Spitball Army

…and then there were these stubs, found in various piles about the house, from an odd assortment of musical events that I attended before the turn of the century.

This concert was held in New Haven, Connecticut, the night before the Harvard v. Yale game in 1983.  I only attended The Game in Cambridge while I was in college, never in New Haven.  This date was in the Fall after my college graduation.  Apparently, I signed on to do all of the collegiate things that one does during Game weekend, including going to the musical events that always occur.  This one – a battle of the bands glee clubs – was likely filled with lots of rah-rah, and many less than sober Harvardians and Yalies trying to outsing (read: outshout) the others.

So, here we are, the night after The Game, which the Crimson won, 16-7.  It was an especially bitter loss for the Bulldogs, as this was the landmark 100th anniversary of the ongoing football rivalry (who’s hollerin’ “Boola Boo” now, boys?).  The Whiffenpoofs were less than jubilant.

Yet another Gil Shaham recital.  I believe that I have seen Gil play more times than just about any other artist, aside from Brother Blue (who I used to see performing nearly weekly for years as I walked through Harvard Square in Cambridge).  This recital, in 1997, was the same year that Gil and his sister Orli released their Dvorák for Two CD, so I am guessing that this was a recital featuring her on piano.  I can think of four occasions that I’ve seen him fiddle at the Moody Music Building in Tuscaloosa: once with orchestra, three times in recital.  It’s always a treat.

The Ravinia Festival is the outdoor summer performing home for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  While visiting a family friend, Phoebe, in Chicago in the summer of 1999, I attended a CSO concert featuring Reneé Fleming.  She performed a generous program that included Richard Strauss’ Four Last Songs and Samuel Barber’s Knoxville: Summer of 1915.  The Strauss was amazing, as I remember it, and the Barber was perfectly augmented by the sound of a nearby train and a chorus of cicadas.  Ms. Fleming came out to the side of the stage immediately after the end of the concert to talk to members of the audience, and was very kind and warm.

Here is her performance of “Beim Schlafagehen” from Four Last Songs from 2004:

Eight or nine months later, I was at another Reneé Fleming performance, this one a recital at Spivey Hall, just south of Atlanta.  The hall was packed, but it is a small room by most standards, the size being sacrificed to what most everyone experiences as sonic excellence.  I recall being wowed by her singing of Dvorák’s “Song to the Moon,” which has gone on to become one of Ms. Fleming’s signature numbers.