This is mostly for my sister who was a music major and will understand....Some of the stuff "She Who Must Not Be Named" and I have been doing this past month. "She" has gotten the concert bug and to satisfy her sudden craving for classical music we trekked up to Schriver Hall on the Hopkins campus to hear a violin and cello program performed by the Capucon brothers, Renaud and Gautier [pictured above]. They did numbers by Shulhoff and Ravel, ho hum, but then came back with a terrific piece by Bohuslav Martinu [whose work I had not heard before] and finished strong with a duo by Zoltan Kodaly to which I could only say, "Wow!" The only disappointment was that Renaud did not bring his "Strad" and instead used Isaac Stern's "Panette," a Guarneri del Gesu (and come to think of it, that's not a bad tradeoff at all, in fact it's damn good). And of course the performances were impeccable. These guys are terrific. If they're performing in your area be sure to catch them.
Then, about a week later it was off to the Meyerhoff [one of this country's great venues] to hear the BSO. They did an interesting little "Anniversary Greeting" by Steven Stucky that I liked a lot, and some middling Mozart [the "Horn Concerto #3, that showcased Philip Munds, a local talent -- not bad] then finished up with Bruckner's "Ninth Symphony" [not my favorite by a long shot]. I could have left at intermission, but "She" likes Bruckner's bombast, so I stayed, and actually enjoyed it, especially the Wagner tuben [I like brass].
Tomorrow "She" and her girlfriends are going back to the Shriver. That will make three concerts in a month. That's the great advantage of urban living. But I still prefer the mountains.
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