Bruckner's Symphony No. 8 Finale

This is great music. My orchestra is playing this piece. (All 4 movements, of course) Rehearsals are so wonderful. It's really a highlight of my life to play this music.

Just listen to the finale (last of 4 movements) and see what pictures come into your mind! This movement is about 24 minutes long, so sit back and relax. Close your eyes! Listen to your feelings ...

I love this song!

Vianne Sets Up Shop from the movie Chocolat!

St. Patrick's Day in My Neighborhood

Patricia Barber Quartet

On Monday, I went with friends to the historic Green Mill in Chicago to hear the Patricia Barber Quartet:

Swirls of sound, expanding into the universe, burrowing into the darkness with rays of light, a tender, sweet vocal riding on a muscled, well-oiled, leathery machine of music.

The Moonlight Experience and Bruckner's 8th Symphony

A number of years ago (who knows when?) I somehow got a free ticket to an open rehearsal of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. I found out that they would be rehearsing Bruckner's 8th Symphony, a work I didn't know well. So, I decided to listen to it so I could get to know it a little.

It was evening. The sky was dark, but moonlight streamed through the window as I sat on the floor, listening to an LP record with high-powered earphones. The music sounded like "shimmering moonlight". Farther into the piece , the music spoke of passions and feelings which resonated within my very being.

I went to the rehearsal. I was able to sit in a box seat, the very best seat in the house because it is very close the orchestra - - the balcony perches over the stage and you feel you are in the orchestra. I watched Sir Georg Solti conduct the players and again I felt that I was in the moonlight - - - it was streaming on my face as I listened to the magic notes.

Imagine my joy when I discovered that my own orchestra would be playing this symphony during our current season . . .in April!!

Being Oneself, Fully

Playing with my string quartet the other day, I suddenly realized (again) that when I play my violin or the piano or sing, I am more fully myself than at any other time. Listening to music can often provided that same experience, but to a lesser degree.

John Lennon, Singer/Songwriter/Pianist

Here is an early version of Real Love. It's just John playing the piano and singing. What a great bunch of chord changes! So moving . . .especially when we remember John's very sad childhood - - no one wanted to raise him and he searched for love his whole life, finally finding it with Yoko Ono, who my friend recently called "the weirdist hippie on earth", haha!

Later, the other Beatles re-mastered the song and created a new version based on this early one. And, after that, a fan tried to match video from a live Beatle performance. It's not too convincing, but the song is still great.




John Lennon was my "favorite" Beatle for many reasons: he was called "The Thinking Man's Beatle", he was born in October and I was born in November of the same year, he loved a Japanese woman and went to Japan, he was politically active and truly believed in his causes, he was spiritual (as was George) and really understood the eastern philosophies of India, etc.