An Amazing Performance

After hiking through the gorgeous trees in Lester Park on Friday, I splurged.  I picked up a babysitter (one of my students, actually, who is GREAT with the kidlets . . . they were so excited about her coming) and drove just a bit down the road to UMD.  Richard Stoltzman, the most well known clarinetist in the world was performing with the American String Quartet.  It was truly an amazing concert.  It's always wonderful to hear professional musicians play in person, and watch with your own eyes how they are captivated by the music the are creating.  I particularly enjoy watching how small ensembles of musicians interact as they are performing.  The string quartet played an amazing work by Prokofiev,  who is not ordinarily a composer I listen to a great deal (he wasn't a very nice person and his music often sounds about as rude as his personality) but this piece was really beautiful, and so fun to see and hear in person.  

The highlight for me, of course, was seeing Richard Stoltzman play.  I haven't often had the opportunity to see a full blown professional play the clarinet, an instrument I have long and lovingly labored with.  I couldn't believe the range of tone he drew out of the instrument, and what interesting phrasing he created.  When the musicians played a Mozart quintet, it was so neat to hear how the clarinet blended in and out of the sounds of the strings.  

Someone once told me that truly good music has layers and layers of texture to it.  I've always thought that to be true, and this music had an infinite number of layers.  

I was so happy I was able to go.