The highlight of Saturday was the evening concert we attended at the Blosil’s house. The Blosils are on the board of the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition, so they hosted a “salon” at their house Saturday evening. Stephen Beus (incidentally, the husband of one of my mission friends!), a former Bachauer gold medalist, Julliard grad, and current piano professor at BYU, gave a splendid performance.
He played:
Mendelssohn piano sonata in E major, opus 6 Mendelssohn wrote this at age sixteen, and the piece is full of teenage angst. I forgot to listen for the teenage angst, which Abe heard and found delightful.
Liszt Ballad No. 2 in b Minor This is the story of Hero and Leander. My favorite part was Hero’s death, which is reminiscent of the way Chopin’s Ballad No. 1 ends. I also enjoyed the meeting of Hero and Leander in heaven, where the theme switches to a sublime B major. B major was Liszt’s “heaven”–not just in this piece, but in his others too.
Bach-Liszt Organ Fantasy and Fugue in g Minor Liszt got carried away in some of his transcriptions. In this one, he literally transposed every single note of Bach’s organ piece (including pedal parts!!) and put it on the piano.
Before this highlight, we spent a lot of Saturday feeling tired. I baked another chocolate prune cake. I made one earlier this week and it soared to the top of our “family favorites” list. I got it from the cookbook, “Have Your Cake and Eat It Too,” a book I bought because of the title. None of the desserts actually captured my imagination until I went on my diet, and now I am completely enthralled with this book. I read it every day.
Our only other picture from the day is of Lydia playing in the snow.
