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February 12, 2006 at 11:33 PM

It was the best of recitals and the worst of recitals.

Paul Rosenthal, a "real" violinist, came to Soldotna and played three violin sonatas, Beethoven #1, Janacek #1, and Saint Saens #1. A student of DeLay, Galamian, Heifetz, and Gingold, Rosenthal has reason to be considered for an eyebrow-raising. He's only been playing the violin for 61 years, after all! Considering the fact that I can't even think of another violinist I've heard with a resume that sturdy, I felt privileged to be sitting on the front row in the Lutheran chapel, only feet away from the action.

...That is, until he entered and moved his stand so that he was facing the other row of pews, angling the stand so that it deflected most of the sound that rang from his glorious Guarneri del Jesu. I suspected as much when the piano immediately overpowered him at the opening of the Beethoven.

It wasn't until we demanded his encore that he pushed the stand down and began Bach's Air in G; then I realised what I had missed. It was all there. That old-school, rich singing tone finally reached my ears. Wow, I don't know that I've ever heard a sound that was 300 years old before. All I can say is, thank God for musicians like Paul Rosenthal who could have done anything in the world, and chose above all to live in Alaska and give concerts for the locals. Thanks to him, I've been treated like royalty this week.

I'm glad you enjoyed the concert but sorry that the music stand muffled the sound. He should have known better.
Ah, I should have known better than to sit on that side. It was fun distracting the German pianist, though. :)
People sometimes wonder how I can stand living in the Washington DC area with its traffic jams, pollution, etc. There are compensations. Last year I heard performances by Hilary Hahn (twice), Itzhak Perlman, Midori, and a Chinese violinist playing a Strad called Lady Tennant. This season, I will hear Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman, Gil Shaham, and Yo Yo Ma. Ma will play some of the Bach works for unaccompanied cello. I'm not bragging; I am appreciating the opportunities I have here.
Pollution is relative. Walking on snow can be like walking on the contents of someone's garbage can that fell over. The air? It's just blank. Give me that grey haze in the distance and the tart smell of diesel exahust. Smells like Yo Ma Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Pinchas Zukerman.
Ha. I always write Yo Ma Ma.
... keep Manhattan, just give me that countryside. :)
Smells like yo mama
yo yo ma ho, its violin dot co
She bewitched me using the devil's instrument!