Carnegie Hall and Brentano Quartet

Tuesday at NYPL, I spent most of the day working on our veteran history project. On my first day there, I was thrown into the project and have stayed ever since. Once a veteran interview has been recorded, I get it, finish the paperwork and prepare it to be sent to the Library of Congress and end up on our website. The veteran I listened to on Tuesday was fantastic. He was part of the troops who went into France twenty days after D-Day. What was great about this story was that the man knew the exact names of the battles and where he was. While he was talking, I was conducting searches to read more about these battles and how they were all linked. It was incredible to hear it from his point of view; history was truly coming alive!

I got back to the Upper West Side post work, ate dinner, and then headed to Carnegie Hall, more specifically, Zankel Hall, to hear the Brentano String Quartet. Our group had already "heard" them (they were the actual musicians who supplied the music for The Late Quartet) but it was neat to see them on stage. Our seats were a little different; we sat in high green velvet chairs on the sides of this auditorium. The view of the stage was obstructed by the railing walls (to prevent us from falling). In the end, I mainly just listened to the music than leaning way forward to see the stage.

Before the show even started, Whitney and I started talking to a lovely lady named Gabriele. She asked me if I came to many concerts and then I said I was new to the city and had seen The Late Quartet, which she had also seen, and our conversation took off from there. Like many others who I've talked to, Gabriele was fascinated with Coe's New York Term and wanted to know about all the things Whitney and I had been doing. We continued to chat during the intermissions and after the concert, exchanged contact information and we actually were shooed out of concert hall for talking too long!

The concert itself was amazing. I had forgotten how much I love string instruments and the sounds they can produce. I played the violin and I really did miss playing during the concert. Maybe I'll take up orchestra my senior year! The quartet played three pieces, a Haydn, a Mackey, and a Beethoven. Steven Mackey is actually a modern (and living) composer and his piece One Red Rose commemorates the 50th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy's assassination. It was a beautiful piece which utilized all four strings and all four instruments. We were also lucky because it was the world premier of Mackey's piece so we heard from him before the quartet came back on stage to play it.

Of course, now I just have to write about the performance. I will probably need to do some background research to refresh my string terminology. Hopefully it will be a good response!

So that was Tuesday. Sorry if it feels sort of rushed; Tuesday was a really great day but this morning I can't quite articulate it all.