Always a thrilling experience

The new patio chairs arrived as scheduled yesterday, and they are a fairly good match for our table. I spent over two hours undoing the packaging and bundling it up for recycling, including a long rest in the middle; it is frustrating to still tire so easily.  All the while, I was thinking that this is the downside to on-line shopping. Large items purchased in local stores usually include delivery and set-up, and often they will cart away the old items you have replaced. But when you deal with on-line orders you are pretty much on your own. The time you would have spent schlepping around to stores is spent taking care of the things that must be done at home when the new merchandise arrives. There is, as they say, no such thing as a free lunch.

Last evening I went into the City and met Barry at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. We were a bit early and fortunately the rain had let up so we were able to join a crowd on the plaza where a jazz trio was performing. Lincoln Center is truly one of New York City’s gems. With Avery Fisher Hall, the Metropolitan Opera, and the Julliard School of Music forming a large plaza with a beautiful fountain, it takes my breath away (well, not literally) every time I am there. I am reminded of that old joke my father used to tell me: “How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice!” I never practiced enough to perform at Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center, but I do enjoy sitting among those audiences.

Pianist Yefim Bronfman and he New York Philharmonic Orchestra performed Beethoven’s 1^st and 4^th piano concertos. The concert hall was full and the audience quite enthusiastic. I have attached a recording of the entire set of Beethoven piano concertos; the 4^th, which is our favorite, begins at 1:41:15 in the attached recording. The orchestra also performed the world premiere of a short piece by a young composer, Anthony Cheung, which had been commissioned by the New York Philharmonic. It was no simple matter for the orchestra to play this piece between the two Beethoven concertos: the piano had to be removed and the orchestra’s seating rearranged and then returned to the original position for the 4^th concerto. Like most contemporary classical music, this one left us scratching our heads.

Have a nice day despite the rain!

  

Love,

Rebecca