While Visions of Sugar Plums Dance in my Head
What do you do when you’re at a classical music concert in a front row seat with the lights turned up high and you have a sudden urge to write poetry? You want to pull out paper and pen but the crowd is so quietly absorbed in listening that you could hear the pen drop (which it did).
What do you do when you’re at a classical music concert and visions of sugar plums, flower petals falling, romances budding, swans gliding, ladies in long dresses fluttering fans, and men in suits politely bowing are floating through your mind, making you want to leap out of your chair and pirouette?
Mozart, Scarlatti, Handel. Now they’re playing songs named after flowers that bloom in autumn in England. A song sung to break your heart. Then a happy one about a babbling brook. You realize you’ve forgotten yourself, that you’re swaying back and forth, that you’re suddenly self-conscious of your one foot that is tapping and the other swinging back and forth. Never mind a pen. You remember that you promised to take a picture and that you simply must pull out a camera … flash and click.
Post Notes: This successful night of high culture to benefit Floyd’s Jacksonville Center for the Arts featured Judy Bevans on harpsichord, Linda Plaut on violin, and the soprano voice of Carolyn Kirby, who I wrote about previously HERE. The food and Château Morrisette wine that followed the concert was as high quality as the music. Thanks to Linda Fallon for organizing the event, the musicians for performing, and everyone who supported it. A video clip is HERE.
October 26th, 2008 7:23 pm
What a perfect description for what is these days a fairy tale evening. The power of live music to transport and the power of community to support are hallmarks of human existence. Enjoying both here in the beauty of rural Floyd County was a perfect moment. Thank you for your warm support of Carolyn and for sharing your poetic nature.
With warm regards,
Leslie
October 26th, 2008 7:27 pm
A really special house concert! Thanks for taking the pictures and sharing them with us.
October 26th, 2008 7:47 pm
Good music is like a kernel of history. It seems to carry the memory of lives lived over time. I don’t listen to much classical music in general but when I hear it (especially live) it acts like a portal into time or dream travel. It was fun to get out of my linear writer’s mind for this wonderful event and I just finished the rest of some of that luscious dessert.
October 26th, 2008 11:44 pm
I sort of wish you HAD jumped up and pirouetted!!
October 27th, 2008 7:50 am
Sounds like an awesome night.
I just went to the Olympics Gymnastics event at the Garden and had a great time. I know you would have liked it. Andrew and Kelley got me tickets for my birthday. xo
October 27th, 2008 1:36 pm
Did everyone enjoy your pirouette???(snick snick)
October 28th, 2008 12:02 am
Very nice!
I really like the pumpkins in the corner, too!