when the dream is over

Not only would I say it is one of the most beautiful buildings in Los Angeles, but in my opinion it is the only really interesting piece of architecture in the entire city.

Gehry's Walt Disney Theater. I love it and think it is absolutely inspired (and I'm just talking about the exterior right now!)

I had wanted to go to this particular performance to hear Brahm's Symphony No 1-- which I love. Apparently other people had the same idea-- well actually, I think the majority of people were really there to see the soloist, Nikolaj Znaider. My mom had requested the best seats in the house, but even 2 months prior to the performance that meant way up directly above the right side of the orchestra, looking straight down diagonally facing the conductor and the Philharmonic's 1st violonist.

Adonis, seeing where we would be sitting grew beside himself with excitement.

"I've always wanted to sit here!" he said stripping off his sweater and grabbing his conductor's stick, he prepared to watch and do some conducting of his own as the people next to us grew visibly concerned.

Like Huizong facing the impending Jurchen horde, Brahms had his problems as well. And those problems? In a word: Beethoven. How to confront the elephant in the room? Beethoven's presence was enormous and Brahms was all too aware that no matter what he did, the comparison to Beethoven would be inevitable. And so he struggled. And this symphony no 1 took him I think perhaps a decade to realize. And what path would Brahms choose? Well, I think that is what was so interesting about him. For he was to choose to incorporate so much of Beethoven directly into his music.

So, there we were, sitting 2 tiers above the horns-- as Adonis frantically conducted from his seat to Brahm's Tragic Overture-- which speaking of problems, Brahm's friend Clara (the female of the triangle) dismissed as being "not at all melodic."

The Overture, however, was followed by a performance so magnificent that I was actually overwhelmed. Even Adonis quietly put away his stick so he could just watch.

The violinist, Nikolaj Znaider, is considered to be one of the world's best. And, I didn't realize this beforehand, but he plays on a del Gesu. The moment he began playing, my first thought in fact was-- ah, a del Gesu, because there is something about the sound-- which of course I could never describe, being completely unmusical. Except that it reminds me of the tonal quality of a cello. Guarneri del Gesu instruments seem larger and perhaps more masculine than the sounds of other violins. Pagnini famously played on one and maybe because of that they seem to be associated with virtuoso playing... I don't know, but that first note grabbed my attention and I was immediately inspired.

The Violin Concerto in D was created for one of the world's all-time greatest violinists, Joseph Joachim. I guess Joachim was not only a technical genius but he also had these huge oversized hands. Brahms wrote the piece of music with these two facts in mind and the experts say that it remains one of the most challenging pieces of violin music in existence.

Znaider-- who struck me by his calm demeaner was mopping his face with his handkerchief at every pause in the music-- it must have been extraordinarily strenuous. The entire hall was getting hotter and hotter too as you could feel the palpable attention being paid to this man's music. Los Angeles is not New york. But people were growing visibly excited and by the finale- Adonis and I were on the edges of our seats. In fact, when Znaider started passionately playing the Hungarian inspired ending, Adonis jumped up to kiss me on the lips and just stood there standing-- waiting for the end. He couldn't believe the way people all lept to their feet, shouting bravo (or I am not even sure what people were shouting because the applause were so loud).

After the intermission, the orchestra turned to the symphony but I think people were already just too overhwelmed to take in more music. Adonis asked for his stick again and conducted but we were already done (for the dream was over).

**

See this article (orginally from the Wall Street Journal) about Znaider and his del Gesu.

Comments

[johnny-come-lately]

Think of endings in terms of Keynesian creative destruction. Economies (monetary, emotional, intellectual) abhor a vacuum. Just wait.

This reminds me of a joke in a Tarkovsky movie (Stalker, I think): a guy is crossing a swamp and finds someone stuck in the mud. He pulls him out, and the rescued guy yells: "What the hell are you doing? That's where I live!" You see? That's exactly the kind of Slavic fatalism we Americans can never succumb to. Especially Americans from Southern California, the land of the sunny pessimists.

Speaking of LA and by extension the end of human civilization, I've been lassoed into helping a friend of a friend write a spec teleplay (make that six teleplays) for a kids' TV show to be submitted to the Brazilian Ministry of Culture (or something) by Jan. 20. Actually earlier, since she's going to have to translate it all into Portuguese.

How crazy things get. I just started David Foster Wallace's (my avoidance of initials signaling my newness to him) "Infinite Jest," too. I haven't been this blown away by words on a page since I read "The Sound and the Fury." Am I calling Wallace a new Faulker? I should wait till I finish the book before making such claims.

Funny thing is, like I was saying about beauty and death, and how fear of the latter focuses your mind on the former, I wouldn't have found out about this guy if it weren't for his recent suicide (underlined at the bookstore with a sign saying "RIP" under his books).

Endings, beginnings, more endings, more beginnings. Brahm's was commissioned to write a cello concerto and a violin concerto, but one of the commissioners backed out, so he combined the two (don't quote me on this, but it's something like that), and the result is great! The opening motif sounds like me when I'm angry at my kids. (I wish.)

[Peony]

Hello Johnny,

LA and the end of civilation... yeah. But is death and beauty really intertwined in the way you suggest? Or is something else going on? And, are you really a Johnny-come-lately? You know, I never realized how much more.... what's the word? upbeat (??) you are then me. Here, I was just down in the dumps when the dream ended... but of course just like you said, most things abhor a vacuum.

Dreams and the spygame
It is of course the fundamental rule: Burn After Reading

CIA Officer: We'll... interface with the FBI on this dead body.
CIA Superior: No, no. God no. Burn the body. Get rid of it.
CIA Superior: So what did we learn from this?
CIA Officer: Um... I don't know.

[Johnny-come-lately]

So what should we do with the analyst?

But him on the next flight to Caracas, for chrissake!

[Peony]

No, that's the flight you should put me on (for chrissake!) :)