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Dorothy Barth

Concerts

March 10, 2010 at 7:10 AM

by Dorothy Barth
©2008

Inspired by Sarah Chang's recital with Andrew von Oeyen, March 7, 2010, Herbst Theatre, San Francisco

Pianissimo is haunting
Legato is sublime
Soaring without effort
Upstairs to where we climb

In prodigious partnership
Pianoforte plays 
I contemplate the fiddler
Who with the music sways

Missed her while in Santa Fe
By four short days at least
But now she's here with us to share
This Brahms, this Franck, this feast

Her tone more golden than her gown
That shimmers in the light
From painted perch high in the hall
I catch the upbow's flight

How does one partake of this
Apollonian tryst
Submerge within its beauty
Or be the analyst?

Surrender is the way to hear
My partner 's firm therein
But then he's never had the chance
To play the violin

To recognize each note, each phrase
As it comes floating by?
Not born to play like this but yet
I can identify

Degrees of separation
She's not so far away 
Jump to the other's consciousness
How does it feel to play?

I rise with many hundreds 
To celebrate her song
And take my leave enraptured
One of the adoring throng

Some hours till the ferry
Transports us 'cross the Bay
And on the green the parrots
Begin their twilight play

The cherry-headed conures
By scores and scores now sing
Cacophonous their choruses
That down, not upward ring

From eucalypt to eucalypt 
Unselfconscious bliss
We stand, an audience of two
Without analysis

On this sun-swept afternoon
Two concerts we have met
Man's most profound endeavor
And nature's canzonet

 


From Don Sullivan
Posted on March 14, 2010 at 4:59 AM

Beautiful verse. Sounds like a sublime experience.

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