The Ravel Piano Trio.

Well, here we are again at the Marlboro Music Festival, our first time this week, which is the third week of the Festival. Two more weeks to go. We are about to hear the Piano Trio in A Minor, D. 947, by Maurice Ravel. The musicians are three we have not heard yet this summer: Ieva Jokubaviciute, piano; Oliver Neubauer, violin; and Minjoung Kim, cello. I don't remember them from previous years either. However, Oliver Neubauer is the brother of Clara Neubauer, whom we heard play the violin in the Shostakovich Quartet a couple of weeks ago (which I admired so much), in which case I have seen him in the audience and have heard him speak out, commenting on his sister's playing (not surprisingly, he liked it). This morning, I met with Jeff Lewis, Lee Moore, Roger Brown and Jack Bixby at the Dummerston Church, the retired minister's group, discussing "religion," a chapter in Joan Chittister's The Gift of Years. It was a good discussion, as always, although we said very little about how our involvement in religion has changed as we have gotten older. Obviously, it has changed, since we are a retired clergy group. Of the five of us, I may be the one most involved in the church in these latter years. Jack Bixby said he "almost envied me" my long-standing connection with the Guilford Church - 50 years! I am viewed as a "wise elder" there, which certainly is a satisfying role to be in, and does not seem to carry with it a lot of unwanted expectations. That is true at Dummerston as well. Jack himself doesn't really want to be thought of as a minister anymore. I think that is true of Jeff also, and somewhat of Lee, though he doesn't seem to mind being asked to preach and lead communion now and then at Guilford. I think Roger is still open to "being a minister." Joan C. speaks of religion becoming "ecstasy" in old age, and that led to a discussion of what ecstasy is, and have we experienced it? I don't think of myself as having experienced ecstasy very often, but as we talked, I realized that I have experienced ecstasy in the singing of Bach in the Blanche Moyse Chorale, and maybe, sometimes in the pulpit, or even in the preparation of a sermon, when the Spirit just seemed to flow through my fingers into the keyboard. But ecstasy means, literally, to "stand outside oneself," and I haven't had many "out of the body experiences." So I guess a lot depends on how one defines "ecstasy." After the clergy group, Ellen and I went to Putney, where I had an appointment with Beverly Sinclair, an R. N. who specializes in foot care for seniors. That probably doesn't quite qualify as "ecstasy," but the soaks, pedicures and massages do feel good. Then we came to Marlboro.

The musicians playing the Ravel Trio. I will have more to say about them and the Trio itself later.