Walk This Way

Today was like a day in Italy.

The weather was beautiful and I spent the day walking everywhere.

The only thing missing was the overly-forward men leering and saying inappropriate things.

Ah, Italian men.

First there was the hilly walk to the Bottom in search of lunch, a challenge after 2:00 we discovered.

Eventually we found settled in at Globehopper for sandwiches in the sunny room surrounded by people on laptops.

The walk back up the hill was far shadier, but still temperate enough to convince me I wanted an evening of the same.

Playing tourist, we stopped to admire the public art along Main Street, notable mainly for how inoffensive and uninteresting it was.

Really, in the city with the number one sculpture school in the country we can't find better large scale  sculpture?

After cleaning up and a change into evening attire, it was soon time to set out for Balliceaux and Classical Incarnations with members of the Richmond Symphony playing in small chamber group iterations.

The music began with a duo who morphed into a trio.

Next up was a guy on upright bass with a looping pedal, so I saw the equivalent of Dave Watkins done classically.

Very cool.

Next came a guy on guitar doing a Steve Reich composition with 16 guitar parts. As he explained it, it had been written in the 1980s and to do it all himself, he'd had to record all 16 tracks individually.

Tonight, he'd recorded all but one, saying, "Now I'm doing it with a laptop."

The New Age sounding piece was a dense layering of guitars.

We went on to hear a duo do a piece they said demonstrated Prokofiev's beautiful harmonies and did it ever.

Then came a favorite, a Brahms horn trio for piano, violin and French horn.

The horn player called it, "The quintessential chamber music for horn players."

I knew two of the three.

 Russell Wilson, the Symphony's pianist tore it up, even turning up the volume on his keyboard early on.

Treesa Gold's blond hair was flying as she got into her part and the horn player looked blissed out.

After intermission, they did a Brahms sonata that came about after another violinist and Russell had been jamming (i.e., sight-reading at a practice) on it last week.

It was a mashup of lullaby and lively.

Singer Lisa did two songs ("In English!") to Russell's accompaniment while the guy next to me noted, "This is chick music."

There were so many things I could have said, but why ruin a lovely Italian day?

My hands-down favorite piece was by Hayden and affectionately called "The Rider" for its galloping rhythms on two violins, viola and cello.

 A demented waltz by Shostakovitch was a killer finish as I looked around to see a roomful of  classical nerds smiling broadly at this madcap ending.

From classical music, we set out again, this time for Live at Ipanema and dessert.

Double chocolate cake and Franco Serra Dolcetta d'Alba took care of the last course of the day as the band set up.

Ocean vs. Daughter was playing so while we still had keyboards, it was quite a change from what we'd just heard.

More Tori Amos, less long hair music.

And definitely more D.I.Y., with photographer P.J. Sykes saving the day by finding a piece of cinder block for the cellist to prop his instrument against.

There were friends to talk to- musicians, a teacher out too late, and restaurant types - all out looking for music to end their weekend.

Lead singer Flanna began solo but soon we got the benefit of Kevin's drums (and background vocals) and the cello.

Her material done alone was of the confessional girl sort, but it was the louder songs that won over the crowd.

Or maybe that was just me.

They did a song they'd never played out before ("We'll see what happens") and nailed it.

And then it was over and time to head out into the still decidedly un-December like weather.

In other words, it was a lovely walk home.

Unlike in Italy, though, we passed no gelaterias or pastry shops open late along the way.

Still, a midnight walk is always to be appreciated, whether here or in the land of the leer.