warm non and qaymoq

you are all so jealous of me and don't even know it!

I went to Forest Hills/Rego Park in NYC and got the ONLY fresh Uzbek bread that can be had in the country. My breakfast is warm non with qaymoq (the breakfast I always have on my first morning when I go to UZ).

YUM!

a post about baby making and the symphony

Before I talk about the lovely evening I had, I want to take a moment and publicize the fact that, according to the BBC, I just might be able to have babies all by myself with no man for sperm production by the time I want to have kids (which at this point is about 4 years out). Don't get me wrong dear readers--I would adore the opportunity to make, have, and raise babies (2 preferably) with a wonderful sperm-producing life partner who shares my desire for children and child rearing and with whom I share a mutual vision of and plan for the future. However, I am quite starkly aware of the fact that this may never come to happen, especially not within the time limit that my fertility places on things. So, it is lovely to know that some day soon I really won't need a man in any capacity to fulfill my dreams of child bearing and rearing (though again, having one would really be nice). Here's the linky:
http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6547675.stm

And now on to my evening, which was lovely. I had a wonderful meal that finished off with creme brulee, which I have some how managed to live 28 years without ever sampling (!!). It was delicious, every bite of it. The service was lovely and my parents and I alternated between friendly small talk and engaging intellectual conversation. Before dinner we even had time to walk through Central Park, which my mom had never done before.

After dinner we saw the NY Phil. play a Shostakovich violin concerto, Sibelius' 6th symphony, and a tone poem by Sibelius the title of which I've already forgotten.

The Shostakovich was stunning. It had edge of the seat crazy moments, circus-y bits, and some wonderfully virtuosic violin playing, especially the Scherzo and the cadenza. I mean holy crap, what a cadenza! And the violin the soloist played was a strad and sounded creamier and less shrill than any sound I've heard the violin produce in the upper registers. For me it was certainly the highlight of the evening. My folks loved the 6th symphony, which according to the program notes was in Dorian, and which was quite well performed. It feels so optimistic and purposefully naive without being manipulative in a way that only works by nationalist composers in the pre-WWII period can sound. The tone poem was a bit dodgy - apparently it was the first time the Phil had performed it since 1934 and the conductor (who was Finnish) conducted both Sibelius pieces from memory. It worked for the symphony and most of the tone poem, but there were parts of the tone poem (mostly in the first 5 minutes) where you could hear the sections of the orchestra start to shift away from each other and I wonder if they felt completely confindent in the conductor who didn't have a score in front of him.

I have a few thoughts on the whole score-less conductor acting from memory phenomena. The times I've been on the playing side of things, I've been more nervous about whether he will really know the 2nd bassoon cues if I get lost than I've been appreciative of the extra gestural capabilities gained by losing the score and the music stand. When I played in the orchestra for the Pierre Monteaux Conducting School, I remember the instructor talking about score memorization and saying that you (i.e. the conductor) should only do it for pieces that you feel supremely confident in your knowledge of. I would extend that to say that both conductor and orchestra should feel extremely confident - I really think that the tone poem would have sounded more together and more confident with a conductor reading from the score. That said, the last note of the tone poem was beautifully in tune and rang and resonated so sweetly I can still taste it, so I'm really not bashing the performance. And the 6th symphony was totally solid - even without the score in front of the conductor, so in one case it worked and in the other I think it didn't quite as well.

It also makes me wonder about the rather oddly unfortunate situation of being a conductor from a country that is known for only one composer. (He was a guest conductor). The poor guy must be tired of touring the globe conducting Sibelius, so of course by now he can do it from memory.