The Horse Smells Home...

In these last minutes of April, I contemplate the homestretch of the season. An all-Schubert Chamber Classics concert this weekend, La Mer and the Ravel Piano Concerto in G dominate the horizon. Throw in a Carpenters tribute concert and some outdoor shows, and my 26th season with the KSO will be coming to as perfectly joyful a close as have all of the other 25 seasons. Every season has been memorable in good ways. The hallmark of this season has been a plethora of cello solos, and purely coincidentally (or not?), the trifecta of cello quartets. Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet in February, yesterday’s Otello, and  eight of the sexiest bars of music every written, coming up in the first movement of Debussy’s La Mer on the 17th and 18th. And for those of you wondering about the William Tell Overture by Rossini, that’s actually a quintet. Interesting from a nerdy cellist point of view, I guess.

This weekend brings a chamber version of the Unfinished Symphony of Schubert and his Overture in the Italian Style, with a chamber music appetizer of his Trio in E♭. When I was in college, there were camps of players who loved the Schubert B♭ trio, and those who loved the other one. I was on the side of the B♭ trio, having played it several times now, but I have been won over; it’s not like the Red Sox vs. the Yankees or anything life and death like that. I really hope the weather is rainy this Sunday, because I hate to take people away from a beautiful May day in Tennessee. On the other hand, there is the E♭ trio. And the Unfinished Symphony.

Speaking of Yankees, I just lurve working with Gabe Lefkowitz and pianist Kevin Class.  Houston has ZZ Top, Seattle had Nirvana, and Knoxville, you’ve got us! Btw Kevin’s wife, pianist Bernadette Lo possesses 2 of the four hands that performed the Carnival of the Animals earlier this month.

We’ve all been chest-deep in Verdi up until Sunday. Schubert is taking us to the other end of the Romantic period. Meet us there...