two little concerts

Sunday I went to a Harmonia California concert. As with the previous time, I was impressed with the strong and heavy sound of this tiny (17-person) string orchestra, perfect for Baroque-period works in the minor (a Handel concerto grosso and an oboe concerto variously attributed to one or the other of the Marcello brothers - soloist Laura Griffiths was skilled far beyond the community orchestra level) and Tchaikovsky's Serenade.
Also on the program, a new five-minute piece by the orchestra's manager, Alan Hebert, who's taken up composition in his retirement from his day job. It's inspired by his favorite composer, Gerald Finzi. Finzi? That's an unusual choice for ... it sounded at least as much like Delius to me.

Tuesday a student group at Stanford was playing two Brahms chamber works with piano: the Quintet Op. 34 and the Quartet Op. 25, both favorites of mine. As often, especially with Brahms, I wished my mother were alive to go with me. The result was rather tepid in the offering, but earnest enough and competently played. The students, a group of mostly juniors who've been playing together since they were frosh, include 3 computer science majors, one in biomedical computation, and one in symbolic systems, whatever that may be. As B. points out, you don't go to Stanford to major in music. You play it on the side, and that's what they do here.

Getting there was a little exciting. The vet had been running busy, and I didn't get the cats out until 6. From there it's 15 minutes home without the commuter traffic which was heavy; the Stanford concert was at 7:30 and it takes 20 minutes to get there. In between which I wanted to make and eat dinner (that's myself and B). So I pan-fried up the frozen quesadillas I'd bought at Lunardi's last week. Being frozen they actually took longer to cook than the ones I make myself, but at least I didn't have to assemble the ingredients. Result, mixed quality.