I have spent the better part of today writing up the program notes for Sunday’s recital. My butt hurts from sitting. Eileen is proofing them as I type. I am so ready to be done with this year’s season. It has been a stellar one. As my boss said, we are going out with a bang. But I’m feeling my age and atheism coming to the fore.
It doesn’t help that I have been worried about my son since his last relapse into full blown alcohol addiction. I have been avoiding mentioning it here, but I did manage to speak with him yesterday. I found out that he is in a facility and is being cared for. It is a treacherous thing to have an addict in the family. Loving them is tricky. I’m glad to be reconnected to him. It’s possible Eileen and I will be able to visit him at his facility while we are in California next week.
In less than two hours I have a rehearsal. We had to reschedule Wednesday’s rehearsal. Amy, my violinist, recently took a job as a food worker at Russ. She works in the back room and prepares salad ingredients. I can imagine that this work is very exhausting. She told us yesterday that after four hours work, she finds she is sleeping solid for 16 hours. That’s what she was accidentally doing Wednesday evening and who can blame her?
So we had to reschedule since her violin part is very important to the Handel Ario Laurie Van Ark is going to sing Sunday. By the way, this is a kick ass little piece by Handel from his 9 German Arias. I only recently discovered this work when a visiting recitalist had a soprano sing one of them.
BBC Radio 3 – Record Review Podcast, Mendelssohn: Symphony No. 4 ‘Italian’
My mood has been morose lately. It was particularly dark yesterday morning. However, I put on a podcast of BBC Record Review. They were reviewing Mendelssohn’s Italian Symphony. This symphony is one I try to listen to every spring. It is wonderful and had the usual effect of lightening my mood for the morning despite exhaustion from the rehearsal the night before.
Anthony Burgess: Puma: A Novel [Review] | The Englewood Review of Books
Another review by the famous Mark Jenkins (brother of Jupiter Jenkins). I can’t wait to read it!
An Antiracist Reading List – The New York Times