st. daddy's day!

dad and daughter had a date tonight :)

i drove to san jose, picked him up, took him to dinner, started with a glass of champagne and went to the silicon valley symphony. it was fabulous. greer and dad have season tickets with the "best seats in the house" or so he says lol. they are first row in the grand stand and admittedly steller considering i'm typically stuck behind the tallest dude in the place in venues like that. the california theatre was built in the 20's and closed in the late 90's for a 5 year, 75 million dollar renovation and opened in all it's former glory 5 years ago with hand painted art deco and gold guilt ceilings, ornate stucco work and cool, different lighting. now, i'm not a huuuuge fan of art deco but all the detail and artistry is breathtaking and a vision of how i can only imagine, old buildings in europe are made, with a love of tradition and little care for cost or timing.

and the music...! "hypnotically repetitive yet infinitely exciting,... proof that in the right hands, one simple melodic motive can be spun into endless sonic variety. The melody itself is reminiscent of the traditional, seductively sinuous cante jondo singing style of the Spanish gypsies. Ravel (the composer) chose a large orchestra filled with the most colorful timbres in each instrumental group. Each repetition of the melody either explores a different instrumental timbre, or uses another instrument to double the melody at the octave or some other interval, creating a unique combination of sounds. Departing bolding from traditional rules of variation, thematic development, counterpoint, and contrast, Ravel replaces them with repetition and a gradually increasing accumulation of multi-hued sonorities."

during the performance i found myself playing a little game of sensory "concentration," like the game with cards where you have to recall where the matching pair is to the card you just flipped over, the orchestra had visual and auditory elements to match. was that a bassoon or an oboe and could you find them in the woodwind section? a piccolo or flute? is that really what a glockenschpiel looks like? it got tiresome after a bit but for the bolero! performance you were kept on your toes because of the many instrumental highlights.

complete with door-to-door service, the performance concluded and i dropped him off at home before driving back to SF. happy 66th bday, dad :)