WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY PIANO STUDENT
I heard the most fantastic concert ever!
The day before, I received a call from a mother of one of my piano students. Great news came from the handset. My student's high school was giving away symphony tickets to the marching band kids (of which my student is their star tuba player)...AND their friends. So the mom asked me if i wanted some tickets. Now, that is like asking a prisoner if he wants the key to his cell door. I usually have experienced at least one San Diego Symphony concert by now, but, this being a very busy year for me, had not even heard a live peep from any orchestra. She (the mom) continued. The concert, she said, was featuring the Russian National Orchestra, conducted by one of the greatest living pianists (Mikhail Pletnev) and on the program, my two favorite composers--Tchaikovsky, and Rachmaninoff (I have their goddamn plaster busts on my piano for pete's sake!). She could have stopped there. Didn't she see me floating skyward past the clouds, I wondered? And the pianist is playing Rach's 2nd, she continued. By now, I landed back to earth, but my son had to revive me. Would you like to go, she said. YYEESSSSS!!, I blurted out.
I'll take two, and thank you so very much! The other ticket was for my "ballet star" son who is home from his ballet conservatory in Boca Raton on spring break. I had to twist his arm to go with me, as i wanted some company. I had to use my birthday (the day before the concert) as a reason for him not to say "no". We went to Copley hall and experienced the best sounds of our lives. The piano concerto (played by a young Russian pianist making his USA debut that very night) was played flawlessly and with much expression. The Tchaikovsky symphonic piece was pure joy (my son nudged me during the piece to tell me that he had seen a ballet piece choreographed with a movement from this work. So he was REALLY listening---yeah!). and the encore, put a smile on his face, too. It was a movement from the ballet, "Sleeping Beauty"! We had the best night ever, together! It amazes me, how sounds coming from wood, brass, and skin, can create such beauty, in a world with a lot of troubles. Long live music, I say!!!
email Maura Vazakas