Spring has been trying to come in. Yesterday was bright and sunny and warm; today is gloomy and chilly. We are supposed to get torrential rain over the next couple of days, which might make the big concert tomorrow night interesting. The concert hall has perfect acoustics; I have been to one concert at Hill during a huge storm, and thunder and drumming rain do make for an interesting sound affect to accompany the musicians. In addition, now I will not get overly dressy for the concert. I was planning on wearing a rather short skirt in spring green, hand embroidered with flowers all over it. I am not sure what a drenching rain might do to that skirt, so now I will probably just wear a pants suit. And Dan is being overprotective and dithering about having me walk all over town in the heavy rain that is expected. He is saying he will drop me off at whatever restaurant we choose for dinner, find a temporary parking spot for the Jeep, eat dinner, drop me off at Hill, go park the Jeep in our regular parking garage, walk back to the concert hall, and then go get the Jeep and drive back and pick me up after the concert. I told him that I do not even know why he is worried ~ in over forty years I have yet to melt from any rain, and besides, we can use an umbrella.
I am very glad to be done with work this week after tonight. I am so tired of hearing the constant complaints and whining. It's just a job; why do people have to make a constant high drama out of it? And it's not even a bad job; I have had so many that are much worse! Some of these people need to get a life. 
I try to ignore as much of it as I can; but it does start to get me down after enough nights of listening to it.
This weekend we will probably go to Ohio for a wrestling tournament for Steven. It is near Toledo. I hope I can remember to ask tonight the directions to the Krispy Kreme that is down there. The kids loved going to the one near Eric's house in New York last summer.
Vienna calling
Philharmonic's trip to Ann Arbor is a noteworthy occasion
Saturday, March 04, 2006
BY SUSAN ISAACS NISBETT
News Special Writer
Like a sighting of an ivory-billed woodpecker, an Ann Arbor appearance by the Vienna Philharmonic is an occasion to crow about.
Over the last 50 years, the orchestra has made nine Ann Arbor appearances. Visit No. 10 - which marks the golden anniversary of the orchestra's first Ann Arbor visit, in 1956 - is just around the corner: Thursday evening, in fact, at 8 p.m. at Hill Auditorium.
And you can bet the hall will be full as the University Musical Society presents the Vienna in music of Viennese composers Schubert, Mozart and Richard Strauss, with a conductor much beloved of the orchestra - and much in the news this last year as he made a stormy departure from La Scala, where he had been music director from 1986-2005 - Riccardo Muti.
Muti has made six Ann Arbor appearances, at the helm of the Philadelphia Orchestra at two May Festivals, in 1979 and 1983, that seem like ancient history. But along with other storied conductors - Toscanini, Furtwangler, Bohm, von Karajan, Bernstein and Mehta - Muti has become a favorite with the Vienna orchestra, which, save for the war years and Furtwangler's continued tenure until 1954, has had no regular conductor since 1933.
The Vienna also had no women until 1996, when it made a decision to open auditions to women.
There are now five women in the orchestra, the first of whom, harpist Charlotte Balzereit, has already achieved tenure. More women can be expected in the ranks as members retire.
A democracy of musicians, which elects its own officers and still has far less than adozen paid administrators - a huge contrast with orchestras all around the globe - the Vienna picks its conductors from the moment's créme de la créme of stars.
What do they admire in Muti? Longtime Vienna violinist and chairman of the orchestra since 1997 Clemens Hellsberg, who has also written extensively about the Vienna Philharmonic, took time out from teaching, playing and administration to respond to that question and answer others posed in an e-mail addressed to him in Vienna.
Q. What qualities have made Maestro Muti a favorite with orchestra?
A. Riccardo Muti has been working with this orchestra for 35 years, the first time being 1971. It was love at first sight. It is very interesting that even recently, Maestro Muti stopped the orchestra during a rehearsal, saying that the VPO must care about its tradition of sound and that he still has the VPO sound in his ear from 35 years ago. Now he feels that he is at an age where he is obliged to protect this way of music making and that he has been influenced by his musical predecessors at the VPO.
He is very conscious of his responsibility to keep this tradition. I feel that this is the closest type of collaboration imaginable.
Q. Could you talk a bit about the "Vienna sound,'' for which the orchestra is revered? To what is it attributable and how is it maintained?
A. There are two key points that answer this question
First: Some instruments used by the Vienna Philharmonic are very different from other instruments used around the world, for example, the Viennese horn and the Viennese oboe.
And second, there is a tradition to the way the VPO makes music. Many generations have been taught by one great teacher - this is a very lucky situation, especially in the string instruments. In the winds, for example, a master teacher always had one best pupil who went on to succeed that teacher in the VPO as well as in replacing that teacher as the new master teacher.
This dates back to 1819, the year that the conservatory was founded in Vienna, it also being the time of Beethoven and Schubert. So, as you can see, there is a direct line.
Q. In Ann Arbor, the orchestra plays Schubert's "Overture to Rosamunde,'' D. 644, and his Symphony No. 4 in C Minor, D. 417 ("Tragic"); Mozart's Symphony No. 35 in D Major, K. 385 ( "Haffner''); and Richard Strauss's "Death and Transfiguration,'' Op. 24. Could you talk a bit about the orchestra's traditions of Mozart, Schubert and Richard Strauss, either as it relates to these composers in general or the pieces in particular? I am also curious what original or early-edition scores and papers of these composers the orchestra might hold.
A. Beethoven and Mozart are among the pillars of the orchestra repertoire. We have no personal tradition with Schubert, who died 14 years before our orchestra was founded, and Schubert was not played a lot in Vienna early on.
As you know, our orchestra was founded in 1842, and many of the players in the founding orchestra actually would have played the world premiere performance of the Beethoven Ninth Symphony in 1824, as many of these players knew Beethoven personally.
Richard Strauss conducted the VPO in over 80 concerts between 1906 and 1944. He also did a major tour with us in 1923 to South America when the orchestra traveled by ship. The world premiere in 1919 of "Die Frau Ohne Schatten'' was played by us under his baton.
From 1919-1924, he was director of the Vienna State Opera (to which all VPO members belong). He was an honorary member of the VPO. We have many of his letters in our archives, along with the manuscript of "Fanfare,'' which he wrote for our first-ever Vienna Philharmonic Ball in 1924, and which we have played at that ball every year since.
We also have many sketch books of his. In 1939 when he celebrated his 75th birthday, and in 1944 when he celebrated his 80th birthday, he was at the Musikverein in Vienna with the VPO conducting concerts and celebrating in a private ceremony following these concerts. These birthday artistic events were organized for him by the VPO, and this is where he wished to be.
Q. Are there any players with the orchestra who would have come to Ann Arbor for the orchestra's debut here, at Hill Auditorium in 1956?
A. No. That was 50 years ago, so it is not possible that any members from that time are still playing with us. As you probably know, there is a mandatory retirement age of 65. It is also interesting to note, that the oldest living person who was a VPO member is now 91 and long retired.
Even Dan, who does not care for classical music (other than a couple of Beethoven pieces) is starting to get excited. I am thinking that there might be even more scalpers at this concert than when the New York Philharmonic came to town last year. 
Wonder if the crowd will have excited classical fans yelling out that the soloists are badasses again like they did at the NY Philharmonic concert?
so the same composers, but most of the musical selections have been changed...it should be great either way, though, of course!
We are doing fine this week. I am taking Thursday night off for the concert, so will have a three day weekend, and am ready to start counting down for that. 
I am looking forward to spending a lot of tiem with the kids this weekend. It will be good.
I have been reading Iain Banks's The Algebraist and finding it to be very good. Banks does such a great job with complex plots in a space opera setting!
At that time my younger son was a baby in arms and I was taking care of him during the day, I was working full time afternoon shift, and I was attending a small local university full time on the weekends. In addition to all of that I was taking a music appreciation class at the local community college. I had previously attended a large university for a couple of years, and I had enough transfer credits that I only had to take classes in my major at the small one and all of my general ed classes were done - except for one humanities class. Hence the music appreciation class to finish up that one requirement at a much lower cost. And one day he had everyone come in and put our heads down on our desks and close our eyes, he turned off the lights and told everyone to relax. He then started playing a piece of classical music - one of the most beautiful melodies I had ever heard (and have still ever heard right up until today!). And then he told everyone to raise their hands when they heard the climax! 
That lovely melody just builds and builds and builds...until yes, there is a climax. 
Dan and I are having a wonderful weekend this weekend. He took Friday morning off and we spent that together. After he left to work in the afternoon, I went to the store and got a lot of good stuff to make dinner. When he got home, we made that dinner - a Thai dish with stir fried rice noodles, vegetables, tofu, eggs, and shrimp. I underestimated the amount of time it would take to make the dinner - it took forever to de-shell the shrimp - and it took us over two hours to make what looked like it would be a simple stir fry in the wok. But man of man - was it ever good when it was finally ready! We each ate two platefuls, with huge mugs of steaming hot tea. Oh, that was good! Then we chased each other around the house and had tickle fights, and I tried to steal his socks, and stuff like that. It was good.
This morning the kids called very early to let us know all was going well in Battle Creek. We spent the morning curled up in bed, and fed each other breakfast. We then watched the movie Serenity, based upon the television series Firefly, which I have very recently finished watching. We both enjoyed Serenity a lot. Then we ate a great lunch, featuring warm whole wheat pita bread and various samples of gourmet cheeses from three different countries.
We are expecting the kids back this afternoon or early this evening, so we are now fully clothed and are trying to get productive stuff done.
Well, we never lost our power even with the freezing rain, and that is quite good. Dan said the roads this morning were pretty bad, though he and Bill both got to work/school without any mishaps. And though many of the area schools did cancel today because of the icy roads, the kids did have school.
Tomorrow they will be leaving school at lunchtime and going to Battle Creek with the other wrestlers and coaches for the weekend. Dan and I will get our couple time after all, even though Dan told me Steven was quite a pain about it. Bill understood immediately and helped convince his little brother, thank goodness.
In celebration I went to the gourmet store and bought three wonderful cheeses (that good Swiss, a cheese imported from Ireland, and a Gouda from Wisconsin). I also bought a breaded raspberry Danish breakfast ring and some other goodies. Oh, and some real Sangria and three kids of fresh fruit (organically grown oranges, strawberries, and blueberries) to go in it.
I am looking so forward to tomorrow night it is quite unbelievable. Now it is time for a quick shower and time to make a fire for the cats. It is very cold tonight, and I want to get the chill out of the air here downstairs.
Got some good news for Bill yesterday - he was accepted for admissions at the University of Michigan's Engineering College. So that is one of the top universities in the country, and they admitted him. Even though Dan and I met when we were both students there, I don't know that our son will choose to go there. I think Michigan is actually pretty far down on his list. Even though he can live at home, it would cost an arm and a leg; more than some of the other universities would cost including room and board! But it is still an honor for him to be admitted there!
Looks like Dan and I might not get our two nights alone together after all. One of the kids is completely balking about going to Battle Creek. <sighs> Dan and I last had a night alone together a bit over a year ago, and it really helped with the reconciliation attempt. It would have been nice to be able to have some more time alone. But so goes life...
Tonight we are having freezing rain. The roads were not bad yet when I drove home, but I think they'll be pretty frightening by morning. There is already some really thick ice buildup on signs, vehicles, garbage cans in the driveway, etc. I am thinking that the kids might not have school tomorrow. We will see...
I just hope we can keep our power. I hate losing the electricity in the winter, when it is so dark and cold...
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