Classical Music Buzz > Lincoln in Cleveland
Lincoln in Cleveland
Lincoln
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Schubert: Sonata in D Major for violin and piano, D.384^*
Schubert: Sonata in G Minor for violin and piano, D.408^%
Schubert: Der Hirt auf Felsen (The Shepherd on the Rock)^¹²
Schubert: String Quartet in G Majorª
At the Koelz Residence, Cleveland Heights
^- Rafael Sorka, piano; *- Isabel Trautwein, violin; %- Alicia Koelz, violin; ¹- Jung Oh, soprano; ²-Robert Woolfrey, clarinet; ª- The Omni Quartet (Jung-Min Amy Lee, Alicia Kolez, violins; Joanna Patterson, viola; Tanya Ell, cello)

It would be horribly neglectful to not note that tonight's concert -- the last of the Heights Arts 2012-13 Close Encounters house concert season -- also marks the last for Heights Arts founding Executive Director Peggy Spaeth before she retires July 2nd after 13 years of dedicated service. (And just to reiterate my standard disclosure: I do serve on the Heights Arts board)

Tonight's concert was our first expedition to the beautiful home of Ms. Kolez and her husband. While not Ms. Koelz's first performance with Height Arts, I believe the first time the host of a concert has also performed.

An all-Schubert event featuring six members of The Cleveland Orchestra alongside two other very talented musicians the music and company was even more delightful than expected -- and that bar is high. All four pieces on the program were passionately played and a joy to hear, although I didn't really attach strong imagery to any of the pieces -- the way I most effectively communicate about music.

Thus, I cannot say that I enjoyed any of the pieces any more or less than any other on the program. The first two pieces -- both violin-and-piano  sonatas -- were lovely and left me to just close my eyes and enjoy the beauty of music for a large swath of both pieces. The inner movement of the Sonata in D was lovely, while the first movement reminded me of the emotional release of crying.

Der Hirt auf dem Felsen with singer Jung Oh and clarinetist Robert Woolfrey joining Rafael Sorka changed things up with Ms. Oh and Mr. Woolfrey's playing faithfully echoing the sentiments of the lyrics -- from the brighter beginning to the sadness and grief-stricken middle.

After an intermission, gears shifted completely with the String Quartet in G Major, D.877 where despite an extended tuning necessitated from Cleveland's indecisive Is-it-Summer-or-Winter weather (I'm glad it's not just me) the passionate playing made it a memorable piece with finely textured drops into darkness and emergences into brightness. Adding interest to the piece were rapid-fire tremors of notes executed with precision.

Clevelanders are incredibly lucky to have access to this level of musicianship in these incredibly intimate settings

I'm already looking forward to the next season...

Lincoln
8 days ago | |
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Handel: Water Music Suite No. 1 in F minor
Handel: Zadok the Priest, Coronation Anthem No. 1
Handel: Te Deum ("Dettingen") in D major
The Cleveland Orchestra Chamber Chorus, Robert Porto, Director; Jay Carter, countertenor; Steven Soph, tenor; Klaus Mertens, bass-baritone.
Ton Koopman, conductor.

So I made it back from Vancouver (no thanks to United Airlines) and I'll have to post an update on that trip later -- You may recall though, that for the first time I begged off last week's Cleveland Orchestra concert on the account of both illness and death in the family [it was not a good week...] -- and I was really looking forward to getting back to the hall tonight.

Conductor Ton Koopman has an effervescent stage presence, but unfortunately that didn't carry through to the music; both of the substantial pieces on the program (Handel's Water Music and Te Deum) largely felt hollow and passionless -- there was no technical fault with the execution, but the artists involved seemed to be enjoying plying roughly as much as observing an actual execution. Of course, neither piece was completely without redemption, and particularly in Te Deum, the Cleveland Orchestra Chamber Chorus came through with passages that would have felt right at home in any church.

The shortest piece on tonight's program at about five minutes - Zadok the Priest - was also the piece I most enjoyed as it was very focused, and had a consistent feeling and wasn't quite as devoid of passion as the others

[For the sake of disclosure, I should say that I was much further house (side) right than usual -- in the past I've noted differences in sound in the off-axis seats, though I don't think that played into my perception of tonight's program]

In two weeks my dad is visiting for a delayed birthday weekend, so I'll attend my last concert of the 12-13 season on Thursday evening... and the Blossom season is just around the corner.

Lincoln
9 days ago | |
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So this last week has been somewhere between "less than great" and "completely s****y", but this week is promising.

Starting last Wednesday -- or maybe Tuesday evening if you want to be picky -- I came down with one of the nastier bugs I've had in the past decade (I think it ranks #2)...while I was in a hotel in Columbus. Being sick is miserable. Being sick on the road is worse. Being sick on the road and having to drive yourself three hours home doesn't help things either. I have a feeling the effects of whatever I had were magnified by my stress lately (snowed under with work + lots of looming travel + not sleeping well + grandfather's health + ...) until I reached a breaking point.

I think I'm still suffering with some of the tailing ends of that bug -- but at least I can stand up and generally function in public without feeling light headed. But while lying in bed on Friday -- semicoherent and Rachel nursing me -- I got a call from my mom. Not a good sign. My grandfather -- the same grandfather I visited last week to celebrate his 86th birthday and because he wasn't doing very well -- passed after a 7 year battle with cancer. I can't say it was surprising (The Wikipedia article calls out median survival as 3-4 years or 5-7 years "with advanced treatments" and it was really tough to see him last week) but it was still not the news I was hoping for.

Anyway, on Saturday thought feeling a smidge better, in the interest of my health and the health of those around me I unfortunately had to wave off both  a CIM student recital that had sounded very interesting and the Cleveland Orchestra's Saturday evening performance -- not an easy decision but in hindsight not regretted at all.

This morning I woke up and -- with Rachel serving as escort -- made it to the airport shortly after 7 am. I've flown "enough" (~255 times based on my FlightMemory.com data*) but this was my first time using my passport, or leaving the country so for some reason I found myself exceptionally nervous.

The reward, though, was an International Premier Access boarding pass for a "premium" cabin (for some reason the same seat on a domestic flight is called "First Class" yet on an international flight it becomes "Business Class") -- thus granting access to the hallowed halls of the United Club (formerly Red Carpet Club or President's Club) at no charge. I've been curious about the clubs, but always too cheap to pony up on my own and too guilt-ridden to expense it to the company.

But clearing security in Cleveland I didn't feel like I had enough time to make it to the club, enjoy, and get back to the gate in time for my flight. The flight from Cleveland to Denver was uneventful, and on arriving in Denver -- since I had to walk past the club to get to my connecting gate, I figured "What the heck".

Oh, what a glorious space -- free food, plenty of comfortable seating, and almost frighteningly quiet. Plus free WiFi. I almost talked myself into the $475/year fee before I had to leave to board the flight to Canada.

If you really want to -- click for larger.

Arriving in Canada was a weird experience -- off the plane and on to beautiful glass-enclosed jetways (which are prohibited by a particularly irrational fire safety law in the US) and into a never ending segregated corridor, before dropping in the immigration lobby. I will say, that while the walk seemed interminable it was pleasant -- including some almost natural-history-museum-seeming settings (This video captures the experience fairy well -- including the sound effects in the hall)

As we snaked back and forth, back and forth through a line that would make Disneyland proud I was nervous -- my first experience with Customs & Immigration, with a "Business and Pleasure" answer, and a coworker who answered the "Business" question incorrectly and wound up denied entry and on Canada's Terrorist Watch List.

I approached the window "Business or Pleasure" he asked while scanning the declaration form that we had been given on the aircraft -- "Both" I answered.

"Can you elaborate on the nature of your business?". Ah crap. But I did, and he stamped my card and said to have a nice day. After an interminable wait for my luggage, I walked to the "green" exit (as I wasn't above any of my duty free allowances) handed the office the same form, who took it without even looking and I walked past... and into free Canadian air.

It was a little anti-climatic. From there I picked up my rental car from Hertz (somehow a Toyota Crayola turned into a Jeep SUV, but I won't complain) and used the GPS feature on my phone to find my way to my fist ("Pleasure") hotel for this trip...

"In 600 meters, turn right..."

WTF? How far is that? Ok I know Canadians (and the rest of the civilized world) use metric -- and I got used to matching speed limit signs to the speedometer, even if it's  a foreign language. But I can't believe my own phone would betray me and suddenly start spouting off distances that I don't fluently comprehend. By the time I had done the mental conversion to a distance my brain could cope with it was time to turn.

In any event I made it to the hotel, and as I conclude this post I'm about ready to crawl under the covers and spend my first night outside of the United States. My first night after 10,576 consecutive nights in the US. I suppose it's about time -- and just in the nick of time to do it before my 29th birthday. And in honor of my wanderlust grandfather.
My grandfather inspecting my travel map last week.
"One traveler to another" he said.


Lincoln
*- It's "extremely accurate" (date, time, flight number, and specific aircraft and seat) for flights since 2005ish, "very accurate" (at least date and flight number) for flights since 2000ish, and "a general representation" for all flights before -- not all of my early flights are logged
21 days ago | |
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I've had a rough week -- beyond being stressed by the volume of work that needs to be accomplished in a frighteningly short amount of time, and more importantly, my Grandfather in Northern Michigan is not doing so well.

For as long as I can remember he's been physically and intellectually strong, and with an engineer's mind we share a lot in common, including a love of travel (he prefers to drive; I prefer to fly), even after a multiple myeloma diagnosis a few years ago he was still in relatively good condition. But over the past few months his condition has deteriorated alarmingly.

My mother flew out from Portland to visit him this weekend and I took Friday to make the 7-hour/450-mile drive up to see both my mom and my grandfather; it was tough to see him so incapacitated. And even tougher to leave -- but it was necessary as I need to be in Columbus (where I am now) for a project Monday morning.

While my grandfather would have no problems with it, putting in another 470 miles and 7 hours to get from Michigan to Columbus in two days is a little more than my ideal tolerance for driving, and combined with an emotionally draining few days...well... There were more than a few times I thought about just pulling off the road and taking a nap.

But I made it to the hotel -- the Hampton Inn Columbus/Dublin -- and checked in. I've stayed at this property before -- most recently about two months ago -- but I didn't recognize the gentleman behind the counter. As he checked me in he mentioned "Stephanie said to say Hi."

That lifted my spirits a little -- as a mid-grade road warrior I tend to feel like I fall into obscurity on the road. Despite the scripted, almost robotic, greetings that are doled out as part of the "standard" Hilton HHonors Gold greeting, I don't get the sense of human-to-human connection.

I remember Stephanie well from my last visit -- actually her genuine hospitality is probably 90% of the reason I came back to this property rather than "shopping around" a bit. I also remember asking the "crazy question" about the keycards.

(Aside) You see: Hampton Inn has, for as long as I've been a "road warrior", issued a unique keycard for each state ("Welcome To ________"). The first Hampton I visit in each state, I keep one of the key cards -- working towards my unwritten goal of "Collecting all 50". I was somewhat alarmed on my last visit to note that instead of the "Welcome to Ohio" keycard, there was a new card advertising USA Today. Not because I needed an Ohio card, but rather because I was looking forward to adding Arizona to my collection with my first trip to that state. Aside from graciously answering my question and offering to find an Ohio card if I needed one, I had largely forgotten the specific question.

But as I trundled up to my room, I noticed a piece of paper in with my key card. On it, the hand-written note:

"Hey! Welcome back! So apparently the keys you had last time were a promo. I believe we are all going back to the state keys. See you tomorrow! Stephanie"

It sounds a little goofy, but I have to say it instantly buoyed my spirits -- rather than being a faceless reservation number or a nameless person wandering the halls of a global corporation I felt like I was truly someone's guest, not to mention that I was tremendously impressed that despite the number of travelers seen on any given day she remembered both me and my question from my last visit -- almost exactly two months ago.

It was a simple -- but extremely nice -- end to a very long weekend.

Lincoln
28 days ago | |
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Shepherd: Tuolome (World Premiere Performances)
Shostakovitch: Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77 (Frank Peter Zimmerman, violin)
Dvorak: Symphony No. 6 in D major, Op. 60
Franz Welser-Most, conductor.

Today is my last day in Cleveland before departing on the "Two (if) by land" legs of my travel schedule. Since I won't be in Cleveland on Saturday I wanted to sneak in a concert before I left.

The first piece on the program was the world premiere of Sean Shepherd's Tuolume influenced by Ansel Adams photographs of the eponymous location in Central California not far from where I was born. While I'm not a fan of most new music and this was no exception, I did enjoy it significantly more than his last endeavor presented by the Orchestra, and particularly in the first movement I had the sensation of slowly panning across a particularly vivid landscape photograph.

Coming to the Orchestra straight from a violin lesson wedged into my schedule (yes, despite reprehensible lack of practice time, I am still attempting to learn the instrument) my appreciation for the talents of the Orchestra and Mr. Zimmerman particularly were heightened in Shostakovitch's Violin Concerto -- it is nowhere near as effortless as they or he make it look. The first movement is dark and somber, as if the soloist is wandering alone on the dark and scary streets of a large and unfamiliar city. The second movement -- my favorite from the piece -- released the tension had had a fun, nervous energy in the solo violin that was responded to by the Orchestra. The third movement wasn't as dark as the first, but was a bit more mournful with an extraordinarily impassioned solo.

While Shostakovitch is one of my favorite composers, Dvorak slightly edges him out and so I was delighted that the concert ended with his Symphony No. 6. While the first two movements were delightful, to my ear they didn't sound particularly Dvorak-esque, clearly coming earlier in his career than the "From the New World" (Symphony No. 9) for which he is best known. The third movement, though featured the dance rhythms that are part of the composer's signature and one of the aspects I find most compelling in his music.

It's also worth noting that last week's Carmina Burana was still the talk of the hall with not a bad opinion to be heard.

Lincoln
31 days ago | |
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I love traveling.

At the top of my list is a visit to a new city, in the middle of the list is a repeat visit to a far-off city where I've established local knowledge, and at the end of the list are repeat visits to closer destinations.

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Driven (Red) and Flown (Black) Travel through 4/2013. (Click for larger version)
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Looking back to the beginning of the month, and through the middle of June I'll touch on each of those. My first-time trip to Phoenix was fun, and next week I'm driving to Northern Michigan for a quick visit with my grandparents before driving down for a three-day visit to Columbus.
After that, I'm back in Cleveland for four and a half days before embarking on a week-long trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, back in Cleveland for a week, then in Northern California (Chico, more-or-less) for a week, back in Cleveland for a bit and back to Rochester, Minnesota for a quick visit.
Columbus is somewhat ho-hum -- not my favorite city, but at least it's not Ann Arbor -- Chico is new destination but in an area I'm passably familiar with (and in In-N-Out Burger territory), Rochester is always fun, with a relaxed client and the Marvin's Burger at Newt's, my favorite burger outside of In-N-Out territory.  
But Vancouver is both exciting and a little nerve-wracking at the same time. It's a new client, which always has be a little (too) on-guard, it's a new city, and essentially a new country. My first "new country". I've had a passport since March 25th 2010, but as yet the furthest it has moved is from one corner of my home-office desk to the other as I occasionally thumb through it and wistfully think of all of the places I want to see.
Yes, I've technically been to Canada twice, the extent of both visits being quick trips into Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Both while I was in my mid-teens--at the latest. And as I recall, both were on Canadian national holidays where everything was closed. To the best of my recollection, my feet have never actually touched Canadian soil.
The client doesn't really have me that worried, but I'm in hyperdrive worrying about all of the mostly trivial details. -  Customs and Immigration? How does it work? What do I need to say or not say to avoid raising any red flags? How do I answer the "Business or Pleasure" question since I'll be doing both? Does my laptop fall within the definition of "Business or commercial equipment" that the declaration card interrogates for?
- How much, and what kind, of documentation do I need for the business portion of my trip to avoid problems at the border?
- Local customs: I know the US and Canada are physically close but culturally considerably different. How do I avoid unintentionally offending the locals? I actually find that sort of knowledge very interesting [along with this old Northwest Airlines commercial]-- for example, In Japan the way you handle a person's business card is seen as an extension of the way you treat the person (and that makes a lot of sense to me). Even tipping is an area I'm foggy about.
- Money: Is Credit Card acceptance in Canada as broad as it is in the US? Do I Canadian currency--or rather how much Canadian currency should I carry?
- Do I really want to rent a car, or should I plan on public transit/taxis?
- With the client, how forceful should I be regarding our "typical" policies and procedures, developed entirely for the US market, versus how much should I yield to their expectations. In other words, where's the fine balance between being a push-over and a jerk?
- What should I do as my two-and-a-half days as a tourist?
- Perhaps most ominously, what should I be worried about that I'm not currently worrying about?
I suspect I'm over-thinking this by at least an order of magnitude -- but I'm about to enter foreign territory, figuratively and literally, and I want to be prepared.
Lincoln
1 month ago | |
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J.S. Bach: Concerto in A major for oboe d'amore and orchestra, BVW 1055 (Robert Walters, oboe d'amore)
Carl Orff: Carmina Burana, cantata for solo voices, choruses and orchestra (Cleveland Orchestra Chorus, Robert Porco, director; Cleveland Orchestra Children's Chorus, Ann Usher, director; Rebecca Nelsen, soprano; Nicholas Pahn, tenor; Stephen Powell, baritone)
James Feddeck, conductor.

After a week in Arizona preempted my attendance at last week's concert for some reason it felt like I had been absent for a particularly long time when I returned to Severance Hall tonight. I, did, however have the good fortune of having pre-purchased my ticket. Others approaching the, box office, not so fortunate were turned away with even the Standing Room only section completely sold out.

Still others in the lobby could be overheard remarking that that this was the second ticket they had purchased for this weekend's concerts as it warranted a second hearing.

Indeed, it was an amazing concert -- and for the first time, I found myself humming the epic chorus as I was leaving the hall.

The appetizer was a delightful and quick Concerto in A major -- the first time the Cleveland Orchestra has performed this bit of Bach. Orchestra member Robert Walters took the duties of soloist with the oboe d'amore. The first movement was a bit fanciful and floating, the second movement provided a darker, more punctuated scene -- almost as if slowly walking through a cemetery and pausing at each grave marker. The third movement had a sunnier disposition but was more grounded than the first movement.

The main course was unequivocally Carl Orff's Carmina Burana. While the Orchestra and it's chorus typically work well together, tonight's performance featured a seamless interface between the two, easily the most impressive choral performance I've heard. While I haven't been the biggest fan of James Feddeck's conducting in the past, tonight he handled the Orchestra and the Chorus as the precision instruments they are, just as cleanly accelerating to near light-speed as decelerating to a more contemplative speed.

Like my impression of Mr. Feddeck's conducting, I likewise have not often cared for the Orchestra's choice of soloists, but tonight I was thrilled, especially with the substantial presence Mr. Powell added as baritone soloist. Messrs Pahn and Powell injected some visual humor into the performance's Part Two, marking the first time I can recall hearing a substantial swath of the audience laughing during a performance. I also particularly enjoyed the instrumental Dance from the Uf dem Anger ("On the Lawn") section of Part One.

The Cleveland Orchestra Chorus had crystal clear projection from the loudest-of-louds to the quietest-of-quiet sections making it easily the easiest time I've had following the text and translation in the program.

Lincoln
1 month ago | |
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I'm sitting out the Cleveland Orchestra concerts of this weekend -- partially because I'm not a fan of Mitsuko Uchida, but more importantly, because I just got back from a week on the road.

Sunday evening saw me flying to Phoenix via Houston -- where due to weather everything went a little crooked (the net result was both my inbound flight and my connection were delayed; for a little while there was talk of possibly diverting to Amarillo due to low fuel).   Being Easter, I checked in to the hotel three hours later than expected and sans the In-N-Out that I had been craving.

Monday morning I awoke to this glorious sunrise view from my hotel bed. (The tranquil feeling was soon dismissed by the sounds of lawnmowers on the golf course, immediately followed by the golf starter on a booming public address system, but c'est la vie... I would have had to have actually gained consciousness sooner than later anyway)
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Room 5011 - Embassy Suites Phoenix/Scottsdale
Although my first time in Phoenix and my first visit to this particular campus, I was actually visiting one of my favorite clients. (For better or worse, I think I'm now one of the few people who has actually visited all three of their primary sites -- Rochester, Minnesota; Jacksonville, Florida; Phoenix/Scottsdale Arizona). The sign at the entrance to campus leaves no doubt that I was in the right place:

Guess who? Guess where?
Note the cactus in the background. They were everywhere.
Easing things a bit, my primary contact at this campus is actually a recent transferee from Rochester with whom I had worked on some projects up there. The days were full, but not particularly stressful and the whether was spectacular for the week I was in town -- only starting to get really warm towards the end of the week.

Unfortunately long days and a 3-hour time difference didn't leave much room during the week for sight-seeing, but as the project wound down, I had a little bit of time to sneak in a visit to Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West campus.


Taliesin West was Frank Lloyd Wright's winter home and still serves as the winter home of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture and the headquarters of the FLW Foundation. The tour, at $32 is a little steep, but a requirement to see the site.

Don, our guide, was particularly relaxed but covered a ton of information about the history of the property (starting with the fact that it was purchased for $12.50 an acre) and the architecture of the site, making this one more enjoyable than many of the "school tour/hit you over the head" guides I've had in the past. As a result the 90-minute tour flew by.

While I took many pictures on the tour, none of them really adequately encompass the entire setting (you really need to be there). Though I thought these two, taken from essentially the same location, provide an interesting contrast:

Some of the never-ending maintenance required on the studio building
Raw Desert!

At the conclusion of the tour, Don asked how many people had been to Falling Water. Of the 30 or so in the room, I was the only one who raised his hand [Rachel and I visited just over a year ago]. Don impressed the importance of visiting that site, and mentioned that it was with the much-needed money from that commission that Frank Lloyd Wright purchased a few hundred acres of land in the desert... for $12.50 an acre. Talk about bringing it full-circle.

Leaving Taliesin West I checked into my second hotel for this trip -- my theory was that it would be closer to the airport. In reality, I'm not sure that that was true or that it mattered. On the road leading to the hotel, though I found a warning sign that I can't say I've seen before, and I actually walked about a half mile back to take a picture of it...
Alas, no horses -- wild or otherwise -- were seen on this trip, but with the view, it was easy to imagine encountering wildlife

The next day it was time to head home. When I booked the trip, one of my options was a long connection in Los Angeles. Given that my dad lives about half an hour from LAX I called and asked if he was going to be in town and wanted to meet for dinner. Score.

Having only had In-N-Out five times over the course of five days it was still an option, but also having also been curious about the restaurant in the Theme Building on site at LAX, and with Mary being not a huge In-N-Out fan, that route was chosen instead.

While the food and service were somewhat less than thrilling, Encounter -- the aforementioned restaurant -- offers an amazing view of the activity at LAX, particularly, as it seems, at sunset.

Dinner and margarita finished, my dad and Mary walked me back to Terminal 6 where I passed through security for the second time that day, and boarded my red-eye flight back to Cleveland.

Lincoln
1 month ago | |
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It is perfectly understandable if, after reading this Blog you've come to the conclusion that I only listen to classical.

You would however be incorrect.

See, while I love listening to Classical live for the atmosphere in the room -- the connection between anywhere from a single performer through a quartet or sextet up to a full hundred-member strong orchestra, when it's not live--in other words, in my car or at my desk--I actually prefer almost everything except classical. (On the other hand, it's been a long time since I've attended, much less enjoyed a non-classical concert, because the sound engineers tend to be rather deaf and think that "more bass" makes it sound better).

As a result my iPod is a carefully curated collection of 5,200 songs, 1114 albums, 781 artists, and 86 distinct genres. (If you're wondering about running time, according to iTunes that's just under 14 days if played end to end).

Song titles range from A-Hole (Bowling for Soup) and Aaj Ki Raat (Performed by Sonu Nigam, Mzhalxmi Iyer and Alisha Chinai from the Slumdog Millionaire Soundtrack) to Zombie Me (No More Kings) and Zopf: Giles Farnaby's Dream (Penguin Cafe Orchestra). Numbers range from #1 (Nelly) to '92 Subaru (Fountains of Wayne) and 96,000 from the In the Heights original cast recording.

Each new entry to my iPod is carefully evaluated and earns a star rating from one to five stars. And a series of interlinked Smart Playlists helps to ensure that songs are rotated to avoid musical burnout. When a song is no longer "new", a song I've given the coveted five-star rating to may show up as often as once every two to three weeks, where a song that I've assigned the dreaded one-star rating to may only be heard, on average once every two years.

I am however, a cruel curator: Songs are regularly promoted or demoted on my whim, without leave for appeal or curatorial oversight.

When I received my first iPod, Christmas of 2004, it had a 20GB hard drive. And at the time I thought there's no way I'm ever going to fill this up. On September 16, 2008 I got my current iPod Touch, with 32GB of solid state flash memory. Once again I thought, "Even with apps, there's no way I'm ever going to fill this up". (Despite working in a corner of the software industry, I've never really gotten the App craze)

Despite no longer running the latest version of iOS, not having a camera (do I really need another device with a camera?), no longer having the greatest battery life, and having more than a few battle scars it's been by my side or in my laptop bag nearly every day since. And I haven't quite hit that 32GB ceiling. (The 20GB iPod, on the other hand has been maxed out for at least a couple years).

As a result, I've functioned with the premise that once I acquire a piece of music, it is never deaccessioned. In other words, my music collection has become somewhat of a roach motel -- what goes in never leaves.

Carefully considering a few additions to my collection this evening I noticed that the once unfathomable 32 gigabytes of music is rapidly approaching. This leaves me with two options.

Option 1: Buy a new 64GB iPod Touch so that my collection can grow without worry of being edited down. At $400 I have a hard time justifying the purchase to myself, especially since my current iPod still mostly works -- even if it is only the equivalent of a few Cleveland Orchestra concerts.

Option 2: Remove those songs that have earned the dreaded one-star rating from the collection to free room for new acquisitions. This just feels wrong on some level. Partially it's my inner pack rat but it clearly makes more sense economically and practically. So, Tyrese, I'm sorry you're I Like Them Girls, you are the first to have been voted off the iPod. I'm actually not entirely sure how you snuck in in the first place. I don't think you'll be missed.

If you're curious, and at the risk of embarrassing myself, the lucky new additions tonight are, in no particular order:

Josh Grobman: Brave from All that Echos. Really cool sound, nicely mastered, and a music video that kind of gave me chills for some reason I can't put my finger on (and made me miss doing live event/recording production). I kind of dream of seeing the Cleveland Orchestra team up with a pop artist ala The London Symphony Orchestra's Symphonic Rock

A Great Big World: Rockstar and others from A Great Big World (EP) and the single This Is the New Year. I found the EP after first discovering This Is The New Year, and I'm hooked. In both pieces the vocalists have a sound that I can only describe as honest and real. Aside from the crisp piano and nice mastering, the lyrics are catchy and move a story ("There's a girl in the tree top looking at the stars/Waiting for a touchdown comin' in from Mars/Thinkin' "is there anybody out there?"/There's a boy thinking of her playin' his guitar/Searching for the answer buried in his heart/Singin' "ah, ha ha, is there anybody out there?").

I feel slightly compelled to attempt to produce a promo video/ :60 for The Cleveland Museum of Art built around This Is the New Year -- having been woefully unimpressed by the "Discover Amazing" campaign -- but I'm afraid all I have is the creative vision. (I have a similar, if impractical vision associated with  Miike Snow's Black & Blue)

If they come to Cleveland, I'd probably be interested in hearing them live.

Jim Brickman: Good Morning Beautiful from Believe. Very light and bubbly, part of it's selection may be due to the proximity to Rachel and my second anniversary of dating.

Matt Hires: Restless Heart from Forever.  Not actually the biggest fan of the lyrics, but I think it will be a nice, fairly fast piece to wake me up when I'm working late, particularly through the driving guitar.

Passion Pit: Carried Away from Gossamer. This is just one of those somewhat addictive songs that show up in a commercial and just kind of get stuck in your head. Like ice cream on a hot summer day, you can't really help but to enjoy -- speaking of hot days, once the weather warms up, I have a feeling this will make it on to my "Run" play list.

Walk Off the Earth: Red Hands from the album R.E.V.O. The sudden tempo change at the beginning caught my attention, the initial gritty male vocal piqued my interest, and the soft female vocal standing in stark contrast roped me in. The chorus are chantable -- even if I'm not sure what to make of the meaning (That gun is loaded, but it's not in my hand/The fire burns, I'm not the one with the match, man/That gun is loaded, but it's not in my hand)

Since this is getting really long the remainders will pass without comment: Rebel Beat by the Goo Goo Dolls from the deluxe version of Magnetic;  It's Time by Imagine Dragons from Night Visions;  Closer by Tegan and Sara from Hearthrob; Hung Up by Hot Cheele Rae from the single of the same name; Just Give Me A Reason by Pink (featuring Nate Ruess) from The Truth About Love.

Lincoln
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Bartok: Selections from 44 Duos for Two Violins, Sz. 98, BB 104¹²
Dvorak: Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 87³ª°^
Brahms: Sextet for 2 Violins, 2 Violas, and 2 Cellos in G-Major, Op. 87¹*ª°`
¹-Donald Weilerstein, violin; ²-Peter Salaff, violin; ³-Mari Sato, violin; ª-Kirsten Docter, viola; °-Merry Peckham, cello; ^-Vivian Weilerstein, Piano; *- Isabel Trautwein, violin; `- Tanya Ell, cello.
At the Dunham Tavern Museum Barn, Cleveland.

This afternoon's concert was special -- bringing back together the Peter Salaff and Donald Weilerstein, the original violinists of the renown Cleveland Quartet, along with members of protégé the Cavani Quartet and other students. Even I, generally blissfully unaware of "names", was aware of the duo's significance.

The concert opened with Messers Weilierstein and Salaff providing an appetizer plate of fourteen of Bartok's 44 Duos for Two Violins, each bite-size and relatively fast, and each one had a very different feeling. While the two musicians have been separated for many years, they played as if they have never parted ways. The only downside to having so many short pieces was that you couldn't really fully immerse yourself in a piece before it was over and on to the next piece.

Dvorak's Piano Quartet was next on the program, and the body heat from a sold-out barn combined with the relaxing and faultless music made closing ones eyes to just enjoy the sounds a potentially dangerous endeavor. I'm generally a fan of Dvorak, and though this piece didn't, to me, have the texture to the extremes as say his From the New World, it was still very enjoyable, with Rachel noting that the second movement gave her goosebumps, and generally both of us very much appreciating Ms. Weilerstein's work at the piano.

The third, final, an most substantial piece on the program was Brahms's Sextet, once again impeccably executed. Rachel and I both noted the "front and center" nature of the cellos which, while anchoring the piece and giving it a full body, and not merely lurking as the foundation for the other instruments. Throughout the piece the musicians were clearly enjoying their playing, and I think the relaxed-but-precise feeling, the opposite of the tense/restrained feeling I got from last night's Orchestra concert, though the fourth movement was my favorite by a narrow margin.

As we were walking out Rachel mentioned "I think this was the best one yet" -- and as a matter of fact, I think she may be right.

The next an last concert in this season, Schubertiade with the Omni Quartet is on Saturday, May 11th at 8pm -- for tickets call 216.371.3457 or visit http://www.heightsarts.org/music.php.

Lincoln
(Disclosure: I serve on the board of Heights Arts)
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