Sol Gabetta Recital

 After dinner our first day in New York, we left the Lower East Side and went to Columbus Circle to take in the somewhat rarefied air of the Lincoln Center and Metropolitan Opera House.  We had tickets to a cello recital featuring the Argentine cellist Sol Gabetta, at 10 pm.  She played the Haydn D Major Concerto with the New York Philharmonic and 7:30, then played a full recital in the nearby Kaplan Loft at 10. Wow!!  Good thing she's young!

 Having taken the redeye, gotten off the plane at 6 am and walked 14 miles according to our pedometers, we were getting sleepy.  I think we might have dozed off sitting on a ledge across the street from Juilliard.  But as soon as it was time for the recital, we were reenergized.  There was the most adorable little old woman trying to get a ticket for the concert, and a little old man, too.  Like in their 90's.  I wondered if they were together.  I love the energy surrounding the arts in New York.  10 pm on a Wednesday night, and people are out, excited about a cello recital.  The venue was gorgeous, with floor to ceiling windows and views of Manhattan.  We were seated at tables, and somehow Scott and I had scored the best seats in the house.  We were at the closest table, 5 feet away from the soloist.  At our table was an Israeli doctor and his wife who have lived in New York for years.  He is also a semi-professional cellist.  And also, a young Indian woman and her aunt, both living in New York.  It was energizing to talk to them and find out their stories.

 I quickly snapped these pics for Araceli before turning off my phone.  I really wished she could have seen that incredible performance.  Both the cellist and the pianist put every ounce of everything they had into each and every note.  It was incredible.  There were two encores, and I think the audience would have been game for several more.  I know I would have been!  Any trace of fatigue I felt before was gone, replaced by the raw energy of a live performance.  We met up with two critics afterward and walked with one to the subway.  The guy who had "gone away" to college in The Bronx from Brooklyn.  Here is his blog.  How incredible to have access to all those world-class performances.

I think it's safe to say that we wrung the most out of our day in New York.  It was heaven to walk into our airbnb brownstone in Brooklyn and crawl into bed.  We may have been in the city that never sleeps, and we did our fair share to live up to that, but eventually, it's inevitable.