Scenes from right here

Just a few glimpses of what it's like here at Jim and Mary's:

Mary's beautiful vegetable garden

Jim and Mary's house and garage

Wild flowers in front of the house

The road down to the shore cottage where Katie, Savanna and Brendon are staying

Approaching the shore

The rocky beach

The shore cottage

Tuesday evening cook-out at the cottage

Ellen made this beautiful salad from beets harvested from Mary's garden

Good times in Rockland, ME

Monday was Union Fair Day, and Tuesday was Rockland Day. Jim invited Katie to join him for busking in front of the Farnsworth Museum, and they had a good time together - not surprisingly, their voices go well together. Ellen joined them for a threesome for a couple of songs and even I joined in on a couple. After busking, Ellen and I went to the Farnsworth, which had a special show on an artist colony of the mid-20th century outside Rockland called "Slab City." Some artists displayed  were Lois Dodd, Alex Katz, Rackstraw Downes, Red Grooms, Bernard Langlais, Yvonne Jacquette and Neil Welliver, among notable others. Not household names, but interesting and quite varied in style. We were familiar with Neil Welliver and Bernard Langlais from other places. Their work was immediately identifiable without consulting the card. I was particularly attracted to the hyper-realism of Rackstraw Downes. But the most striking exhibit in the museum, both Ellen and I felt, was of art done by local elementary school students. Lucky kids to have an art teacher and program that makes it possible for them to produce work like this. Another striking exhibit was of a variety of folding screens. We love the Farnsworth.

Jim and Katie busking

The Tolles Family Singers!

Bernard Langlais

Rackstraw Downes

Neil Welliver

Hope Elementary School student art

Student art - cut paper on wood portraits of Maine lighthouses

Two beautiful screens

Some Photos from last week

Here are some photos I didn't have a chance to include in posts last week:

A beautiful bouquet on the coffee table - for our party with the Feinlands a week ago Saturday. Ellen got the flowers at the Brattleboro Farmer's Market.

Sunday (the 11th) we sat for a bit after church and enjoyed this scene behind the church - the Dummerston Fire Station reflected in a pond.

One morning I had this fabulous summer-time breakfast on the deck - a bowl of cereal with six kinds of fresh fruit, a Morning-Glory Muffin from Grandma Millers Bakery, and a smoothie.

Brendon making pot-holders on the sewing machine

Nice job, Brendon!

Brendon's antique tea kettle

Union Fair

We came to Maine Sunday! We left home after 10a.m., and made stops at Bob's Clam Hut, When Pigs Fly Bread, and Round Top Ice Cream - all absolutely jammed with tourists. We arrived at Jim and Mary's at a bit after 5p.m.  Mary had prepared a delicious supper.

Earlier today, K,S,B,E & I all went to the Wild Blueberry Festival Fair in Union, ME. This is where Savanna broke her ankle last year getting off the Ferris wheel almost to the day (she broke her ankle on August 22nd last year). No falls this year. We spent most of the time at the horse-pulling contest, which included one set with a team of three - I had never seen that before. Also had Pad Thai, Blueberry Pie, and saw lots of exhibits. Nice day!

We came back to Jim and Mary's and had another lovely supper - this time one Ellen brought, a Spanish Rice dish fixed the way her mother used to make it. After supper, we played Oh Hell (the card game we played with K,S and B at the lake in the Adirondaks back in July). Playing with seven people was even more unpredictable than with five; Savanna won.

A team of three horses pulling 10,000 lbs.

Katie and Brendon on the Merry-go-Round

Katie, Brendon and Savanna in a shady spot

Union Fair Posters - past and present

Quilts in the Exhibit Hall

The 150th Anniversary Quilt (yea, this fair started in 1869!) A different person made each square, and we were invited to vote for our favorite.

the infamous Ferris Wheel!

Friday update

Brendon seems to be enjoying his stay. He has been making quilted hot pads on the sewing machine and getting his tea pot to boil water with an oil flame. He and Ellen have gone swimming a couple of  times (in the West River) and tonight they are going to the movies. Last night he stayed home while we went to a Hallowell rehearsal. After we got back we watched an old time-lapse video of our house being built, which we all enjoyed seeing. It's sort of a hoot. Tomorrow he will stay home while we go to Joan Shimer's funeral at the Guilford Church. Sunday, we head for Maine. I've been dealing with some lower intestine woes and hope to be in good enough shape to travel Sunday!

Meanwhile, the Feinlands are all in Boulder, CO checking out U of Colorado for Max (and Ben too for grad school). That would be quite something if they ended up there! I would have them say hello to Rob, but he is at the Mayo Clinic getting a stem-cell transplant, and will be there six weeks. Sending him all the good wishes in the world!

Quick update

We have Brendon with us. Katie & Savanna have gone to Maine. We 'll join them there at Jim's Sunday. I have a Dr's appt. tomorrow. 

Last Saturday, the entire Feinland family plus John joined us for supper. Lovely! We played "Salad Bowl" after supper. 

Sunday I had a Music Committee meeting at Dummerston. Planned choir for the next four months. After that - Spelling Bee! Watched TV in the eve.

Monday I did some mowing. Then I got into reading Richard Russo's novel Chances are .... Gripping! That kept me occupied all Tuesday! Today has been more reading and then doing stuff with Brendon. He bought an antique tea pot on a stand over an oil lamp with Ellen. We spent some time getting it to work. 

I accidentally found a file I didn't even know I had on my  computer - hundreds of emails from 1996 to 2002! That has been really fascinating reading to say the least. Those were important years! 

And now to bed ! 

Our last day at Marlboro

We are back! We are hearing the Mozart String Quintet in D-Major, Op. 593 again this morning. They are working on particular passages, so it is more broken up.

Mozart String Quintet: Stephanie Zyzak, violin; Mari Lee, violin; Hwayoon Lee, viola; Kim Kashkashian, viola; Edvard Pogossian, cello

Later:
Mozart is over and now we will hear the Beethoven Piano Trio in G-Major, Op. 1, No. 2. This is the second of three piano trios composed by a youthful Beethoven and dedicated to Prince Lichnowsky.

Here is a musicologist's description:


"The G major Trio immediately establishes its symphonic scale with an imposing slow introduction – something unheard of in a piano trio, and rare even in a string quartet. But the start of the Allegro lightens the atmosphere with a wispy, capricious theme that hovers on the dominant rather than emphasizing the tonic, G – shades here of Haydn’s ‘Oxford’ Symphony. Haydnesque, too, is the way this theme derives from phrases in the introduction. Beethoven is less lavish with his material than in the E flat Trio, though there is a delightfully jaunty ‘second subject’, proposed by the violin and then elaborated by the piano. But the first theme dominates both the development and the typically ample coda, where Beethoven continues to make witty and whimsical play with the theme’s opening phrase. 

Haydn and Mozart wrote many Andantes in gently swaying 6/8 siciliano rhythm. But only rarely did they compose a siciliano in the slower, Adagio tempo. It is characteristic of the young Beethoven’s search for increased profundity of expression that the second movement of the G major Trio combines a siciliano lilt with an unprecedented hymn-like solemnity. The tempo marking, Largo con espressione, is itself novel and significant; and the rapt atmosphere is enhanced by the choice of key, E major, which sounds remote and radiant after G major. Beethoven shows a typical feeling for long-range tonal planning when he later plunges dramatically (with a sudden fortissimo) from B major to the work’s home key of G, initiating a searching modulating development of the opening theme. 

Though definitely a scherzo rather than a minuet, the third movement is less wilful than its counterpart in Op 1 No 1, playing insouciantly with rising and falling scales, à la Haydn. The Trio turns to B minor for a laconic waltz of comic banality – the kind of music likely to turn up in Beethoven’s works from the early years right through to the visionary late quartets. After the return of the scherzo Beethoven appends a brief coda that toys with the theme’s opening figure before dying away to pianissimo.

The finale was originally in 4/4 time. But at an early run-through the cellist Anton Kraft (best-known for his association with Haydn) suggested that the music would be better notated in 2/4, and Beethoven duly adopted the idea. Opening with a catchy ‘riding’ theme in rapid repeated notes (perfect for the violin, but artfully refashioned when the piano takes it over), this is another movement that infuses Haydn’s spirit with Beethoven’s own brand of boisterousness. The music is full of aggressive sforzando accents, rough dynamic contrasts (at their most extreme in the coda) and mysterious or dramatic plunges to distant keys. The development alights for a while in E major, the key of the Adagio – another instance of Beethoven’s large-scale tonal strategy. But perhaps the wittiest moment of all comes with the start of the recapitulation. Here a smooth new figure in octaves on the piano seems to be preparing for the return of the ‘riding’ theme, which then enters unobtrusively, before we realize it, while the piano octaves continue as if nothing has happened.

 The first violinist for this piece is Brian Hong, who looks to be in his twenties (he is 25):

"Korean-American violinist Brian Hong is currently in pursuit of a Master’s Degree in Violin Performance at the Juilliard School under the guidance of Laurie Smukler and Li Lin, where he is a proud recipient of a prestigious Kovner Fellowship. A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, where he acquired a Bachelor’s Degree in violin performance under the tutelage of Donald Weilerstein, Mr. Hong’s past mentors have also included Sergiu Schwartz, Zvi Zeitlin, and Shmuel Ashkenasi. 

As soloist, Mr. Hong has performed with orchestras such as the Fairfax Symphony, the Chesapeake Orchestra, the US Army Orchestra, the National Philharmonic, the Springfield Symphony, and the Juilliard Orchestra, and has won top prizes in many major US Competitions, including first prize in the national finals of the Music Teacher’s National Association Competition (2012), first prize of the American String Teacher’s Association Competition (2016), first prize in the Hellam National Young Artist’s Competition (2016), and first prize in the Juilliard School’s Concerto Competition (2017).  Mr. Hong was also the first participant featured on NPR’s “From the Top” to perform on a period baroque instrument, playing an Uccellini Sonata with Christopher O’Riley on harpsichord. 

In addition to his many solo achievements, Mr. Hong has extensive experience as a chamber musician, having performed at such festivals as the Bowdoin International Music Festival, the Music Academy of the West, the Taos School of Music, the Perlman Music Program, Kneisel Hall, and Yellow Barn.  Mr. Hong was also a member of three different honors ensembles at NEC: the Atlas, Vasari and Neruda String Quartets, where he studied both classic and contemporary quartet repertoire with mentors such as Laurence Lesser, Kim Kashkashian, Donald Weilerstein, and Lucy Chapman, and performed abroad in cities such as Chicago and Washington, DC. 
Highlights of his past season include performances of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto with Kyle Pickett and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra in Springfield, Missouri, and performances of the Schoenberg Violin Concerto with Edward Gardner and the Juilliard Orchestra in New York City’s Alice Tully Hall, as well as appearances at Concerts in the Barn in Quilcene, WA."

 

Brian Hong

Just to fill out the trio, the pianist is Anna Polonsky and the cellist is Christine J. Lee.

Brian Hong, violin, and Christine Lee, cello. Anna Polonsky is hidden behind the cellist.

Later, after lunch:
We forgot our picnic lunch, so we went to the Chelsea Diner take-out window, which was great. Now we are back for the Beethoven Choral Fantasy, (piano, chorus and orchestra) which for decades has been the finale at the Festival. Rudolph Serkin played the piano for it for decades. Now it is co-director, Jonathan Biss. As Ellen put it, it's a goofy piece. But it's fun. We could sing in the chorus if we could, but we don't have the time to rehearse it tomorrow or Sunday (today it is just piano and orchestra). All these many years I could have come up and sung in the chorus, but never did. Quelle domage!

Orchestra before the Choral Fantasy rehearsal

Still later: Now the Choral Fantasy is over - what a piece! We are now on a little break before the final rehearsal of the afternoon - the Brahms Piano Quartet in C-Minor, Op.60, which Ellen heard the day I went to John's and which she says has some heart-breakingly lovely movements. That will be our last experience of the Festival this year, I guess. A fitting climax.