Symphony (and Cake)

I made two cakes for the annual scout cake auction: a butterfly and a Candy Land cake. I was unable to actually go to the cake auction because I had symphony tickets. The kids went, and we let them buy a cake. Meanwhile Glenn and I left early for the symphony because there were several other big events downtown. The concert was called “The Spy Who Loved Me” and featured a lot of James Bond music. The conductor came out as James Bond and started to mix a martini. But a stage hand came out and erected a mini “Zion curtain” to be Utah legal. There was also some Henry Mancini and other spy-themed music. Rachel York was the guest vocalist. She signed our program afterward.

Saturday was our last Utah Symphony concert of the season. It was so good. First they played Copland’s “Salon Mexico” to sort of fit Cinco de Mayo. Then they did “Rhapsody in Blue” with a guest pianist, Benyamin Nuss, from Germany. He did about five cadenzas that included improvisation. He was stunning. Why did I ever think I could play the piano? He got a standing ovation and three curtain calls, so he did an encore. Then there was the intermission and finally Rimsky-Korsakav’s “Scherherazade.” It was so familiar, like I’d heard it a hundred times, but I don’t own a copy of it, so that bewildered me. (I later found out it’s my dad’s favorite piece, so I must have heard him play the record many times.) There were a lot of good clarinet solos. It seems the clarinet is often left out. There were also some good oboe and cello passages.