6 posts tagged “music”

Last week Agi and I saw a fantastic concert put on by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.  We decided to go for some great seats and it was a very good choice because we could see the pianist's face.  My exact quote to Agi halfway through was, "This dude is a genius."  Because he played flawlessly for 90 minutes--no notes--while leading the rest of the orchestra.  Perhaps this is common for pianists but I was amazed.  It turns out he is a Polish-Hungarian hot shot http://www.anderszewski.net/writings/index.cfm who makes me think he's probably the Robert Downey Jr of the piano world.

Also, Agi definitely has more impulses to clean than I do.  When she asked me to vacuum yesterday I explained my position:  Usually I don't break out the vacuum until the bunnies come out to play.  A good principle, no?

Driving home from the gym a few nights ago I hear a gorgeous song:  Yo Yo Ma playing a song from "The Mission" movie written by the great songwriter Ennio Moricone.  It's "Gabriel's Oboe."

This past Saturday Agi and I went to a very fun Gypsy Music concert on Margaret Island in Budapest.  We bought the tickets online months ago so our seats were excellent and could see all the action up-close.  There are lots of Roma or gypsies throughout central Europe and they're revered for being excellent musicians.  There's also a fair amount of racism and stereotypes against them which is not good.  (By the way, my friend Barry L who was my roommate back in 1999/2000 in Budapest let me borrow an excellent book called "Bury Me Standing" about the modern condition of gypsies in Europe.  The title is taken from a moving statement one of the gypsies made to the author:  "When I die, bury me standing because my whole life I've been on my knees.")

The concert was in a beautiful outdoor theater with a lovely green forest as the backdrop behind the stage.  One of the main reasons the whole production turned out to be so entertaining was how disorganized it was.  (Though excellent musicians, this group of people was seriously lacking in the organizational department.)  There were a number of different bands who performed and each one of them said "We're supposed to leave now... BUT! we're just going to do one more song..."  (And then they'd play two more songs).

The highlight of the night, however, was when a young male gypsy pop star--a good looking guy in his late twenties with buffed and tanned body, all-white, full-body leather outfit and slicked hair--started doing all kinds of gyrating "pop" moves that most of girls in the audience loved.  They loved him and his performance so much in fact that literally about 100 girls aged 6-25 all rushed the front of the stage and then they all actually climbed up ON the stage and started dancing with the pop star.  It was complete pandemonium but the girls were having a lot of fun.  The parents of the girls then rushed to the front themselves to take pictures of their daughters up on the stage with the star. 

The final thing that was so interesting, startling & eye-opening for Agi and I was how all the little pre-teen girls knew all kinds of "sexy MTV moves" and they went at them like this was their last and greatest chance to pull these moves for all the world to see.  It was funny how they went at it with such abandon but sad at the same time.

All in all, a very wild gypsy music concert.

This past weekend Ivy and I had a great time visiting my parents up near Sacramento.  It was filled up with ping-pong in the afternoon (my dad is an amazing player and great athlete and he kept crushing my brother Matthew and me), poker in the evening and then we watched a few episodes of 24.  (Ivy and I have become addicted to it--we just started the first season with Netflix and will find a way to continue it for sure when in Hungary).

Matthew burnt me a c.d. of a band he likes a lot and I've become a big fan myself of several of their songs:  the German group Rammstein.  Our German-flavored drive home back to the bay area will forever be ingrained in my head--it was very memorable:  cruising along in our German Audi A4 (I love this car; we bought a used '98 version a year ago in place of our Honda accord and it will hard to go back to anything else;  the quattro all-wheel drive is fantastic, the stereo is superb and the handling is amazing).  So in addition to cruising in our German car we rocked out to Du Hast and other songs by Rammstein.  It was exhilarating.  As happens with most songs, I'll get tired of their stuff if I overdo it--but this song really pumps me up.   http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?playlistId=59698809&s=143441&i=59698811

I read that this epitaph showed up quite a bit on 18th Century tombstones.  Rather thought provoking and to the point:

"Remember, friends, as you pass by,
As you are now so once was I.
As I am now, so you must be.
Prepare yourself to follow me."

In fact, this ties in pretty well with a Tracey Chapman song I like a lot called "Change:"

"If you knew that you would die today- And saw the face of God and Love- Would you change?"

Last night we went to an excellent concert featuring a pianist from Hungary in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian revolt against the evil Russian communist empire.  (By the way, the death of that ex-KGB officer in Britain recently has the fingerprints of the KGB all over it.  Very intriguing if Putin was involved too of course). 

The concert was put on by the Palo Alto Philharmonic and featured Liszt, Bartok and Brahms.  Brahms was a German/Austrian who was heavily influenced by Hungarian music and I'm looking forward to visiting Austria again and checking out a number of cities (including the Sound of Music city Salzburg).  Perhaps this Summer!  (Austria, as you know, is directly west of Hungary and only about a 4 hour drive from Budapest.)

Another cool thing about hearing Brahms last night is that the orchestra played the one and only song I ever really learned to play (after about 2 years of piano lessons as a youngster)--the Hungarian Rhapsody (yes, how appropriate given who I've ended up marrying).  I performed that song as a 5th grader I believe at a mini recital and can actually still play it today (though my sisters in particular are sick of hearing it.)