Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto: For The First and Hundredth Time

Yesterday we learned that the violinist scheduled to play the Tchaikovsky concerto with us was ill and not going to be able to make.  Today in the dress rehearsal before the concert we met her replacement soloist, an energetic and thoroughly capable young virtuoso from Korea.  It's exciting to do a performance with only one run-through, albeit of a very familier concerto.  It sets up an atmosphere of expectation and uncertainty, the opportunity for heightened awareness when two parties must dance together as strangers.  She stepped out on stage in a shiny red dress and tore into.

And yet my attention was stolen by a dangerously cute member of the audience sitting in the front row and made suddenly visible by the shifting of the violins to make room.  She wore pink, her legs stuck straight out over the front of the seat, her mouth hung open as she stared and absorbed.  At times her mother looked over at her, watched her watching, watched her take it in, knowingly giving her this experience.  And this caring guardianship also overtook my focus more than the shiny red dress in front of me.

I remember going to Music Hall in Cincinnati with my father when I was very young.  I wore the most beautiful dress in the world and a rainbow glass-beaded tiara.  I remember sitting there and watching and listening, often falling asleep at some point and jerked awake by the applause around me.  Sometimes my feet were jittery or my tights itched.  But I also remember a concert that I don't completely remember; it being the most beautiful piece I had ever heard.  I think it must have been Yo-Yo Ma playing the Haydn D Major Cello Concerto because my father gave me this CD for my birthday that year.

It must be incredible to watch a child learn and grow from day to day.  To nurture them and discover a new way of loving.  I feel lucky to have been on a such a receiving end and I'm always touched to see this love delivered and so openly received, whether it is on a the train ride home, or biking to nursery school, or sharing an experience of music together.