It's getting colder and colder here

To warm up your day, I have included some more pictures from the beach at Puerto Vallarta.

Our weather has taken a turn for the colder. We are heading for some mighty frosty days ahead. The temp is in the 20's today, but is heading lower in the days ahead. We are experiencing some flurries now, adding to the dusting already on the ground. So what was more appropriate than to go to a concert yesterday which featured Stravinsky's "The Rite of Spring" ? The piece was part of a CSO series entitled "Beyond the Score," in which the background of the piece is explored, exerpts played and commentary by Gerald McBurney and an actor. A huge screen is located behind the orchestra which features film clips and other visual artifacts. This makes for a very interesting afternoon. In the second part of the concert the piece is played completely. The conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen was very energtic, though his suit jacket appeared to be little tight. This was the first time I had heard the piece in its entirety. I was surprised that it didn't seem as cutting edge as I expected. It has a lot of folk song material in it, though most of the songs were Lithuanian, not Russian. It was explained in the commentary that the Lithuanians were the last people of the area to become Christian, so the archeologist who was working with Stravinsky, believed that their folksongs were more closly related to the preChristian pagan culture than those of the Russians. Paganism was what they were looking for in this piece. The orchestra was huge, and the sound was huge. All in all it was a very interesting afternoon.

Two other comments, we saw someone busted by the security for taping the program. They took his cassette away and let him go. I saw Stravinsky conduct in the 1960's when he came to Chicago to the Ravinia Festival--don't ask me what was played at the concert.