Snowless Quartet

March 17, 2010 at 9:15 AM

The last two meetings of our ACMP quartet took place on nights with heavy snowfall. By yesterday, all the white stuff had quietly melted away, except for some residual, packed snow heaps in the shade. Just about time, too - today I will have the summer tires mounted on my car.

The hosts' house is currently being remodeled: a door walled shut, a wall taken out. We played in the middle of the unfinished construction site - cello and 1st violin on the one side of a little ditch in the living room, viola and I on the other. The homemade music stand perched perilously on a tiny wooden plank bridging this gap. A very romatic setting - and with all the furniture grouped in the middle of the room under plastic wrapping and the carpets rolled up, the acoustics were even better than normal.

We played Beethoven's op. 18 no. 5; though it was just intended as a familiarization session, we managed to "nail down" some of the beautiful parts of this gem right away. Afterwards, we gathered in the basement - which houses the drum set of the hosts' son in a room for partying - for some snacks and a chat. It is always amazing how complicated it is to find a common free evening for four busy amateur musicians, but we managed that also.

I'm looking forward to our next meeting - planned for April.

From SAM MIHAILOFF
Posted on March 18, 2010 at 5:02 AM

Wow...bliss...I wish you hours of great music. Tough to find folks willing to invest time in such a mutual cause.BEST WISHES

From Karen Allendoerfer
Posted on March 20, 2010 at 12:32 AM

I'm going to play Op. 18 No. 1 this weekend! I'm just being exposed to these quartets for the first time. They are lovely.

From Pauline Lerner
Posted on March 20, 2010 at 5:35 AM

I, too, have found that it's surprisingly hard to get a few people together at the same time and place, but when you do, it's so much fun. I hope things go well for your quartet.

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Snowless Quartet

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