Piano Trio Rehearsal

My violinist was very stressed about the election yesterday. She confessed to having been depressed and angry because of it. I met with her alone first. We chatted for quite a while. Finally I suggested we do some playing. It would be comforting for her I thought and after all that’s why we were meeting. We launched into a wonderful movement of Mozart and were playing when my cellist arrived.

We then quickly figured out what we could play at the upcoming little November birthday party at my Mom’s nursing home. I mentioned that often at this late date before a performance I would choose music with the criteria of “could I perform it today?” My violinist especially liked this.

We chose two movements of the CPE Bach sonata we have played previously.

Here’s a lovely recording of the first movement being played on the oboe.

I can’t resist embedding the love second movement which we are also planning to perform.

This is beautiful stuff and was thought to have been composed by J. S. Bach for many years. That’s why it has a BWV number.

We also decided to perform a transcription of Fauré’s “Après un rêve.” This is not a great recording of it, but it is the arrangement we are using.

My former student,  Rudy, loves Fauré and has taught me an appreciation of his work. We also play his Piano Trio but it didn’t meet the criteria of “could we  perform it today?”

In addition we will play some forties popular music and hymns. I have to get to work on making parts for violin and cello for those. It will be fun to prep for this gig.

Norman Dello Joio in Holland

I asked my violinist why Dello Joio stayed at her house. Holland used to have its own March Festival in which the Holland Chorale director brought in significant choral composers. Dello Joio was one of them, Alice Parker another. So they hosted him for that.

Astute observations or Jupe learns from other people

In the podcast embedded above, Susan Davis makes an astute observation about the different behavior of these two men in the campaign and yesterday: “It is the difference between politics and governing.”

Speaking of astute observations, during my discussion with my violinist yesterday she commented that she had already decided before the election that it was probably too soon for our country to elect its first woman president since it would be directly after electing our first African American one.

Gritting Our Teeth and Giving President Trump a Chance – The New York Times

Some very wise words from Kristof.