a series of concerts put on by the "Valley Concert Society".
These five musicians are Americans who are totally immersed in their passion, performing classical music. Their 'day jobs' range from being artists in various orchestras around the world to being master teachers in their particular discipline, or instrument. They are good!
We were treated to a delightful rendition of Paul Taffanel's "Allegro con moto", "Andante", and "Vivace", as well as a lively piece by Ferenc Farkas, "Ugros", an early Hungarian leaping dance.
The best part of the evening was a ten minute abbreviated suite from "Carmen" by Georges Bizet. Normally, the opera Carmen is about 4 hours long.
The quintet was made up of five instruments; Flute, Oboe, French Horn, Bassoon, and Clarinet. The Bassoon player, Timothy McGovern, was awesome, as well as fun to watch.
OK. Hold it right there. If any of you have continued to read this post to this point without getting bored and drifting off to another website, I will let you in on a secret. I must be nuts, crazy, out of my gourd, and just plain out to lunch. When I accepted these tickets, I did not realize that there was a Canuck's and Lion's game being televised on the same night, and a Friday night at that. WHAT WAS I THINKING????
Don't get me wrong. I appreciated the FREE tickets that were offered to my daughter by her good friend and some how then to me, and we did take advantage of them and did enjoy the concert, but I have a serious confession to make. These things always have an intermission and this one was no exception. We snuck out for a breath of fresh air and for some strange reason, just kept on walking once we got outside. We did not look back but only wondered out loud if the geriatric crowd we left behind would miss that young good looking couple who were sitting in the back row and were gone during the second half. Indeed, we were the youngest couple there for sure.
We got home in time to take in the last two periods of the Hockey game and the last half of the Football Game. Hey, three events in one night is pretty good for old geezers like us. And all three were winners.
1 comment:
It's a sign of the decline of culture in our society. It is sad but true that young people are loosing their taste for classical music played by musicians who can not only play their instruments but completely understand them. I wish I could have taken in that last half in your place.
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