argyle

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Of Pianos and Pastries

On Friday evening Bekah, Arely, Un Joo, and I attended a piano recital. After waiting in a line outside the theater in the winter wind, we wound our way through the crowds gathered around the coffee bar and the ushers up to the balcony. (Un Joo isn't in the picture because she took the picture for us after all our attempts at self-portraits failed.)


We enjoying music of Beethoven's 26th Piano Sonata, Brahms 16 Waltzes, 2 Chopin ballades, Schumann's Symphonic Etudes, and an encore by Liszt. We had lovely seats in the front of the balcony looking right down onto the keyboard!


The concert was in a theater - the walls were full of golden scroll-work, highly romanticized silhouettes of people, and, arching over the stage, great heads with gaping mouths. Here you can see the boxes with red velvet curtains. (I don't think they had been dusted recently...the curvy tops of the curtains looked slightly gray-ish...)


Ever wondered what it's like to have those faces watch you for two hours? The mushroom-things are sound-reflectors. (Sshhh, don't tell anyone, but the people-watching fun goes up about 110% in a building packed with music nerds!!!)


The next morning we celebrated Bekah's half-birthday (since her birthday is during the summer) with breakfast at a Swiss pastry shop.


Between hazelnut and and almond pastries, hot chocolate, and the lemons in the drinking water, it was an entertaining breakfast...


...and a wonderful weekend.

No comments:

Post a Comment