Weekend Destinations

Early tomorrow evening, we will all depart for our weekend destinations: Joshua and I will head for Denver, and my parents will head for New York. Theoretically, our respective flights are supposed to take off one minute apart.

My father and Josh and I are all going to leave work a couple of hours early tomorrow and meet up at my parents' house, so that we can all go to the airport in one car.

I am looking forward to the weekend very much.

Travel Destinations

A November trip to Turkey is no longer on the table.

That idea did not last long.

The Ankara bombing yesterday put an end to that notion, especially after my parents read the travel warnings subsequently issued by the foreign offices of Australia and Britain. The U.S. Department Of State has not yet commented, at least insofar as I can ascertain, upon the most recent terrorist bombing in Turkey.

Today my middle brother sent me--as well as my parents and Joshua--a news story from one of the London newspapers. The story enumerated the many different terrorist bombings in Turkey since 2003. There has been a startling number of such bombings, many more than I had realized. The bombings are now increasing in frequency, and the bombings are now clearly targeting tourist areas, including those in Istanbul, Izmir, Ankara and Antalya, all of which we had planned to visit. I see from the London newpaper article that many British visitors to Turkey have already been killed or injured in these bombings.

This is the third time that terrorist bombings have prevented my parents from traveling.

My parents had planned a trip to Turkey between Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2003, and the November 2003 bombing in Istanbul--the massive one, which destroyed the British Consulate--caused them to cancel that trip.

Their substitute trip for the cancelled 2003 Turkey trip was to be a trip to Spain in March 2004. Two days before my parents were scheduled to depart on that trip, the Madrid bombings occurred. My parents cancelled that trip, too.

I can understand my parents' concerns. They do not want to have to worry about safety during a vacation.

In this day and age, it almost seems that every conceivable destination carries undue risks. Myself, I believe that the most dangerous city for visitors, for the last several years, has been London. All major European cities have large unassimilated immigrant populations, but London has the largest number of unassimilated immigrants, both in absolute terms and in terms of the percentage of the city's population. It is inevitable that there will be more terrorist attacks in London.

My middle brother and I were in London--staying in the King's Cross area!--on July 7, 2005, the day of the London bombings. We generally left our hotel at 8:00 a.m. every morning, but that particular morning we left the hotel at 9:00 a.m., since we were going to spend the day at the Imperial War Museum, which does not open until 10:00 a.m. When we approached the King's Cross station, we noticed that there were mobs of persons standing outside. We learned about the terrorist attacks from persons on the street, who informed us that the station had been evacuated as soon as bombs had exploded on two trains shortly after those trains had departed from the station. My brother and I immediately returned to our hotel in order to watch the news on television. The first thing we did back at the hotel was to send our parents an email message, letting them know that we were safe. We stayed at the hotel for the remainder of the day, watching television, because everything in London--businesses, offices, museums, churches, historic sites, restaurants--closed shortly after the attacks.

My brother and I had been in London in the summers of 2003 and 2004, too, and long before July 7, 2005, we had always been uncomfortable riding the London Tube. We did so anyway, daily, as there really is no satisfactory alternative mode of transport to get around the city. I am sure that we will ride the London Tube countless times in future, too, but it will nevertheless continue to make us extremely uncomfortable.

Now that Turkey is off the table, at least for now, Joshua and my brother and my parents are considering some other travel destinations (London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Venice and Lisbon), and they are trying to figure out which city or cities to select. They are looking at the months of September, October and November. I told Josh that it did not matter to me where we went, or when.

One thing is clear to me, however--it seems that my parents and my brother and Josh have all worked out among themselves that we will all go together, whatever the destination, and whatever the dates of the journey. This is perfectly fine with me, as long as it makes everyone else happy.

Travel Bug

My parents have the travel bug. They are itching to go somewhere.

Their current notion is to go to Turkey, on a guided tour. They are contemplating a two-week escorted tour of Turkey in November, and they want my middle brother and Josh and me to join them.

My parents came across this particular escorted tour in a brochure, naturally. I believe that my parents are ordering far too many brochures, and I fear that it may soon be time to begin restricting their mail privileges.

My parents are extremely reluctant to go to Turkey by themselves, even on an escorted tour. They selected this particular tour precisely because of the dates: at its conclusion, the tour will deposit travelers back in the United States on Wednesday, November 21, the day before Thanksgiving. My parents' thinking is that the time frame of the tour is perfect for all of us, and that we can all disembark in New York on our way home from Istanbul on November 21, and spend the Thanksgiving holidays in New York with my older brother and his family (not that we have been asked yet).

My parents have never been to Turkey, although both of my brothers and Josh and I have visited Turkey. I would love to go to Turkey again, and so would Josh, and so would my middle brother. Our problem is that we three have limited vacation time, and going to Turkey in November would exhaust most of our vacation time for the year, and prevent us from taking any other trips.

If Josh and my brother and I go to Turkey, then we cannot go somewhere else during the first two weeks of September, which up until now had been our tentative plan. A Turkey trip, with a Thanksgiving extension in New York, would consume eleven days of our vacation time (it would require even more vacation days were it not for the fact that Veterans' Day and Thanksgiving Day fall within this time period).

Also in the back of my mind is the fact that I promised Josh that he and I would take trips--just the two of us--to Europe as often as possible. We have yet to take even one of those promised European trips by ourselves, and I am not living up to my promises.

The escorted tour my parents want to take is filling up, and my parents want to know as soon as possible whether my brother and Josh and I will go. If we say "No", then my parents will definitely not go, because they do not want to travel to Turkey by themselves.

My brother said it was up to Josh and me. He said that he would be happy to scrap a potential September trip somewhere, and to go to Turkey with our parents in November instead. My brother likes the fact that Thanksgiving arrives immediately at the conclusion of the tour, which means that he can combine a tour of Turkey with the Thanksgiving holiday, without a lot of extra flying around on his part.

I told Josh that it was up to him, and that I wanted him to make the decision, and that he could be confident that no one would mind in the least if he did not want to go to Turkey this year. Josh was fine with that--he is happy to make decisions--and he and my brother and my parents are going to talk things over the next two nights, and go over some details, and make a decision (I will have to work late tomorrow night and Wednesday night, so I am leaving things in Josh's hands).

"This Is Home"

This week will be a very busy one for me at work. I fear that I may have to work late each night this week.

On Friday night, Joshua and I will fly to Denver to spend the Memorial Day weekend with my middle brother. My parents will fly that night to New York to spend the Memorial Day weekend with my older brother and my sister-in-law and my nephew. The next time that we will all get together will be the first week in July, when we will all spend ten days at the lake. I look forward to that very much.

Soon it will be one year since I moved back to Minneapolis, after being away for seven years, yet it seems like I have been back only for a week or two. I mentioned this to my parents this weekend, and they said that the time was passing so quickly for me because I have been so busy for the last year, what with settling into the apartment and preparing for and taking the bar exam and beginning work full-time.

I asked my parents when they thought that my brothers would move back home. My mother said that my middle brother would move back to Minneapolis first, and that my older brother would then follow. My father said that my mother was wrong, and that my older brother would move back to Minneapolis first, and that my middle brother would then follow.

"Why do you say that?" my mother asked my father. She was surprised, clearly, at my father's answer.

And my father answered that my older brother and my sister-in-law would be permanently settled in Minneapolis prior to the time that my nephew started school, and my father added that he would bet his life on that particular point.

My mother agreed with my father on the likelihood of my nephew beginning his schooling here in Minneapolis, but she said that my middle brother would already have returned home by that time.

"Why? Do you know something?" my father wanted to know.

And my mother said "No", that she did not know anything, but she said that she believed that my middle brother would return home sooner than my older brother, and that this was due to the fact that I was now back home.

"They'll come home in the reverse order in which they left" was my mother's final pronouncement.

My Dad seemed skeptical, and he asked me what I thought. I told him that I agreed with him about my older brother returning before my nephew started school, but I also told him that I did not know when my middle brother would return. I told my Dad that I was surprised that my middle brother had not already made some tentative plans to return to Minneapolis.

"That's because he is unsure whether you are going to remain here" was my father's reply.

My father was clearly alluding to Josh's plans, and the possibility that law school or graduate school might require Josh and me to leave Minneapolis and return to the East Coast.

Josh did not say anything, but he started shaking his head.

My mother and father looked at Josh, and then at me, wanting an explanation.

Finally, Josh said "I'm not going anywhere. This is home."

Quiet And Serene

We had a wonderful weekend at the lake.

The weather was overcast yesterday, but there was no rain, and today was sunny.

We did absolutely nothing all weekend, except walk in the woods with the dog, and sit upon the deck and read, and talk, and look out upon the lake. There was no noise except for the dog, who would bark and run down to the water's edge whenever he saw and heard a canoe pass on the lake (motorized boats on the lake are prohibited).

We cooked and ate outside last night, but otherwise we ate in the house.

It was so peaceful and quiet and serene that it almost makes me want to go up to the lake every weekend.

Gear Ready

Joshua and I have our gear ready for the weekend, and we are all set to go. Our clothes are packed, we have selected our books, and all we have to do is to grab our stuff and head over to my parents' house tonight after work.

My mother informed us last night that we will not be leaving until 7:30 p.m. tonight, because she is going to make us eat something before we go. She is going to give us chicken salad sandwiches and potato salad before we head out. Then, when we arrive at the lake, she is going to make us omelets before we go to bed.

We have all selected our books for the weekend.

Joshua has selected Martin Gilbert's "Kristallnacht: Prelude To Destruction" for his weekend reading.

I have selected Theodore Rabb's "The Last Days Of The Renaissance" for my weekend reading.

My mother has selected Irene Nemirovsky's "Suite Francaise" for her weekend reading.

My father has selected Geoffrey Wawro's "The Franco-Prussian War" for his weekend reading.

As for Rex, he will try to have a go at the complete "Faust" of Goethe. Being a German Shepherd, he will naturally be using the original German text.

We are all looking forward to the weekend very much. I, especially, am looking forward to some rest, because this week was a very busy one for me at work, and next week will be even worse.

Back To The Lake

Joshua and I, and my parents, are going to go up to the lake this weekend. It will be the first visit to the lake this year for my parents.

My parents will not miss a Minnesota Orchestra concert this weekend, because the orchestra has been doing pops concerts all week, and the pops concerts will carry over into the weekend.

We are going to assemble at my parents' house tomorrow at 6:45 p.m. and head out from there. My mother will have the food for the weekend in a cooler and in a hamper, so we will not have to stop at a food store on the way.

The weather is supposed to be good this weekend, and we will have a very nice time. We will take the dog on walks through the woods, but otherwise we will just sit on the deck and enjoy the views over the lake and the peace and quiet.

Josh and I, and my parents, are still trying to decide which books to take with us this weekend, and I am sure that each of us will make the selections tonight.

This week has been a very busy one for me at work, and I look forward to a quiet and restful weekend. I had to work late into the night on Tuesday night and again last night, and I hope to be able to leave the office at a more normal hour today.

Haydn, Faure, Poulenc And Others, With Fats Waller, Too!

We listened to music all weekend, and my mother selected the discs for us. My mother loves French music, and two of the discs contained music by two of her favorite French composers.

Haydn's "Paris" Symphonies, performed by The Academy Of Saint Martin-In-The-Fields under Neville Marriner, on the Philips label

Faure Chamber Music, performed by Gil Shaham, Akira Eguchi and Brinton Smith, on the Vanguard Classics label

Poulenc Choral Music, performed by The Joyful Company Of Singers under Peter Broadbent, on the ASV label

A recital album featuring Dawn Upshaw, with the Orchestra Of Saint Luke's under David Zinman, on the Nonesuch label

"Ain't Misbehavin'", a disc of music by Fats Waller, arranged for brass quintet, performed by the Canadian Brass, on the RCA label

I love Haydn symphonies, and so does my mother, and so does my father, and so does Josh. They are ceaselessly inventive, and surprising, and bewitching. Each one of the six "Paris" symphonies is individual and unique, and shows Haydn at his very best. I could listen to these works daily, I almost believe. The Marriner performances are very good. They are analogue recordings, from the very late 1970's, and the sound is superb. The playing is superb, too. Marriner gets good results from his players without ever getting in the way, trying to make interpretive points. Recordings of Haydn symphonies are now more-or-less the exclusive province of original-instrument ensembles, but modern orchestras can sound wonderful in Haydn if the conductor knows what he is doing. Marriner knows what he is doing, and these performances are very successful.

Not long after he made this particular set of recordings, Marriner became Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra. His appointment was greeted with great acclaim--it was during the period of his greatest success as a recording artist, before his repertory was taken over by original-instrument ensembles--and his first year or two in Minneapolis featured a warm reception by the public and by the members of the orchestra, who had grown tired of Stanislaw Skrowaczewski after nineteen years. Things soon soured, however, and Marriner left Minneapolis after only six years, accepting a lesser post with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra. In Minneapolis, after he settled in, Marriner was viewed--both by the public and by the members of the orchestra--as a master of the orchestral repertory from 1700 to 1800, but not in command of repertory from 1800 onward. Marriner's departure from Minneapolis was hastened by his dislike of some important members of the orchestra's administration and Board. Two Principal Guest Conductors during the Marriner years--Klaus Tennstedt and Charles Dutoit--also cut short their Minneapolis stays because of conflicts with these same individuals. Marriner still returns, on occasion, to conduct the Minnesota Orchestra. Next season, I see from the 2007-2008 brochure, Marriner will return to conduct one week of subscription concerts.

The Faure disc was the first recording made by Gil Shaham after his former label, Deutsche Grammophon, cut him loose in favor of Hilary Hahn. It includes much of the music Faure wrote for violin and piano, as well as arrangments of music for cello and piano adapted for violin, as well as his string trio. The Sonata For Violin And Piano No. 1 is well known, and the Berceuse For Violin and Piano is well known, and the Trio For Piano And Strings is well known, but most of the other compositions on the disc are seldom played. It is a nice disc, and Faure's music has its own unique "cool beauty", as that tired saying goes, but I do not think that these performances are the last word in Faure performance. The performances do not seem to be "internalized" and natural. They are performances in which the musicians can be heard to be striving for the essence of the music, instead of simply realizing it. Faure's music is very difficult to perform well, which is why his music is not often programmed, and Shaham and Eguchi and Smith are clearly not natural Faure musicians.

I love the music of Poulenc, and I especially love the choral music of Poulenc, and the ASV disc contains several of Poulenc's most important and most beloved choral works, including "Figure Humaine", Poulenc's masterpiece, and "Four Motets Pour Le Temps De Noel". The disc also includes "Seven Chansons" and "Salve Regina" and "Un Soir De Neige" and "Four Petites Prieres De Saint Francois D'Assise" and "Ave Verum Corpus" and "Exultate Deo". This is all magnificent music, beautifully written for massed voices, and we enjoyed listening to this disc very much. However, the Poulenc disc paralleled the Faure disc to the extent that both discs contained marvelous music, but not marvelous performances. The Joyful Company Of Singers is a London-based chamber group, and British singers are not as effective in Poulenc as French singers or, in a fairly recent development, German singers. Further, The Joyful Company Of Singers is not a choir on the exalted level of the Westminster Cathedral Choir, surely London's finest, and these performances are under-nourished (perhaps a larger chorus was needed) and under-characterized. I kept longing for a larger sound, as well as for the "tanginess" that French choruses supply in this repertory. This is perhaps the most disappointing Poulenc choral disc I have ever heard.

The Dawn Upshaw recital disc is, I believe, her very first such recital disc for Nonesuch. Many were to follow, and I think that I have heard them all. There are only four works on the disc: Barber's "Knoxville: Summer Of 1915", Harbison's "Mirabai Songs", the great aria "No Word From Tom" that closes Act I of Stravinsky's "The Rake's Progress", and an aria from Menotti's "The Old Maid And The Thief", "What A Curse For A Woman Is A Timid Man". This is a lovely disc, with lovely performances, and we were captivated by each of the works. The Barber is his masterpiece, or so I have always believed, and this is one of the very greatest pieces of American music, despite the fact that its four sections are cut and pasted together instead of flowing organically from one section to another. The Harbison song cycle is very, very fine, and the Menotti aria is, surprisingly, very effective and even charming. And is not the Stravinsky aria the very greatest 20th-Century opera aria? I have always thought so.

Upshaw is a wonderful singer, and I have always admired her. My admiration is not unqualified, however, because there has always been something slightly "schoolmarmish" about her and her performances. In fact, there is something about her--something indefinable--that absolutely ticks off some people. My father, for instance, loathes her. Myself, I sometimes find Upshaw's performances to be slightly under-characterized and lathered with an all-purpose "sincerity" that is anything but sincere. In the Nonesuch disc, these shortcomings come into play in the Stravinsky--purely sung, but ultimately unmoving--and in the Barber, which seems to be too "fake simple", if not even arch on occasion. Further, in the Barber, while listening to Upshaw, I kept recalling certain phrases from the Leontyne Price recording--and it cannot be a whole-hearted endorsement of a performance if the listener is involuntarily thinking back to a different performance of the same music by a different artist.

Upshaw is now working regularly with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, having assumed a post as one of the orchestra's "guest curators". The word "curator" should never be used outside a museum setting, as it displays both the writer's pretentiousness and a counterfeit learnedness when used in a non-museum context, and I have been dumbfounded as this particular word has seeped into fashionable musical lexicography. Concert programs are "organized" or "devised" or "constructed"; they are not "curated". The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra has made a mistake in abandoning the presence of a Music Director in favor of a series of "guest curators". What can Dawn Upshaw possibly have to contribute to the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra except her presence as a guest soloist?

The Canadian Brass disc of music by Fats Waller is pure joy. My mother selected this disc, I know, because she knows that Josh loves brass music. The music is delightful, and the arrangements are delightful, and the performances are delightful. Waller was a very skillful composer: his rhythmic inventiveness was endless, and his tunes are original and individual, and they are susceptible to complex and unusal harmonic treatments (which cannot be said, for purposes of comparison, about much of the music of Cole Porter, a contemporary of Waller who also wrote popular music of some sophistication and skill). This disc appears to be out of print, and I cannot imagine why. It should be a constant and considerable seller.

One Weekend, Three Plays

Our weekend was a very nice one.

On Friday, Joshua and I enjoyed our night out downtown, even though we did not think very highly of "The Madwoman Of Chaillot", a very difficult work to bring off, I believe. "The Madwoman Of Chaillot" is a play in which it is very hard to find the right tone, as well as the right balance between its absurdist elements and its observations of very human (and very quirky) behavior. The Theater In The Round cast members were often at sea, unable to decide whether to play their roles in a highly-stylized manner or whether to offer semi-realistic portrayals. In the end, they often settled for situation-comedy acting, with the result that the play often came across as more cartoonish than its author perhaps intended. In any case, the play struck Josh and me as dated and peculiar, and sometimes tedious, and not very satisfying.

We had a wonderful Saturday. I got my mother's kitchen floor stripped and re-waxed, and my father oiled the furniture and the wooden cabinets in the kitchen, and Josh and my mother polished silver. We listened to music while we worked, and we had a very nice time. On Saturday night, we all went to Bloomington to eat out and to see a production of "Funny Girl", performed by a local cast. The performance was at a high level, and we enjoyed it very much. That musical is dated, and its second act bogs down, but we were pleased to have the chance to see this show, rarely staged now. Given that this was a civic-theater performance, the physical production was very fine, and it was nice to have a full orchestra in the pit. The audience responded very warmly to the production.

Yesterday we planned to take my mother to lunch in honor of Mother's Day and afterward to spend the afternoon doing anything of her choosing. When we got into the car after church, however, my mother told us that what she really wanted was to have lunch at home and to spend the afternoon at home, too, given that we had a Guthrie Theater performance in the evening. So we went home, and had lunch, and spent the afternoon at home, listening to music and talking and reading. Last night's performance of "Major Barbara" was disappointing. Perhaps we caught "Major Barbara" too early in its run--upon reflection, it may have been wiser to have waited a month or so, and then to have attended a performance--but our attentions meandered, and the play seemed to go on forever. I love Shaw, and "Major Barbara" is one of my favorite Shaw plays, but last night the play could not end soon enough for me. I place the fault in the hands of the director.

A Weekend Devoted To Theater

Joshua and I have our plans set for the rest of this month.

This weekend will be devoted to theater--Josh and I are going to go see three different plays!--and to my mother's kitchen floor.

Next weekend we are going to take my parents up to the lake.

The following weekend Josh and I will be in Denver, and my parents will be in New York.

As for our theater weekend, it will begin tonight, with a performance of "The Madwoman Of Chaillot" at the Theater In The Round, a small company here in Minneapolis with a very fine 260-seat theater. Josh and I have neither seen nor read this Jean Giraudoux play, and we are not quite sure what to expect. When he gets off work this afternoon, Josh will drive downtown and pick me up at work, and we will proceed to the theater. We will only have time for a quick sandwich before the play begins.

Tomorrow night, Josh and I will take my parents and our landlady to Bloomington to see a performance of "Funny Girl", performed by the Bloomington Civic Theater. Although Josh and I have seen the movie, we have never seen a stage production of this musical. The production is a civic theater production, but it is supposed to be quite lavish and quite good--and it even uses a 24-piece orchestra!

On Sunday night, my parents will take Josh and me to see "Major Barbara" at the Guthrie Theater. "Major Barbara" officially opens tonight, while Josh and I will be at the Theater In The Round and while my parents will be at Orchestra Hall, suffering through the colorless Edo De Waart trying to make a go of that most colorful of all composers, Hector Berlioz.

Tomorrow, during the day, I am going to do my mother's kitchen floor. It will take me all day. I am going to strip the old wax, and apply three coats of new wax. Josh and my parents can read and listen to music--and keep the dog out of my hair!--while I work.

On Sunday afternoon, I think that Josh and I will just hang out at my parents' house after church, until we all head downtown Sunday night to see the Shaw play.

It should be a fun weekend!