I finally got to see Lucia Micarelli @theloosh live

I finally got to see Lucia Micarelli live -- twice actually.  I first found her on YouTube performing with Josh Groban -- but then she never played with him since 2010, when I became a Grobanite.

This made me sad. I really liked the Awake DVD with Josh, Tariqh, and Lucia.  Not only did the music please me, but i loved their diversity.  You don't see too many diverse bands in popular music.

She's been touring with Chris Botti in 2015.  She also a stint with Barbara Streisand with him recently.  I looked at the tour schedule occasionally, but the gigs all seemed to be far from the NYC metro area, where I live.  I tweeted her, asking her to tell me when she got to the NYC metro area, but that never happened.

Then, on FB, I saw a photo of Chris and Lucia with Cicely Tyson.  Now I happen to know that Cicely is playing on Broadway with James Earl Jones in "Gin Game," right now, so I knew Lucia and Chris were in NYC.

I went and searched on the Internet, and found that Chris was doing a residency at the Blue Note Jazz Club -- 28 days, 56 shows -- an insane schedule.  Lucia was listed there with him on the Blue Note Jazz Club website.

I immediately bought a ticket and went on December 21.  Then I went again on New Year's Eve.

She played the 2 opening numbers with him.  Then she came back to do Emmanuel and Aurora/Kashmir.  Then I think she came back for at least two more, one of which was "Time to Say Goodbye," which was not actually the closing number, but was perhaps her last number.

She was just excellent.  That beautiful tone that I've always so admired was very evident.  On New Year's Eve, I took a date.  He fond her tone so unusual that he was convinced that it had been electronically altered.  I told him that I was quite sure that that was not the case, that it was just her extraordinary bowing style that we were hearing.

She wasn't there for the whole residency.  Starting January 2, they brought back Caroline Campbell, who was playing with Chris the last time I saw him prior blog about seeing Chris Botti Caroline is a fine violinist, but just not as extraordinary as Lucia, at least to my ear.

I had seen the videos of Lucia playing in Emmanuel and Aurora/Kashmir many times.  There's something magical about seeing something on the screen that makes it seem especially elusive.  The idea that I might hear these pieces live, just seemed incredible to me -- but there they were doing them -- and they were stellar -- just stellar.

I know she occasionally has done solo shows.  I hope that she does one again soon here in the NYC metro area.  The last one was in Utah, if I understand correctly.

She's still just as slender and beautiful as the photos I've seen of her from before.  She still plays barefoot.  She still has an evening gown that shows a lot of back and leg.

I also found out that she smokes -- and went out for frequent cigarette breaks.  I guess that's not as bad for an instrumentalist as for a vocalist; however I do happen to have seen YouTube videos where Lucia was definitely singing.  She didn't attempt that at this concert; actually they had a couple of other singers with spectacular belts.  The singers did not come on for as many pieces as Lucia. Lucia's singing is low, quiet and bluesy -- not one of those spectacular belts.  It's a sweet voice, but not to the level of her violin.  In any case, she didn't sing at this concert.

I was just absolutely spellbound by Aurora/Kashmir and Emmanuel.  I've seen them so often in video format.  Seeing them live, and just as good as the videos was just astounding, breathtaking, incredible.  Her other performances were equally extraordinary, but did not rivet me quite as much, because I had not been watching them as often.

Now I'm not as consistently overwhelmed with Chris.  Sometimes his pieces are quite loud and agitating, which I don't do well with.  Sometimes he did play other songs with that quiet sweet tone that he used in Emmanuel.  I like that aspect of his playing and find his trumpet tone almost as spell-binding as Lucia's violin. Still, I don't find him as riveting as she -- yet he's the one with a tour that bears his name.

I firmly believe that the fact that he has had a 12 year tour is due to his being self-confident and out there promoting himself.  I suspect that Lucia not having her own tour is a Mars/Venus issue.  Women tend not to have the same self-confidence and bluster as men.  We are sometimes our own worst enemies.

The Blue Note does produce its own records.  I don't think they had the intention of doing a record for this concert, but I wish they would.

I also hope that Lucia will have a solo show in NYC soon.  As I understand it, she's originally from Queens, so I would think NYC would be a logical destination for her.

I also wish she would keep fans better updated with her performance plans.  I don't even see a place on her website where I could add my e-mail address to be kept informed of her tour dates.

So this happened -- @joshgroban nominated for grammy

Josh is finally nominated for a grammy -- after a long hiatus.

In the past, Josh often spoke of his frustration at not fitting into a grammy category.  Though he normally presents as a humble fellow, his desire for a grammy has been thinly veiled at best.  I remember one tweet about the grammy nomination of Ruslan Sirota, his pianist on the All that Echoes tour, where Josh tweeted that he was "grammy adjacent."

For me, though, it's bittersweet.

What I liked best about Josh was his music that was pop crossed over with modern classical.  People called it pop/classical crossover, but to me that description is more evocative of Il Divo.  Josh was bringing in more elements of experimental music.  That's what I really liked.

Here are some examples:

Sometimes it was just unusual note or chord progressions

sometimes a bit more exotic

often international and exotic

sometimes electronic

Modern classical/pop crossover: not a grammy category, not accessible to the masses, intellectually complex -- but to me this has been his genius.

Don't ge me wrong. "Stages" is beautiful.  He has a new voice coach and his voice is sounding better than it ever has, albeit a bit more conventional than it did.  

But the background music sounds like Muzak to me...  not as interesting.  

There have been articles written about how successful popular music is all similar musically.   Here are some examples:

http://www.dailydot.com/lol/pop-country-6-song-mashup/

http://www.hooktheory.com/blog/i-analyzed-the-chords-of-1300-popular-songs-for-patterns-this-is-what-i-found/

Uggh, like we're just sheep -- baaaah-baaaah -- always going after the same stuff; but Josh wasn't.  Josh was different -- refreshingly different.

To get a "grammy" nomination, he had to become more similar to others.  Ick, ick, ick.  I don't like that. It bothers me.  Not that I hate this album.  I don't.  But I hate that in order to get recognition he had to give up the way he was different.

Still, hopefully, the fact that "Stages" has done so well will give him some flexibility in creating a different sort of album next time.

RIP @elllizibeth

I just got my Josh Groban Stages DVD. It’s damaged. At least the first song doesn’t play properly.  

I also just learned that Elizabeth Hershoff died.  https://www.gofundme.com/elizabethhershoff  Somehow the timing of these two events seems significant to me.

I met Lizzie on twitter, if I recall correctly. We were both fans of Josh Groban. 

At that time, twitter was very new and Josh on twitter was very new.  Josh was in California.  He tended to get on twitter and tweet at about midnight California time.  A bunch of us would sit around by our computers waiting for him to tweet, even tho we were in other time zones and it was very late for us.  We were tweeting about him.

After a while, I think it occurred to us that he was actually reading what we were saying.  I_balls, who was later Violet, started this thing of asking him to tweet.  Curiously, he seemed to tweet just when she asked him to, as if he had been waiting for us to ask.

Then sometimes he would interact with us.  We liked to be on when he started tweeting, because we figured that, if we could respond to his tweet within a few minutes, he would be likely to see it — and even possibly answer.  We tried to get good at making speedy, witty comments on his tweets, because he seemed to enjoy that.

Lizzie was particularly good at this. She also wrote a very funny blog that Josh seemed to like.  He tweeted her over 30 times.  At one point, she was the fan he had tweeted to most of anyone.

Lizzie had interesting opinions.  

She was a public school teacher. Her district in Boulder Colorado had, if I recall correctly, eliminated grading students.  Their students tended to do exceptionally well on national standardized tests.  She cited that as evidence that how students do in school has little to do with pedagogy or grading or any of the standard things that are attempted — and everything to do with their families.  The families in her area were economically comfortable, and well-educated, so their kids would always do well in school, no matter what the school did.

She was an atheist.  She was inspired by Josh’s friend, Cara Santa Maria, to become more publicly atheist. Cara Santa Maria is a very in-your-face atheist — and very smart.  

She also was not a big fan of capitalism. I remember her telling me about a book she read that had as its thesis that our economic system rewards sociopaths — certainly a thought-provoking topic.

Her writing was excellent and biting.  I finally met her in person on Jul 2, 2013 at a Josh concert at the Hollywood Bowl.  In person she sounded quite different from the way she sounded in her writing.  She  was humble and spoke in a small, high voice.  I think she was not aware how different her writing was from how she was in person.

Lizzie was very smart.  She started a thread on FOJG for intellectual discussions.  I used to participate on that thread.  

The thread got deleted at one point. We think it got deleted because I was complaining about how much I missed Lucia in Josh’s concerts.  That was a hint that perhaps someone — probably Josh himself — was sensitive to that topic.

Lizzie was very upset about the deletion.

Other fans became jealous of the attention Josh paid to her.  They started criticizing her. Also, I think some of them did not get her sense of humor, while Josh did.  No one should ever mistake Josh for just a singer or just a musician.  He's a very sharp cookie and voracious speed reader.

It turned out that Lizzie was very sensitive and could not tolerate to be criticized publicly on the Internet.  She asked people to stop, but they only criticized her more and sent especially cruel DMs to her on Josh’s website.  

She began accusing them of bullying.  Then they would assert that they were only arguing or trying to  convince her that she was wrong.  

One of the mods, Backwards1, wrote her privately and told her that her posts were fine and that nastiness between fans had always been a problem on the website — and encouraged her to keep posting.  Some fans suspected that this particular mod was Josh himself.

Lizzie particularly did not like being discussed on other blogs — some of which were very nasty to her indeed.

From my perspective, the idea that you could talk someone out of being very sensitive by mass public criticism over the Internet was utterly absurd.  It also seems to me that, if someone tells you that they can’t tolerate such criticism and you keep doing it after being requested to stop, then you are a bully, even if you think that the person shouldn’t be so sensitive or you think you should be able to talk them out of it.

Jspot was particularly vicious. Several of us complained to Wordpress, but they wouldn’t do anything, which still infuriates me.  Also, Josh, who was probably the only person with enough clout to do anything about that blog, apparently chose to ignore it, rather than try to protect friends and fans who were being attacked.

Louise Miller was also often nasty to her. Louise will deny this, because she deletes this stuff, but it was definitely so.

There were twitter accounts that were registered just for the purpose of attacking Lizzie.  I think I still have some screen images of that somewhere on my computer.  Bullies go after blood.  When they knew she was sensitive and that they could get a rise out of her, they just got worse.

Eventually, she disabled comments on her blog.  Curiously, probably because she was being criticized on widely read websites, her blog was very popular and she typically got at least 500 hits on each post.

She never could get used to being criticized on the Internet.  

Stress damages the immune system. I wonder to what extent the stress she felt over this could have contributed to her getting cancer.

Earlier this year, rumors started flying on various social media about Josh’s personal life. There had always been rumors, but these got nastier than usual, especially from disgruntled ex girlfriends.

Lizzie got obsessed with those rumors and began behaving in a way that was distressing even to those who liked her -- even encouraging one of these ex girlfriends to expose Josh.  Now it appears that her behavior may have been due to the brain cancer that was diagnosed towards the end of the summer.

I do wonder, too, whether the stress of seeing these salacious rumors about Josh, who she loved so very much, could have damaged her health.

When she realized she was dying, she deleted all her social media accounts.  I feel very sad about that, because her blog had some funny/brilliant posts.  

She sent me some messages not to tell anyone she was dying.  She was concerned about all the people who were hostile towards her — and she did not want them to know.

Later, her friend in Boulder created the public gofundme page, so Grobies found out and contributed.  I hope, somehow, she realized before the end that not everyone in Grobania was really hostile towards her.

****

Addendum: 11/19/15 

For those of you who may have joined us recently, Josh's style on twitter changed substantially recently, possibly as a result of the incidents with the rumors.  He's much more professional & less interactive than he used to be -- also less funny, alas.

Also, given that people can delete their social media accounts with no notice, if there's something you really like on there, despite copyright, it would be nice to make copies.

*****

Addendum: 12/5/15

Josh may have read this, because his tweets have suddenly gotten more fun recently.  

A lot of the cyber-bullying attacks against Lizzie were fans, rather self-righteously, "defending" Josh against perceived "attacks."  

This is what Josh himself has been saying on this topic recently

I should also add that I_balls, who was later Violet, left twitter, in part because she did not like the way she was treated by other fans, particularly when Josh tweeted her.

People attacked me, too, quite often, but I was fortunately able to get past it.

**********

Addendum 1/4/16 I was just trying to go back and find all of Josh's tweets to Lizzie.  It turns out that the option to find "all" tweets is gone.  They'll just do "top" tweets.  Still there are quite a few

********

addendum 5/14/16

I saw this piece about a promising trial for treatment of glioblastoma.  It made me think of Lizzie.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/promising-duke-university-polio-brain-cancer-trial-given-breakthrough-status-60-minutes/

Too late for her, alas :'(  but interesting -- using polio virus.

*********

addendum 5/19/16

This article asserts that rates incidence of brain cancer have been flat over the last 20 years, and, therefore concludes, that cell phones do not cause brain cancer.

It's hard to believe that brain cancer rates have been flat, when one has a personal friend who died of brain cancer.

*******

Addendum 10/27/16

Reading articles about brain cancer research and thinking of Lizzie 

http://www.barrons.com/articles/PR-CO-20161026-909438

****

Addendum 4/14/17

Another article about brain cancer, especially glioblastoma research

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2017/04/14/Brain-cancer-vaccine-appears-safe-in-small-trial/2231492176375/

Loretta Lynn concert 11/15/15

I went to see Loretta Lynn perform 11/15/15 -- so not everything on this blog is about Josh Groban

I never really was a country music fan, though I’ve started to like “Home Free,” but I did see the movie “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” so when I saw she was coming to my local music hall I figured I’d better find out what she was about.

I ended up being late to the concert, because I had another thing to do before, but I only missed the opening act, which was a relief.

They really had 2 opening acts.  They had her son sing for a while with her band as well, and then her daughter, before they brought her on, and even when she was on stage, they spelled her by interspersing singing by others — and she sang abbreviated versions of some of the songs. She was visibly out of breath after singing & sat most of the time when singing.  They had someone walk her on and off stage.

Still, for a woman in her 80’s she did very well.  Her voice was clear and strong.  Also there was something about her timing.  I think that’s one of the characteristics that distinguish great musicians — very precise timing, so that they’re not just performing, they seem to be part of the music, like the music is including them rather than being forced out of them.

It was interesting comparing the singing styles between her, her daughter, and her grand daughter.  She had a much clearer sound, while the granddaughter was breathier — and the daughter was singing lower.  That’s an odd trend, recently, it seems like we want men to sing high and women to sing low — like a generation of people who aren’t satisfied with natural sounding voices.  Of the three, I thought Loretta was the best.

She’s apparently been touring all year, despite apparently being somewhat weak.  That’s pretty amazing — IMHO.

I've never thought of these women country singers, with their heavily styled hair and sparkles, as feminists, but I'm realizing, watching this video that they were.  

Still, though, when I saw Loretta Lynn play, the entire band was male.  That seems to be typical: a female singer with a male backup band.  I've talked about this on this blog before.  Celtic "Women"

comparing Stages and ATE/Illuminations

LIstening to the iheart radio concert

I know Stages is winning in the court of public opinion, but I sure liked this stuff from ATE -- especially I really thought Ruslan added a lot.  I find it ironic that because we liked Ruslan so much we funded him to do his own album, so he's not touring with Josh.  Groan. 

Ruslan's album that was funded by the kickstarter is now done.  I don't know if it's available to the public or just to those who funded the kickstarter as yet -- but it's a very fine thing, indeed.  Andre Manga and Mark Stevens came out with their own albums in the past, but I didn't like them as much.

I can't help but wonder, tho, whether Ruslan was particularly attracted to the music from ATE because it was innovative in character -- and whether he wasn't bored by the muzacky stuff on Stages.  He wouldn't tell us, I don't think.  He's said he can't talk about anything about Josh due to non-disclosure agreements.

Of course, I liked Lucia better than Christian as well, but it appears that there's no featured violinist on the current tour at all.  I wonder what that's about. I guess it's about just emphasizing Josh's singing.  

He's also moving around less on the stage than he did in past concerts.  I wonder what that's about as well.  Is he getting older and less energetic?  Has he been advised to stand more still because that will position him better for theater? In my acting classes, they often talk about the power of stillness and avoiding unnecessary gestures and pacing.  The Awake DVD that showed him running full out while singing was pretty impressive -- singing as an athletic activity; but that definitely wouldn't fly on Broadway.

For me, though, when they talk about Josh being classical/pop crossover, what always attracted me was that he was modern classical/pop crossover -- that his stuff was influenced by experimental music, like electronic music.  A piece like Voce Existe em Mim was musically interesting -- unlike anything else out there.  I miss that.

----------

addendum Oh, and remember how Josh used to play the piano at concerts?

@joshgroban at The Beacon Theater 9/29/15

Meet & Greet

So I won a meet & greet for 9/29/15 at The Beacon Theater.  That was remarkable.  It was only because Night Owl reminded me that I even applied — and then we both won them.  

I was so nervous about it that I even forgot to find out whether anyone from FOJG was getting together for dinner before the concert.

I was preparing what I would say to him.  I had a little script.  I forgot to look at it.  I remembered most of it though.

I wanted to tell him both my pseudonyms.  He’s tweeted me as @skysong263 and I’m pretty sure that he has at least sometimes read this blog.  I did that, but did not tell him my real name.  It’s on some list somewhere, certainly at FOJG, but I did not tell him that. I even had pins made up with the photos I use to identify myself.  Unfortunately, I made up the pins a few years back, so I had what’s actually the background picture for my twitter account now, not the parrot, which is my avi.  So he still does not really know who I am, but that’s ok.  It’s not like he’s going to call me.

I gave him a copy of a script of a play I was in this past June.  It was a play that was based on submissions. I submitted my Grobie inspired sketch.  I have posted this sketch on this blog at Grobie Inspired Sketch I wrote it during a sketch writing course back in 2013, just before I was diagnosed with cancer.  The editor/director of the play put all the submissions together into a script.  It turned out to have Josh spoofing as a major theme, so I thought Josh would like a copy of it

Here’s my tweet about it

.@joshgroban the editor/director of the play that I gave U the script 4 was @DanAhrens ; U were played by @JohnnyGriz; venue: @thepitnyc

They guy who played Josh had a really lovely voice.

I also was able to give Josh a private message.  That’s one frustrating thing about twitter is that everything is public.  You can’t tell him something confidential.

I also gave him a printout of a graph my first cousin did showing how Josh is our 11th cousin.  My 1st cousin went back 12 generations to find a Winslow who was a common ancestor with Josh back around the turn of the 17th century.  Josh seemed interested.  He autographed it and handed it back to me.  I pointed out that it was for him.  He said he autographs his own stuff all the time, LOL. 

He seemed quite subdued.  Of course, he’s said that that he turns on when he gets on stage.  We also see that in the “If I walk Away” video that his brother Chris made. If I Walk Away  I see it’s got over 2 million views.  Anyway, it shows Josh being very subdued until he gets on stage when he gets wired and high energy.

I actually got to put my arm around his waist when we were photographed.  I wasn’t sure how I was going to feel about that.  Some fans really want to hug him. That’s not me.  I’m a blogger, not a hugger.  Still, it was ok.  I didn’t freak out.  Darren had wanted us to put our arms around his shoulders, but how do you do that  when you’re shorter and he has his arm around your shoulder? That doesn’t make sense.  

I forgot to tell him that I am a faith healer and that I’ve been told that I have extraordinary hands — with healing power in my hands.  Hopefully he benefitted.

I also forgot to ask him whether he called Stevie Wonder yet.

Josh sang one of Stevie's songs on the last album.  During a couple of interviews promoting the last album, he reported that Stevie had sought to write a song with him -- saying maybe they would save the world with the song.  Stevie has obviously some interest in something like my Quixotic Quest -- please note explanatory blog Explanatory Blog for Quixotic Quest  Josh said in those interviews that he felt too intimidated by Stevie to call him. I've been periodically tweeting Josh asking him if he's called Stevie Wonder yet.  I wanted to ask him in person, but forgot -- an omission from my Quixotic Quest -- and that's not good.

I blogged about this Stevie Wonder issue before Open Letter to Stevie Wonder

Now on to the concert

Josh did sound very good in the concert.

In prior years there have been issues.  I blogged about that Changes in Josh's Voice Blog  He was straining on high notes. Also he was making funny faces and bending over strangely ( twisting his head) when singing.  Voice teachers remarked that this seemed like poor singing technique. This was particularly a problem during the Straight To You Tour.

I know Josh wants to perform on Broadway, but I doubted he could be cast with these issues, even tho his fans love him.

I had noticed that the high note straining problem seemed better in the more recent recordings. Reportedly Josh has a new voice coach.  This is reputed to be her

http://www.playbillvault.com/Person/Detail/887/Kristen-Allen-Blodgette  

I am very grateful to this person.  He’s really sounding a whole lot better.

Still, “Bring Him Home” is very high and I heard him sounding strained when singing it on a TV show.

In fact his performance was nearly flawless and his falsetto in “Bring Him Home” was very full and relaxed.

He never bent over while singing, twisted his head strangely, or made screwy facial expressions. Well, I was not right near the front, so he might have made subtle funny expressions, but not that I could see from where I was.

Also, he had sometimes tended to sing back in his throat at times.  That seems to have vanished as well. I’m not quite sure if I like that part.  I know it’s better technique to sing in the front of the mouth, but his back singing seemed very emotional and sobby, so I was sort of drawn to it.

Now, if you know me, you know I never blog without complaining about something, so here goes.

In the first half, the sound quality was poor.  Josh’s voice was distorted.  All of its beautiful subtlety was lost.  It was also overloud. 

I ended up putting in ear plugs in the first half, not so much because it was too loud as because the ear plugs seemed to remove the distortion.  There was a similar situation in Newark during the STY tour, when I heard him there.  I wonder if Josh is hanging on to some incompetent sound guy.

Fortunately, miraculously, in the second half, things sounded better.  I double checked with the lady next to me and she agreed that the sound was better in the second half.

Obviously, someone complained during intermission.  It wasn’t me.  I didn’t get around to tweeting about it.  I’m thinking maybe it was Kat, because she was around there somewhere.  People saw her going in and out.

But at least there was an intermission, which there typically has not been before.  Someone got through their heads that women of a certain age, who are frequently Josh fans, have to pee fairly often.  The line at the restroom was crazy: around the basement, up the stairs, and past the generously sized bar.  Taking advantage of intermission was challenging.  The men of course had virtually no line.

Ruslan, sadly, was not there at the concert.  We all liked his playing so much that we payed into a kickstarter so that he could come out with an album.  As a result, he is busy recording an album right now.  That’s sort of ironic.  One pays into a kickstarter, because one likes to hear him playing, which means that one DOESN’T get to hear him.

In general the accompaniment was quiet, unobtrusive, and not particularly musically interesting.  

I miss the more  avant guard aspects of Josh’s music from Josh’s prior albums.  I always considered him the first mainstream new music/modern classical singer.  He wasn’t purely pop classical crossover.  There was an edge to what he did.

Accompaniment is pleasant but uninspired on this album as well as on this tour.

Josh is apparently not touring with a concert master/mistress this time.  They used a local orchestra and chorus for this concert.  There was a woman sitting in the first violin chair. I have no idea who that was.  Josh didn’t introduce her.   They don’t give out free programs at this type of concert, so I couldn’t look her up.  In any case, no Christian — and certainly no Lucia (who I always preferred)

He had another performer there, Lena Hall, who he sang two duets with and who sang two solos from her own album.  I did not care for her voice.  During the June private concert, he sang with Sierra Bogges — and a bootleg video came out of that .  I much prefer Sierra’s voice to Lena’s.  But I guess Sierra is in an active Broadway show and therefore not available to tour.

Josh did not play drums or piano, as he normally has during his prior concerts. I thought that was nice when he did that in the past, partly because i like to hear him play, but also because it broke up the concert a bit more. I missed him playing -- and having him always standing in front without moving around much or playing the piano was a tad dull.  

Even though the sound was cleaned up in the second half, the lyrics of “Move On” were garbled due to sound issues.  One of my friends could not even distinguish what song was being sung, despite being long term fan who has all his albums.

Over all, I would say that it was not nearly so exciting a concert as the one in the Allen Room Allen Room Concert report

I may add more later.

@lang_lang @nyphil 9/24/15

In the summer of 2014, I subscribed to the 2014-15 season of the New York Philharmonic, because Josh was the featured performer in the opening gala, and the only way you could see that performance was to subscribe.  I got the absolute cheapest subscription — sitting up in the 3rd tier.

One thing that immediately struck me, listening to the orchestra was that the violins sounded different from what I was used to with orchestras. They sounded much clearer — and fully synchronized, so that they sounded like a single instrument.  It was a mesmerizing sound.  

I’ve never been much of a violin fan.  I have auditory sensitivities.  Violins are generally not compatible with me.  The only exception has been Lucia Micarelli, who I’ve mentioned before, my favorite violinist.

But it was this intriguing sound that hooked me.

I decided to renew and be a subscriber this year as well.

One time last spring I got to speak with a long time subscriber, and she said that there was a temporary concert mistress — and that this temporary person had dramatically  improved the sound of the orchestra.

I decided to renew this year, even tho Josh wasn’t performing.

The opening gala this time featured Lang Lang.  I had seen him on YouTube before, notably playing flight of the bumble bee on an iPad.  I wanted to see him in person, so I signed up for the gala.

I really fell for him as a performer. 

His playing is like liquid gold — so smooth, subtle, nuanced.  He’s something of a ham, as well, acting out the feelings he has for the music, as he plays.  He’s entertaining to watch as well as listen to.  

I noticed that one of the guys in my box elected to wear a sleep mask during Lang Lang’s performance, apparently wanting to focus on the sound rather than the visuals.  I noticed he took the mask off for the Beethoven Symphony that Lang Lang was not participating in.  It was a bit spooky.  I hope he isn’t dangerous.

Anyway, Lang Lang is able to convey the impression that the piece he is playing is totally fresh — that his playing is not due to following music on a printed page, but improvised spontaneously in the moment in response to what he is hearing.  Everyone else is staring at the music.  He is listening actively.  He has great stage presence.

There was a new concert master.  Unfortunately for me, the violins had gone back to normal.  They did not sound like a single instrument.  They sounded like a group of performers, due to tiny variations in timing.  That eerie, preternatural clarity and crispness was gone.

I suppose there is no reason to prefer them all sounding like a single performer, other than novelty.  I suppose I'm being unsophisticated for preferring that, but still I like the sound I heard during Josh's concert.

Curiously, Lang Lang passed the bouquet he was given to woman who I think is the former temporary concert mistress.  That made me wonder if he, too, noticed the difference and liked the former version better, not that he would likely say anything.