2000-05-10

Background Music: The Best of Etta James, 20th Century Masters, The Millenium Collection. After a very aggravating morning yesterday, I decided I needed a little retail therapy, and hied myself over to Border’s, where I picked up this cd for ten bucks. Although I think of her as a jazz singer, this album is a whole lotta soul. Either way, this lady is fucking fantastic.

So I was flipping through the season schedule sent to me by the Ravinia, and it turns out that on June 30th, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, along with Pinchas Zuckerman (world-renowned violinist and conductor) and Pamela Frank (might be world-renowned, but I've never heard of her, which means little), are performing my most favorite piece of classical music, ever.

Of course, they're playing several other pieces also that night, but it's Bach's Double Violin Concerto that has me on pins and needles of anticipation.

I don't know what it is about this particular piece. My mother sent me a cassette tape when I was at MHC of some Bach violin music, and I thought the Concerto for Two Violins was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard. I still do. I wore out a cassette tape before moving on to a CD, and I have never thought, "oh, not that old tune again."

Maybe it’s something about the way the sound builds, with the two violins dancing their own individual, circling solos around each other. I don’t know enough about music to describe why I find it so overwhelming to play this concerto on a stereo at a high volume, close my eyes and lay down on the floor and just feel the sound of the music.

All I know is that I’ve been looking for years to find a live performance of this piece, and now I have, in one of the best concert venues in Chicago, with the brilliant CSO.

Ravinia is an excellent outdoor music venue in a wooded park, where concert-going rituals for some people have become very elaborate over the years. I first found this out years ago when my friend Christine and I went to Ravinia to hear Ella Fitzgerald sing.

Ella was my first jazz love. I wore out two different copies of her 2 volume Cole Porter Songbook on cassette. She sang at Ravinia a couple of years before she died, and I was so excited to have the chance to see her. We sat on the lawn, not having the money for pavilion seats at 20 years old, and Ella was so very tiny on that stage. But the woman could still sing scat like nobody's business.

Listening to her, Christine and I were splitting, I believe, a bag of Doritos and a couple of Cokes. We had had no idea about the possibilities for showmanship on the Ravinia lawn. The couple next to us, sitting on their white linen tablecloth, were sipping champagne out of crystal flutes that shone in the light of the eight white candles of the silver candelabra they had resting on the wicker picnic basket.

We felt so gauche.

So I was very excited to see the Bach Concerto in this season’s line-up of events, and immediately emailed J. to ask if he wanted to come with me to hear his. He’ll be here by then, and when we visited the Chateau St. Michelle winery when I visited him last time, he pointed out to me the soundstage where they have outdoor concerts in the summer. It reminded me of Ravinia and I described that to him. He said then that he’d love to see a concert at Ravinia, although I believe we were talking about finding a Chris Isaak concert date at the time.

He said yes to the Bach though, as I thought he would, and I’ll buy the tickets later this week. Ravinia has both pavilion and lawn seats, and I am undecided as to which I’d prefer here. Although normally I prefer the lawn, where you can spread out with food and drink and such, I might want to sit in the pavilion for this. You can't really see the stage from the lawn.

On the other hand, I can't think of anything I'd rather do than sit under some tall trees and listen to the violins play the most beautiful piece of music I've ever heard.