Amy and Dawn approve

I took my synth to my weekly piano trio rehearsal yesterday. I usually begin separately with either Dawn the cellist or Amy the violinist. Then the missing person joins us. We play trios. Then the first person leaves and I play solo literature with whoever’s left.

Yesterday I went over early to set up my synth, stands and electrical cords for the lights and synth. We had shifted our rehearsal earlier to allow me to take my Mom to the hearing aid place. This meant that I was scheduled to meet Dawn at 12:15. I went to church to set up and to practice organ. Then home for a quick lunch with Eileen and back to meet Dawn.

Dawn and I played through all of the Frescobaldi sonatas for bass instrument. I think probably organ would be a tad more appropriate than harpsichord.

However, when I pointed this out to Dawn, she said that she was enjoying the harpsichord sound. The music is charming and works on a harpsichord sound. I like both of these renditions I have embedded here.

After we had played a bit, I asked Dawn she thought of the sound. She said it was “impressive.” When Amy arrived we switched to Bach violin sonatas which would involve al of us, the cello playing along with harpsichord. We played these for a while. Actually when Amy came in we were playing Frescobaldi. She said it sounded great.

I am glad that these two don’t mind the electric sound. After Dawn left, Amy and I played Mozart Violin sonatas. These pieces never fail to amaze Amy and me. Mozart is at his most imaginative in them. I don’t think there’s a dud there.

I enjoy these sessions tremendously as do Amy and Dawn. Do I have to say it? My life is good.

Fun fact about Norman Dello Joio

We chat quite a bit during our piano trio rehearsals. After Dawn left, I asked Amy if she had ever heard of the composer, Norman Dello Joio. She said she had not only heard of him, but had met him when he stayed in their home when she was a child. Wow! We agreed that his music was wonderful. I mentioned his violin piece. She said she knew it and that it was incredibly hard. She didn’t say why he visited her home. Possibly he came to Hope or something….

Several volumes of his work arrived at the library for me yesterday. I did interlibrary loan the violin piece, “Colloquies.”

I had to interlibrary loan the piano score and the violin part separately,. For some reason, the violin part interlibrary loan did not go through. I do have the piano score. Amy did not seem that interested in learning it. When I pointed out that she had learned difficult works as a student, she demurred. She felt that she needed an instructor to walk her through the process of learning something this difficult. I disagreed. But maybe it’s not something she wants to take on. It is a beautiful piece.

My Mom decided she didn’t feel well enough to go to the hearing aid place. I canceled her appointment. By the time I got home I wasn’t feeling great. I felt a little worse than Wednesday. I think I over did it a bit  on Wednesday and consequently my cold worsened instead of improved on Thursday.

I did have the energy to sit down and play completely through Dello Joio’s “Simple Sketches” which are quite nice.

This is one of those goofy digest type articles that pop up on my Fecesbooger feed. However, I thought I would read it sometime.