Hearing Things Rite

There was a "How I Learned to Relax and Love the Rite of Spring" lecture of sorts from music director William Eddins, and I was introduced to "The Chord" and themes (twitter of birds, the awakening of the earth...).  I laughed at the light parts and attempted to take notes.  But in the end, the piece was still a huge wave that crashed into me and made me anxious in all the parts I couldn't understand or make sense of.  Not exactly like hearing the recording (which Paul had included on his mixed tape), but something similar, many times bigger. 

I wanted to like it because it meant so much to Paul and it was a big night for him to play it again. But if I can't say much about it*, I did appreciate how intricate it was along with the energy that was there in the Winspear with the ESO. 

* The ESO's "The Rite of Spring" blog post however does, including this video:



The group of us (mathies organised by Val including Beth and Ami), with our front row seats were up close to the action. 

I was maybe only 10 feet away from the first half's cello soloist, Lynn Harrell.  Dang, I didn't have my camera ready!  But I probably wouldn't have dared anyway to take a shot mid-piece in case it caused a disturbance.  His pieces were more easily relatable / likable and I enjoyed them.  The only dissonance was that he didn't emote.  This is probably what they call professionalism, but it still feels weird how this beautiful sound comes from a completely blank face.

Aside from missing out on photos of Paul (particularly unfortunate in light of all his trials to get a mute and his own set of tails), I also didn't get any during intermission because it was so dark.  Ami saw me trying there in the lobby (awkwardly, so out of my element), made conversation and remarked on how Paul's latest photos have been really good (his flickr account).  It's pretty amazing the sorts of things he's been doing fitting it all between in work and rehearsals. 

After the standing ovations, there were huge congratulations.  And then we dispersed.  Back to more work.