Inspiration

Araceli has been preparing for Federation for a few weeks, and her Vivaldi is starting to sound very good.  Monday she rehearsed with her pianist.  I couldn't have imagined a more beautiful way to start the week than listening to the two of them rehearse.  Want to hear?  This is the second movement of the Vivaldi, the one where Elliott is always telling Araceli to be aggressive and angry, like a fiery dragon or something.  I'm sure Araceli has some good imagery in her creative head for this one.  The imagery for the third movement is cold, ice, and misery.  Anyone who lived in New England this winter could play this piece perfectly.  I'm always telling Araceli that the notes aren't heavy enough or lonely enough.  But here it is.  See if you can feel desolate.

Last night I took Araceli and Ellison to see Lynn Harrell play with the BYU Philharmonic, conducted by one of my former teachers, Kory Katseanes.  It was a free concert that Colleen, the pianist, had just happened to mention to us.  I can't believe we didn't hear about it sooner, but apparently everyone else had, because it was a full house.  Mr. Harrell played the Dvorak Cello Concerto.  As polished as the orchestra was, I was wishing they would play much quieter, so I could hear the cello better.  I got my wish when Harrell got a standing ovation and played two encores.  One was a Schubert Moment Musicale and the last one was a Chopin nocturne.  He must really like piano music.  Every note was finessed like you could not even believe.  Ellison and Araceli were caught up in the moment like the rest of the audience.  Ellison also noticed that the french horns emptied their spit valves a lot, so she got some good observations for a concert report.  :)

This morning, Araceli took a stack of programs with her to school.  I asked her if she really needed all of them, and she said, "Mom, I have more than one class that I can get extra credit in for going to this concert!"  Good thinking, girl!