The Golden Muse

Friday
This morning we went to a Cincinnati Symphony concert at Music Hall down in Cincinnati. We ‘ve never been to a morning concert before, but these tickets were a thank you from Cincinnati Public radio for our subscription, and included breakfast beforehand. We hadn’t booked tickets for this weekends concerts, so we were glad to accept! Cincinnati Public radio encompasses three stations, two of which we listen to regularly - WGUC is my station, classical music, and WVXU is Roger’s station - news and talk programs! We’d had another inch or so of snow overnight, but the roads were clear, and in fact the amount of snow diminished as we drove south into the city. Breakfast began at 9.30 - I guess we got there about 9.50 - and consisted of juice, coffee and a wide selection of muffins, breads, and fruit. We recognized one couple there - former colleagues of Rogers, who we quite often see at the concerts- so we sat at their table and chatted with them and another couple. Obviously, being a weekday morning concert, many of the people there are senior citizens, and I guess quite a number of them had been deterred by the weather, as there were quite a number of empty tables, and heaps of food left over! The first piece was by a contemporary female composer, Caroline Shaw, and was different, but quite pleasant, followed by Shostakovich Concerto Number 1 for piano, trumpet and string orchestra, and the second half was Prokofiev Suite from Romeo and Juliet, which I love. After the concert we had a little walk around Washington Park which faces Music Hall. On the far side of the Park is this impressive mural, called The Golden Muse. This mural features a figurine from an 18th century mantle clock in the Taft Museum of Art’s collection. The figure becomes a mythological music muse as the notes to Aaron Copland’s Fanfare for the Common Man (written for the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and originally performed at Music Hall in 1942) fly off the page and into the sky. From there we went for lunch at nearby Salazar’s. As we arrived home, Roger’s phone was buzzing in his pocket, and it was our daughter Laura calling from Kuwait, calling to tell us about her week, including her choirs two performances of Mozart’s Requiem. The rest of the afternoon/evening were spent quietly at home.