I'm not sure if I grasped the form of Chen Yi's Ballad, Dance, and Fantasy, which Yo-Yo Ma and the Singapore Symphony played at Lincoln Center last night, but the brooding first movement contains some of the most fantastic orchestral combinations I've heard in years: solo cello over deep winds, soft string glissandos and harmonics, whispered chants from the percussion section. For more on this concert, read Justin Davidson.... Are all students in the NYC area aware of Lincoln Center's hot student-ticket deal? For $20 you can get the best available seat in the house at any Great Performers, Mostly Mozart, or Lincoln Center Festival show. Most orchestras and performing-arts centers have a deal like this. Classical Music wants Young People! If you are in your late thirties or early forties and beginning to feel a little ragged round the edges, you will find Classical Music rejuvenating, because if you are under the age of 45 you are effectively pubescent.... New blogs: Sound Bites, Laurel Letters.... Excellent thoughts on the audience question from Jeffery Cotton.... Can't argue with Jessica, but our hearts were with Deltrice.... I've run aground at five items in Terry Teachout's "Ten Things I've Done That You Probably Haven't" contest, but here they are: 1. I once finished shelving adult titles as a video-store clerk in time to go to dinner at Katharine Graham’s house with Charles Krauthammer and Yo-Yo Ma. 2. I played four different recordings of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto simultaneously on the radio. 3. I was served tea by Richard Strauss’ housekeeper. 4. I spent a family vacation visiting Canadian asbestos mines. 5. I blew out a cylinder in my 1989 Hyundai Excel in Billings, Montana, then kept driving until I reached DC. Hello, old friend!
