Guarantors' Concert

The Minnesota Orchestra holds a concert each year for its benefactors.
I managed to get my hands on a pair of tickets (thanks Paul!) and the weaver and I attended. This concert usually features 'safe' works (no Bruckner!), and tonight was no exception. Peter and the Wolf, Prelude to Hansel and Gretel, and six Slavonic Dances by Dvorák.

Also by Dvorák was a romance for violin and orchestra. The piece was indeed romantic, delicate and subtle, most appealing. After an opening flourish, things quieted down and the soloist, with exquisite tone, elevated the whole proceedings. In the corner of my eye I noticed a woman slip into the hall, a woman carring an infant; this couple stood in an alcove and gently swayed with the music. Not a peep was heard from the wide-eyed babe, who seemed to be as enraptured as the rest of us were. After the piece ended, several gasps of delight could be heard from the throng, and the dancing couple in the shadows were gone..

"It must have been the soloist's wife and child" ventured the Weaver, and I agreed. Indeed after the intermission, the soloist, now in his civvies, came and sat down, with another, older, child in tow, and was joined by his wife and infant. What impression did this concert make on that baby? If it is true that everything we experience is stored somewhere in our memory, then those children must have quite a head start in music appreciation.

Antonín Dvorák...Romance in F minor for Violin and Orchestra, Opus 11... Vali Phillips, violin