This ‘n that

Earlier today we went to Anne Nash's funeral at the Dummerston church. We had a small choir - just seven of us including Mary at the piano. But we sang well, I think. Anne has four daughters, nice families. Several spoke or read a poem. A fitting memorial. John came to the service and afterward we sat out behind the church by the pond and talked. That is always a good thing to do.

A glimpse of the congregation at Anne's service******************************** Yesterday evening on our way back from Marlboro we stopped at the Chelsea Diner Food. Truck (a COVID-19 phenomenon) and got our supper - we each had a haddock sandwich, which was very generous and tasty, and we ate them under the apple trees out behind the diner. A beautiful evening for a little picnic.

Two haddock sandwiches at Chelsea Diner.

The Chelsea Diner Food Truck.

Sunday at the Union Service in Dummerston - Bill and Lucy picking up music for choir.

Mice

We caught four mice in the live trap in the past week to ten days. One of them brought an acorn in with him! At least, there was an acorn in the trap with him, and I certainly didn't put it there! i wonder if he brought it in in his cheeks? i released them all over the other side of the West River, about a mile and a half from the house.

Mouse and his acorn leaving the trap

Back at Marlboro after a hiatus

This past week has been quite different from the previous week! Last Saturday, I attended a memorial gathering for Peter Dirk Leiser in the Grange Hall in Dummerston. Sunday we attended a Union Service for the five churches (Guilford, Centre Church, W. Brattleboro, West Dover and Dummerston) in Dummerston. We sang in a choir made up of Dummerston and Guilford folks. Monday I had an afternoon appointment with my Primary Care Physician, Dr. van Dyke. Monday-Thursday I worked on the service I will be leading at Guilford next Sunday (July 31st): getting all elements of the service together for the bulletin, which had to be sent in to Debra by Wednesday, and then writing the sermon and the children's story. So I did not go to Marlboro this week until today. Harry Kalish, Ellen's friend from Philadelphia, arrived for a visit Tuesday evening, and he went with Ellen to Marlboro on Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday, I could have possibly gone to Marlboro, but I had promised Jerome that I would take him to the Guilford Food Pantry at 3pm in the afternoon to get some groceries, and I also needed to be available at the phone to take return calls from Brattleboro Hospital to make appointments for further tests coming out of my appointment with Dr. van Dyke on Monday. So most of the week, I have been home, and keeping pretty busy there. But at this moment, I am in Marlboro, listening to two wonderful pianists, Cynthia Raim and Janice Carissa, play Six Canonic Etudes, Op. 56, by Robert Schumann. I'm going to close the laptop and just listen.

Cynthia Raim, piano. Cynthia Raim came to international attention when she was unanimously chosen as the First Prize Winner of the 1979 Clara Haskil International Piano Competition in Switzerland, after winning First Prizes in the 1977 Three Rivers National Piano Competition in Pittsburgh and the J. S. Bach International Piano Competition in Washington DC. She has been acclaimed for her concerto, recital, and chamber music performances throughout the United States and abroad and also won the 1987 Pro Musicis Award, the Festorazzi Award at the Curtis Institute and the "Distinguished Artist Award" from The Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia. Cynthia Raim has appeared in recitals with soprano Benita Valente, cellist David Soyer, violinist Arnold Steinhardt, violist Samuel Rhodes, and the Guarneri String Quartet and has recorded for Gall, Pantheon, and Connoisseur Society, including solo albums of Ravel, Schumann, Brahms, and Schubert and two-piano recordings of Rachmaninoff, Brahms, and Dvořák with David Allen Wehr. A native of Detroit, where she studied with Mischa Kottler, Ms. Raim studied with Rudolf Serkin and Mieczyslaw Horszowski at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she earned bachelors and masters degrees.

Janice Carissa, piano. Indonesian pianist and 2022 Gilmore Young Artist Janice Carissa began her musical journey at age five studying with her pianist mother. At 15 she entered the Curtis Institute of Music, where she continues her studies today under the tutelage of professors Gary Graffman and Robert McDonald. A rapidly rising star, Ms. Carissa has captivated audiences from the Sydney Opera House to The Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. She has appeared as a guest artist with The Philadelphia Orchestra under the batons of Cristian Măcelaru and Stéphane Denève and filled in for André Watts as soloist with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Ms. Carissa moved to Philadelphia in 2013. When she’s not practicing or performing, she stays busy exploring the city’s culinary scene. An accomplished photographer, she also enjoys capturing portraits of fellow musicians. In Philadelphia, Ms. Carissa is an active local performer, having appeared with the John Hopkins Symphony, Eastern Wind Symphony, Bay Atlantic Symphony, and more. Ms. Carissa has won prizes at the Aspen Music Festival and Indonesia Pusaka Competition and has been awarded the Arkady Fomin Scholarship and Salon de Virtuosi Career Grant. A deeply devoted chamber musician, she has appeared at festivals from Marlboro to Ravinia and premiered new works by composers like Timo Andres and Alyssa Weinberg. LATER We are now about to hear Jonathan Biss, piano, Rubén Rengel, violin, and Peter Myers, cello play Brahms Piano Trio in B Major, Op. 8. Ellen has heard it several time earlier this week and says it is beautiful. . . . and indeed, it was! It was "over the top," as they say. These three musicians were incredibly "together," and tne piece itself is sublimely beautiful.

Jonathan Biss, piano. Jonathan Biss is a world-renowned pianist who channels his deep musical curiosity into performances and projects in the concert hall and beyond. In addition to performing with today’s leading orchestras, he continues to expand his reputation as a teacher, musical thinker, and one of the great Beethoven interpreters of our time. He recently joined Mitsuko Uchida as Co-Artistic Director of the Marlboro Music Festival, where he has spent thirteen summers. He has written extensively about the music he plays, and has authored three e-books. Mr. Biss’s projects, including his decade-long Beethoven immersion, represent his complete approach to music-making and connecting his audience to his own passion for the music. Previous projects have included an exploration of composers' “Late Style” in various concert programs at Carnegie Hall, the Barbican Centre, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and San Francisco Performances. He also published the Kindle Single Coda on the topic. Schumann: Under the Influence was a 30-concert exploration of the composer's role in musical history, for which Mr. Biss also recorded Schumann and Dvořák piano quintets with the Elias String Quartet and wrote A Pianist Under the Influence. Mr. Biss represents the third generation in a family of professional musicians that includes his grandmother Raya Garbousova, one of the first well-known female cellists (for whom Samuel Barber composed his Cello Concerto), and his parents, violinist Miriam Fried and violist/violinist Paul Biss. Growing up surrounded by music, Mr. Biss began his piano studies at age six, and his first musical collaborations were with his mother and father. He studied with Evelyne Brancart at Indiana University and with Leon Fleisher at the Curtis Institute of Music. He has since appeared with major orchestras around the world, including in the U.S. with the Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics; the Boston, Chicago, and San Francisco Symphonies; and the Cleveland and Philadelphia Orchestras. He has also been recognized with numerous honors, including Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, an Avery Fisher Career Grant, the 2003 Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award, and the 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award.

Peter Myers, cello. From a musical family (his parents and siblings are all musicians), Peter Myers studied with two of the finest teachers in the country, Ronald Leonard and Ralph Kirshbaum, and is a graduate of the Colburn Conservatory and USC. Before settling in San Francisco, he enjoyed the traveling musician’s life, concertizing in Japan, Mongolia, Laos, and Pakistan, as well as performing in this country with the Marlboro Music Festival and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. As early as 2013, Peter had his sights set on joining the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, but an opening in the cello section did not occur until 2017. After a vigorous and taxing three-round audition, he was selected from a field of 110 applicants to fill the coveted position. Our Music Director at the time, Nicola Luisotti, was very taken with Peter’s playing, and strongly expressed his pleasure and enthusiasm at welcoming a musician of his caliber to the orchestra. Entrepreneurial spirit was evident from his student days. He founded two ensembles, the Saguaro Piano Trio (saguarotrio.com) and the SAKURA Cello Quintet (sakuracellos.com), the latter being one of the most unusual and arresting groups before the public today. The SAKURA video of Debussy’s “The Girl with the Flaxen Hair,” in Peter’s own arrangement, is a wonderful example of his ability on the cello, his skill at arranging, and the quintet’s overall artistry, both individually and as an ensemble.

Rubén Rengel, violin. Earning praise from the New York Concert Review and The Boston Globe, violinist Rubén Rengel is quickly gaining recognition as a prominent artist. He was winner of the Robert Frederick Smith Prize at the 2018 Sphinx Competition, and has appeared as a soloist with the symphonies of Philadelphia, Detroit, Houston, New Jersey, Vermont, Oakland, and Venezuela. An avid chamber musician, Rubén has performed with artists such as Joseph Silverstein, Pamela Frank, Peter Wiley, David Shifrin, Joel Krosnick, Timothy Eddy, and Gilbert Kalish. He has appeared at The Perlman Music Program, Brevard Music Center Summer Festival, Evnin Rising Stars at the Caramoor Center, and Music@Menlo. In addition to classical music, Rubén enjoys performing Venezuelan folk music and jazz. He also has a strong interest in conducting and enjoys performing as a violist. Rubén’s teachers and mentors include Iván Pérez Núñez, Jaime Laredo, Paul Kantor, and Mark Steinberg. As part of his fellowship with Ensemble Connect, Rubén teaches at Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music in the Bronx.

Hearing Schumann

This weekend at the Marlboro Music Festival Concerts, there will be chamber music performed by Reger, Ravel and Brahms (Sat. eve), and Mozart, Britten and Schumann (Sun. aft.). I have all heard these pieces rehearsed except the Britten. Each is wonderful in its own way, but I suppose the Schumann Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47 would stand at the top of the list. It is beyond wonderful. It is being performed by a stellar group of musicians, led by the co-Director of the Festival, Mitsuko Uchida, at the piano.

Mitsuko Uchida. One of the most revered artists of our time, Mitsuko Uchida is known as a peerless interpreter of the works of Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Beethoven, as well for being a devotee of the piano music of Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, and György Kurtág. She has enjoyed close relationships over many years with the world’s most renowned orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony, London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, and – in the US – the Chicago Symphony and The Cleveland Orchestra, with whom she recently celebrated her 100th performance at Severance Hall. Conductors with whom she has worked closely have included Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle, Riccardo Muti, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Vladimir Jurowski, Andris Nelsons, Gustavo Dudamel, and Mariss Jansons.

Stephanie Zyzak, violin. Praised for her sensitive musicianship and heartfelt playing, violinist Stephanie Zyzak is gaining a reputation as one of the finest musicians of her generation. Stephanie made her first solo appearance at the age of seven with the Starling Chamber Orchestra in the Aspen Music School and became the youngest recipient ever to be awarded the Aspen Music School New Horizon Fellowship. The following year, she performed in Germany as an invited guest of the Internationale Kunst – Akademie Liechtenstein (IKAL). She has had the opportunity to perform as a soloist and tour with ensembles in Germany, Russia, Austria, Sweden, Spain, Italy, and France. In 2004, she made her debut with the Louisville Orchestra, and has performed with orchestras such as the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Dayton Philharmonic, and Southeast Missouri Symphony. Other notable performances include an appearance on Praire Home Companion with Garrison Keillor and an invitation to perform as an honored guest at the Lotus Festival for His Holiness, the Dalai Lama.

Oliver Herbert, cello. Cellist Oliver Herbert is quickly building a reputation as an artist with a distinct voice and individual style, admired by audiences for his communicative and connective performances. The recipient of a 2021 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Oliver has been praised by San Francisco Classical Voice for his “expansive tone, virtuosity, and musical instincts.” Recent appearances include debuts with world renowned ensembles including the San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic, and Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. Oliver is equally at home playing well-known works as well as exploring uncharted musical territories. The 2021-22 season marks the beginning of several ambitious projects, including performances of the complete Bach Cello Suites at Capital Region Classical and the complete Beethoven Cello Sonatas at Guarneri Hall in Chicago. Oliver will also be premiering a commissioned work by Chelsea Komschlies for multitrack cello and electronics, as well as exploring the music of Venezuelan composer and cellist Paul Desenne. Concerto highlights for the 2021-22 season include performances with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony, New World Symphony, and Rhode Island Philharmonic—performing works by Barber, Ibert, Saint-Saens, Schumann, and Tchaikovsky.

Beth Gutterman Chu, viola. A native of Belmont, MA, Beth Guterman Chu is principal violist of the St. Louis Symphony. Chu was a member of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and as a chamber musician performed with distinguished artists and ensembles including Itzhak Perlman, Menahem Pressler, Gil Shaham, David Finckel and Wu Han, Joseph Kalichstein, Edger Meyer, members of the Guarneri Quartet, and the Orion Quartet. Chu regularly teaches and performs at the Aspen Music Festival and School and Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra USA. She has also participated in many summer festivals including the Marlboro Music Festival, Music@Menlo, Bravo Vail Valley Music Festival, and the Bridgehampton Chamber Music Festival. She has recorded chamber music on the Deutsche Grammophon, Tzadik, and Naxos labels, and has toured across America, Europe, and Asia. She is a member of the conductorless East Coast Chamber Orchestra. Chu received her Artist Diploma at the New England Conservatory, and her Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School.

The quartet performing Schumann. It happens that we are experiencing a power outage here and so the quartet is performing with emergency lighting. It is darker on the stage than this photo shows.

Another trip to Marlboro

Today, we are back at Marlboro. Originally, we were going to be here with my friend, Phil McKean, and a friend of his was coming with him. They were going to come over from Maine yesterday and spend a few days with us. But that had to be cancelled, unfortunately, when we went to Shutesbury to be with Savanna while Katie and Brendon went to Oxbow Lake. We also worried about the heat wave we are enduring. Even if we had not had to go to Shutesbury, would our guests be comfortable in our un-air-conditioned house? It has been pretty warm at night these past couple of days, and that continues to be the case. So, probably, all was for the best. But I hope there will another chance next year! But here we are - a good way to escape the heat during the day. At the moment, we are listening to the Mozart Seranade in C Minor, K. 388. It is for eight wind instruments: two clarinets, two oboes, two horns and two bassoons. I happen to know one of them - not clsoely, but she is Rose Vrbsky, daughter of Judith Serkin and Rudy Verbsky. One or another of them have been in orchestras at the New England Bach Festival at various times when I have been singing in the chorus - back in the 1980's, 90's and early 2000's. So I have "known" Rose Vrbsky since she was a teenager and started playing in local orchestras. I haven't seen her for many years. She is now married to Will Amsel, and they both are members of the Rochester (NY) Symphony Orchestra. Will plays clarinet. He is not in the group playing today. Here they are:

Will Amsel and Rose Vrbsky.

The octet performing today. Rose Vrbsky is hidden, unfortunately, behind a clarinet player from this perspective. Actually, there is even an older connection with Rose - her grandmother, Irene Serkin, came regularly to the Guilford Church, was very fond of Shirley and became a good friend. We would attend Wednesday evening concerts with Irene often, and sat with her. It is because of her that we started receiving a pass to the Wednesday evening concerts. And of course, Rose's grandfather, Rudolph Serkin, was one of the founders of the Marlboro Music Festival.

Uncovered history

I continue to be amazed at what is buried out there on the Internet, and what emerges by chance. Lost and forgotten little pieces of one's own life story! E.g., for some time I have been having trouble accessing a particular resource that is available to me as an alumnus of Brown University. Called "Library Resources,' these are huge data banks like JSTOR, which contains 1000's of articles in academic journals. I have been getting messages for some time that I needed to update my "browser." I usually use "Safari" or sometimes "Firefox," though that has had its own problems. But recently I installed Google Chrome which is a more recent browser. Suddenly, things work that haven't worked for a while. One of those Library Resources is called Hathi Trust. It accesses a completely differnt kind of thing from JSTOR, and when I did a search of my own name, which I do sometimes, what should come up but testimony I gave back in 1979 at a Hearing of a Congressional Committee: The Sub-Committee on Post-Secondary Education of the House Committee on Education and Labor. The hearing was not in Washington, it was in Burlington, VT. Vermont's lone Congressman at that time, James Jeffords, was a member of the committee. I was there because I was at that time the Executive Director of the Vermont Higher Education Council, an Independent, non-profit organization representing all 23 of the higher education institutions in Vermont, public and private. I worked with the Presidents of those 23 institutions. Perhaps more than anyone in the state, I had a comprehensive view of the role higher education played in Vermont. I had, for example, initiated a study of the economic impact of higher education in Vermont. There were perhaps 20-25 thousand out-of-state students studying in Vermont colleges and universities. They were spending money in Vermont that would not be spent if those colleges did not exist. And that was just one part of the economic impact of higher ed. I also had a lot of responsibility for both the chartering and the accreditation of higher-education institutions in Vermont. So I had a wide and thorough perspective and I presume that is why I was asked to make a presentation at this hearing. The specific topic was Title I - a federal program that provided seed money for new programs in colleges and universities, especially those that created some kind of relationship with organizations in the local commmunity. I was not an expert in Title I, but I was very familiar with it, and I knew a lot about its importance, especially in smaller colleges, which were the majority of the colleges in Vermont, There were two things in the record: the paper I submitted, and a transcript of my actual testimony. The first is the more acccurate, although I said a few things off the cuff that are not in the paper (such as mentioning that I had lived in Anamosa, Iowa, for the benefit of the Iowa Congressman on the committee). There are also numerous errors in the transcript - things I said that were not understood properly (a machine was probably making the transription). So here is the paper:

You may notice that I mention that I had intimate knowledge of a particular Title I program. That is because Shirley was the Director of that Program, which was a joint project of Windham College and the Brattleboro Women's Crisis Center. This was before Shirley became a pastor at the Guilford Church - about 1975-76.

We've gotten hooked

Today we have been binge-watching episodes of The Lincoln Lawyer, a series on Netflix. It is very gripping. I missed Episode 1, but I've now seen 2-5. Six is on on the screen now. It is about a lawyer, Mickey Haller, who has unexpectedly been handed a bunch of cases that had belonged to a lawyer named Jerry who was murdered a few days before. One of those cases is a murder case which has a lot of complicated features and several mysteries. The lawyer is very likable, and he is very competent. But he has been in a rehab facility to overcome an addiction, and this is his first appearence before a judge for a long time. So a lot is on the line for him. LATER. Well, we ended up watching the whole season - episodes 2-10! Good grief! It was really a page-turner, so to speak.

Manuel Garcia-Rulfo as Mickey Haller and Becki Newton as his para-legal, Lorna.

A lovely memorial

This afternoon, we made about a 18-minute drive to the village of Montague, MA, to the Montague Retreat Center, where we sang with a group composed of members of River Singers and Greenfield Harmony (both led by Mary Cay Brass) at a memorial service for Paula Green, a very well-known and much beloved peace activist. We arranged for Dusty and Dorothy to come be with Savanna while we went to this service, which they were glad to do. However, we told them we would be gone about three hours, and since we had to be there at 1:15 to rehearse before a 2pm service, we had to leave right after we sang to get back in time. So we missed at least half of the service. But the first half was quite moving. Paul's brother, a rabbi, and her husband, both spoke before we sang, and they were both quite eloquent about Paula. We also were introduced by a woman who explained what our music meant to Paula, who had heard us sing many times at the CONTACT program at the School for International Training, where Paula was on the faculty. I doubt that we have ever received so effusive an introduction. Our singing went very well - the space we were singing in was quite nice acoustically. I led Angels Hovering 'Round and managed to stay in tune and remember all the verses. We got back about 4pm, which was a bit longer than we said we would be, even leaving early, but that was ok. Now we have just had a lovely supper of creamed chicken on rice, carrots and broccoli, and Ellen and Savanna are watching TV while I blog. I also did the Spelling Bee on paper.

Montague Retreat Center from a drone

The interior of the building from their website.

Rehearsing outdoors before the service - doing hand motions with the South African Song.

Another section of the group, rehearsing

Before the service began, there was a slide show about Paula Green's life

A shot of the interior as people were gathering***************************** We didn't get to Guilford this morning in person, but we did watch on Zoom. For some reason, the audio was terrible today. We could understand most of what Pastor Eliza said, but the music wasn't very good, simply because something was wrong with the audio system. I wonder if the YouTube recording is the same? I assume it sounded good if you were there in person. LATER I did check YouTube - the recording has fine audio. So the problem was just the live stream. Or, maybe, it was us. Who knows?

Watching the Red Sox

One thing we can do here with Savanna we can't do at home is watch Red Sox games. Tonight they are playing the NY Yankees and they are down 4-1 in the bottom of the 4th. The Yankees got a 3-run home run in the 1st inning. But I think the Red Sox won last night after a 3-game losing streak against Tampa Bay. So maybe they can pull out a win tonight.

Sox at bat********************************************************** Tomorrow we are going to sing with Mary Cay Brass and a group from River Singers at a Memorial Service for Paula Green at the Montague, MA Retreat Center, which is actually much closer to us here in Shutesbury - about 20 minute drive at most. It would be over an hour if we were coming from home. I didn't know Paula Green, but she was a widely known and admired peace activist. She worked at the School for International Training in their Conflict Resolution program, and heard River Singers sing there many times, and "loved our music." So her husband invited us to sing. We will be singing 4 songs: "Mnohaya Lita," a Ukrainian birthday song; "Jovano, Jovanke," a very popular Balkan song; "Dibuligile," a South African song, and "Angels Hovering 'Round," an Appalachian call and response song; I will be singing the call, as I always do before our concerts. ,

Paula Green (1937-2022)*********************************** LATER. Well, it's 8-1 Yankees in the 5th. A Red Sox win is unlikely.

Lunch on the deck

Yesterday was the perfect day to have guests for lunch on the deck: Jim and Pat Haine. It was delightfully sunny and cool, and Ellen prepared a lovely lunch, both delicious and beautifully presented! Jim and Pat had never been at our house before, and they were delighted by our location. They have a lovely place in Guilford too, but it is more enclosed. They have a gazebo, which we often wish we had when the bugs are bad, but yesterday, there were no bugs. So we had a nice time on the deck. It turns out that Jim and I are both "P.K.'s" - Preacher's Kids. His dad was a Methodist minister in Pennsylvania, and like me, Jim moved a lot as he was growing up - his dad changed churches every three years or so. You have to learn how to adapt to new situations, and you don't really get to have long friendships.

The table prepared

Jim and Pat Haine

Ellen's garden

Ellen's garden up close************************************************ After lunch, when the Haines had left for home, Ellen realized she could fit in a Schumann rehearsal at Marlboro, so she scooted off. I stayed home because someone was coming from Friends of the Sun to look over the possibility of installing a propane stove downstairs. And indeed, I just had time to do the lunch dishes before Mike showed up. He looked things over pretty carefully, and I learned some things. There are basically two possible spots where we could locate a stove. We cannot tie into the existing flue from the upstairs propane insert, so the exhaust pipe would have to go directly outside through the wall or the foundation. The spot next to the wood stove where our drying rack now sits would work, but the pipe cannot be right up next to the ceiling, it would be down a bit, and I would worry about a tall person hitting their head on it - it would have to go right across the hallway leading to the stairs. Lots of traffic there. Plus, the outside pipe would come out right where you go up the outside stairs to the deck. The other location would be on the front wall where our wood rack is now. We would have to move the rack, but it could go behind the wood stove and that would work well. The propane stove would fit into that alcove nicely, but it would exhaust near the front door. Mike said he didn't think that would be a problem. It worries me a bit thoough, but as I think about it, I don't think the stove would be running much when either the the front door or the deck would be used. Mostly in cold weather and mostly at night. The cost of stove and installation would probably be less than half the cost of a mini split. We'll get an estimate in a week or two. So, we'll see. Meanwhile, we got a new "have-a-heart" mouse trap, and we put it to use. Voila! This morning, there was a mousie in the trap. I drove it down to West Dummerston and released it near the Baptist Church. Hope it finds a home there somewhere.

Mousie in the trap***************************************************** Later this morning, we got a call from Katie saying that Savanna was doing well, and that she and Brendon would in fact be going to OxBow Lake. So we quickly got our act together - I had done quite a bit of packing last evening, fortunately. So we got off by a bit after noon. And right now I am sitting on the porch while Savanna lies on a couch and is reading a New Yorker. Ellen is stacking wood. It is about 78 degrees - quite comfortable, actually. But it is going to get hot! In the 90's, I'm afraid.

The next few days

We just learned how we will be spending the next few days. We already knew about tomorrow, but starting Saturday, we will move down to Shutesbury for a few days to stay with Savanna while Katie and Brendon go to Ox Bow Lake in the Adirondacks for a week. Tomorrow we are hosting Jim and Pat Haine for lunch on the deck - a date which grew out of our visit with them earlier this week. We enjoy them very much and that will be a nice time. Then later in the afternoon, a staff person from Friends of the Sun will arrive to look over the possibility of installing a propane stove in the basement. This has been an ongoing dilemma as to what we should install as a backup to our wood heat. We looked into a mini-split, but there were just too many potential problems and uncertainties with that option, not to mention a very large initial cost. There is really no ideal solution. Propane is cheaper to install, but costly to operate because of the price of propane gas. But it is a low maintenance system. Wood is the cheapest source of heat at the present time, so we will continue to use it as much as we can, and use propane when we need to. If we could get a Mitsubishi mini-split we might go for it - that's what Jim and Mary have, and they like it very much. But they are not serviced in our geographic area. We would have to get a Samsung, which is what the company offers which does work in our location. But they are something of an unknown as to maintenance, and if John and Cynthia's experience with their Panasonic is any indication, we could end up spending a lot of money on a big headache. It is a hard decision.

A Samsung Mini Split

Meeting new "neighbors"

We just came back from a visit down the road a bit to our friends, Wendy and David Baker, who live just off Kipling Road about half-way to Hannaford's from our house - a ten-minute ride at most. They wanted us to meet their new neighbors, Bruce and Rona Gordon. Before the Gordons arrived, we got a little tour of David's shop. The Gordons have recently bought the house next door to David and Wendy's. Bruce is on the faculty at Yale U and Yale Divinity School. Rona is a Lecturer in the Yale English Department, teaches a course in writing, but mostly is a consultant to academic writers. She grew up in Scotland, and you can hear that in her speech. Bruce is working on a book about the Bible - i.e., about the Bible as a book that has been published for centuries in many different cultures and countries, in many different languages, under very various circumstances and sponsorships, etc. It sounds really interesting, and I know of nothing like it that is "out there." It will be titled The Bible, A Global History. It must have required an immense amount of research, made easier, no doubt, by the Internet, but also probably made more complicated and tricky as well. It also turned out that they, Rona especially, are BIG fans of the "Swallows and Amazons" children's book series, which I am also a big fan of and Rona is also a Quaker in her background, as is Ellen. So it was interesting and fun to meet them! We snacked while we talked, and I never really thought to pull out my phone and take a picture. But I found some things online - good old Internet! I hope we'll have a chance to know them better. They said that this is now their home - they can do quite a bit remotely and will commute when they need to. Sort of amazing!

Bruce Gordon, Titus Street Prof. of Ecclesiastical History at Yale

Rona Johnston Gordan, Lecturer in Yale U English Dept.

Wendy and David Baker's house

A few of the hundreds of violins in David's shop

At home today

Ellen went to Marlboro today but I stayed home. She heard a beautiful performance of Beethoven's song cycle, An die ferne Geliebte, Op. 98, by tenor Dan McGrew and pianist Ignat Solzhenitsyn, and also a repeat of a cycle we heard yesterday of Ravel's Chansons Medécasses by Norwegian mezzo-soprano Eira Huse and pianist Ariel Lanyi, Marina Piccinini, flute, and Oliver Herbert, cello. She was thrilled by what she heard.

Mezzo-soprano, Eira Huse.

Tenor, Daniel McGrew. ************************************************* I stayed home to work on my sermon for July 31st at Guilford. At first, my mind was simply not working. I was reminded of a time in graduate school when I was under a lot of stress and my mind turned into cement and I had to take a leave of absence from my work - something that my academic advisor and teachers actually approved, which is sort of amazing. Today is not that serious, but for a while this morning, I could not function. But I managed to write an opening paragraph to my satisfaction, and that seemed to prime the pump, so to speak, and things began to flow. I ended up with a draft that is actually at or even under the recommended length of time for a sermon at Guilford - fifteen minutes. Yes, they do recommend that. Here is what is stated in the "instructions" given a guest preacher: "Please time your sermon to be no longer than 15 minutes. This translates to about six pages in Word using 14-point type, or approximately 1000 words. In reviewing our archived recordings, we have noticed that some guest worship leaders, while having strong messages, have delivered sermons of 20 and sometimes 30 minutes. Our congregation appreciates a succinct message." I am one of those guests in the past who is guilty of preaching for 30 minutes! I was sort of infamous for long sermons even back when I was a regular preacher along with Shirley (she preached three-four Sundays a month and I always took the last Sunday of the month). When I preach, I like to unpack a biblical passage, refer to the Greek or Hebrew text, and in the case of a Gospel passage, develop the original context and setting both in Jesus' teaching and in the gospel narrative in which it is imbedded, etc., and you just can't do that in fifteen minutes. But this time, I am going to get my act together, which means leaving out most of that. My draft is not quite 5 pages, although it is 1300 words. I will read it out loud and time myself. I have from now until the 31st to put the sermon into final form. The Gospel text I am using is the Parable of the Talents, which is a notoriously difficult, disturbing and complicated text. It would take literally hours to do it any kind of justice. So I won't even try. But I do allude to the possibility of starting up a Bible Study Group in the Fall, when we could actually unpack a text like that. That would be fun for me - the question is, are there others who would like to spend the time doing that? I think so, and hope so. Well, actually, there is another question I have to answer - do I still have the physical and mental stamina to do that and still have it be "fun?"

Marlboro Music Festival

The event we have been longing for has arrived! The Marlboro Music Festival began on Monday. We were there for the first note of the first rehearsal, which just happened to be one of the most beautiful pieces of chamber music ever - the Brahms Piano Quartet, Op. 60. We got to hear the whole piece, from beginning to end, which is not always the case with rehearsals. It is being performed tonight (Wed.) at the week-night concert in the Dining Hall - a concert we have had a pass for in the past, but have not received one for it since the pandemic began. We thought it had been suspended, but maybe now it is strictly for the musicians and the "public" is not admitted. In any case, we got to hear both the Brahms and the Barber, Dover Beach, in their entirety. The latter is for baritone and string quartet. It has long been a favorite of mine, something I wish I had been able to perform myself. The baritone, Jarret Porter, is primarily an opera singer. He has a lovely voice, but the vocal coach, Benita Valente, pointed out that his diction could be better, and I agree. If I hadn't had the lyrics in front of me, I would not have understood everything (although many phrases are very familiar). It will be performed today again, and we'll see if he has improved. We did not come up to Marlboro yesterday - the hearings of the Jan. 6th Committee. took up the afternoon, and we are following them faithfully.

The Dover Beach Ensemble

The Brahms Quartet Ensemble

Jerret Porter******************************** In the 2022-2023 season, Porter joins the Internationale Opernstudio at Oper Frankfurt, where he will make his debut as Hausofmeister in Brigitte Fassbaender’s production of Strauss’s CAPRICCIO, under the baton of Sebastien Weigle. Throughout the season with the company, he will sing Leone in R.B. Schlather’s critically acclaimed TAMERLANO, create the role of Edgar in Vito Zuraj’s World Premiere BLÜHEN, sing the Elder Son and The Herold in Britten’s THE PRODIGAL SON / THE BURNING FIERY FURNACE, and sing Herzog Hoël in a rare staging of Frank Martin’s LE VIN HERBÉ. Porter returns to Opera Theater of Saint Louis to create the role of Oliver Sacks in the World Premiere of Tobias Picker’s AWAKENINGS, and will join the roster of Artists in Residence of Marlboro Music, collaborating with Mitsuko Uchida, Jonathan Biss, and Lydia Brown.**********************************************

Samuel Barber (1910-1981) One of Barber's earliest musical memories was a visit to the Metropolitan Opera where, at age six, he attended a performance of Aida with legendary tenor Enrico Caruso as Radames and Louise Homer, Barber's aunt, as Amneris. A host of childhood experiences like these seemed almost to predispose Barber to compose for the voice. By the time he graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Barber had developed into a fine baritone and was in some demand as a recitalist. It was Barber himself who made the first recording of his own Dover Beach. These settings of English Victorian poet Matthew Arnold begin with a reverie on the English coast, describing its stoic beauty, yet revealing an "eternal note of sadness." The opening texture is comprised of two solo violins, one of which presents a steady, undulating rhythm while the other invokes the pensive main theme. The music becomes immediately restrained, characterizing a more reasoned state of mind, with the stanza describing the sound of the sea, which "Sophocles long ago heard…on the Aegean." The activated violin texture returns, with the incessant overlapping of short motives. The cello intones the main theme for the last three lines of text bringing us back to the melancholy opening.************************* DOVER BEACH The sea is calm tonight. The tide is full, the moon lies fair Upon the straits; on the French coast the light Gleams and is gone; the cliffs of England stand, Glimmering and vast, out in the tranquil bay. Come to the window, sweet is the night-air! Only, from the long line of spray Where the sea meets the moon-blanched land, Listen! you hear the grating roar Of pebbles which the waves draw back, and fling, At their return, up the high strand, Begin, and cease, and then again begin, With tremulous cadence slow, and bring The eternal note of sadness in. Sophocles long ago Heard it on the Ægean, and it brought Into his mind the turbid ebb and flow Of human misery; we Find also in the sound a thought, Hearing it by this distant northern sea. The Sea of Faith Was once, too, at the full, and round earth’s shore Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furled. But now I only hear Its melancholy, long, withdrawing roar, Retreating, to the breath Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear And naked shingles of the world. Ah, love, let us be true To one another! for the world, which seems To lie before us like a land of dreams, So various, so beautiful, so new, Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.

Food Truck Roundup Time!

Ah, the good old summer-time! The Retreat Farm has started it's Food Truck Round-up with live music. Last night it was Zara Bode and Her Little Big Band. Zara Bode is the wife of Stefan Amidon, who is the younger son of Peter and Mary Alice Amidon. She has a terrific voice, and sings old jazz classics, like All of Me, Undecided, and Goody Goody! She is backed up by 7 fabulous musicians: clarinet, trombone, saxaphone, trumpet, guitar, drums, and bass viol. We had dosas from the South Indian Dosa Kitchen Food Cart - one of about 7-8 carts to choose from, and one of the most popular. It was a beautiful evening and the food and the music were both great! We were eventually joined by Nancy Tierra and her friend, Twyla, and then by John and Cynthia and three of Cynthia's great-nephews, Joe, Ethan and Paris. You don't have to pay to get into this event, so it is popular. You can make a donation and you pay for the food. The Retreat must get a cut on the food, but I'm sure the carts do very well indeed with so any people there. It is sort of a unique event, and it is fabulous.

The Round-up setting

Last night's event from the perimeter'

The Dosa Kitchen Cart

Zara Bode Poster (Stefan and Zara).

Zara with four of her musicians.

Peter and Mary Alice Amidon, holding their grandchildren (Stefan and Zara's children).

Cynthia's three g-nephews, Ethan, Joe and Paris**************************** Wednesday, we went down to Shutesbury. Ellen took Brendon to the movies in the afternoon and I stayed at the house with Katie and Savanna. It was nice to have a chance to visit with them. Savanna was dozing quite a bit, but we talked a bit, and Katie and I talked quite a bit, and I showed her pictures from Tuesday's baby shower and explained some things about that. I also had a chance to do some things on the computer. We also had some mulligatawny soup that Ellen had made, which was yummy. Today, I met Jerome at Pine Heights Nursing and Rehab Center and helped him make his transition back to his apartment. A month ago, I would have not thought it possible that he could be back in a situation where he would be on his own, but there he is, and he seems to be managing it ok. I actually made two trips, the first to help schlepp him and his four bags of stuff back to his place, and get him settled in; the second was to take him a meal Ellen had prepared and do some shopping for him at Dollar General - a few everyday items he needs. Tomorrow, Ellen is going to join the Feinands for a visit to MassMOCA, and I have the option of staying home or going to Shutesbury again. I'm still mulling that over. I originally thought that I would get to watch some Wimbledon tennis, but I guess that is all in the morning and would be over by the time I got there.