My piano trio had an unusual rehearsal yesterday. As a group we are clear that we are getting together for our own pleasure. When Amy the violinist arrived she asked if we could do something other than our current Mozart project to warm up. This is not unusual for her. She likes to warm up with something.
I suggested we do some reading in a very old collection we have, Carl Fischer’s Favorite Trio Album edited by Gaston Borch, copyright 1914.
We played a piece by Chaminade (pictured above, I didn’t know she was a woman. My other members of the trio would probably find that satisfying). Then Tchaikowsky.
Amy loves the romantic stuff. We played another piece from this collection. We kept playing through pieces from this collection for our entire time together. Amy left charged up and happy. Actually all of us did.
I have come to realize how much I enjoy playing music with other people. This includes but is obviously not limited to my trio, the Grace choir, and the Grace congregation as it belts out hymnody and service music.
It may be this pleasure that keeps me putting off retiring despite ebbing energy.
Speaking of ebbing energy, the last two days have been challenging for me that way.I have managed to exercise (treadmill) for the last three days, returning to my pre Thanksgiving regimen. But I have had lots of fatigue. It’s hard to tell exactly from what it is stemming, probably a combination of stuff.
Kick Against the Pricks | by Laura Kipnis | The New York Review of Books
I was impressed with Larua Kipnis in a recent podcast, I Have To Ask: The Laura Kipnis Edition – Slate Magazine Daily Feed (podcast). This is a good read better than the interview in the podcast.
In Carpenter v. United States, Neil Gorsuch showed his independent streak.
Finally something positive from this brilliant but highly reactive justice.
