Velvet seats, up and to the left.

It starts out gently, just strings softly rolling. The sky is grey and cold, and there is a bit of despair (I think Russia is often in despair- I mean, they have Siberia), but it is time to think about facing the threat at hand, so you can get back to the work of growing kartopfels and making Stolichynaya. So, you straighten your babushka, point your young men towards those darn French, following their little Napoleon, and say "Kaniez!" (Short for "Eta Kaniez"= it's over little man, take your pretty coat and your ulcer and head on outta here.)
Then they see the French, and the rattattat of the drums and the brass lets you know "Here come Frenchies, and we're going to party like it's 1812."
Bah bahbahbupbah bupbah bup bah baaah.
The strings then take back over- a little frantic, maybe Russia's should've seen this coming. Better move faster! And then it builds louder and faster until crash! Scurry! Here comes that brass again, steady and sure. Strings are now rushing all over the place, back and forth, so fast you can hardly see the bows. You feel the pressure building and then...soft, gentle strings; "We may be a bunch of Russian peasants, but we're pretty tough. I mean, we have Siberia. We can live off a potato and some snow for about a month. Good luck finding pate fois gras here, boys."
And the strings and the brass duke it out until the finale- Cannons. You gotta love a guy who thinks of a cannon as an instrument. Thank you, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

And, thank you Columbus Symphony, joined by the Brass Band of Columbus last night at the beautiful, ornate, old Ohio Theatre. This was Eldest's Christmas present from her parents. An experiential gift. When musing about what to give her for Christmas, it seemed to me that one of the greatest desires of a 15 year old girl is still playing dress up. So, to make it a dress up occasion that would also educate, we chose to take her and two of her best friends to dinner and the Symphony. The three are all musicians, Eldest with her flute and the other two play clarinet. One of them also is the Drum Major for the Marching Band. The girls all arrived around noon to have lunch and begin preparation. The ace in the hole for the prep work was good family friend Elizabeth- with a flair for the dramatic, and 4 years of Show Choir under her belt. She arrived with her boxer, Otis, and hairspray that would even keep my hair curly, plus- plenty of ability.

Otis, with his girls; Elizabeth (hair extraordinaire), K.(clarinet), J. (clarinet) and Eldest (flute)

Fresh faces, ready to prepare!

Those are the befores. Then, some time later- Middlest brought home from horse workout by friend TMJ, TMJ and daughter stay for a uncomplicated lunch and a wonderful chat, a few barn chores, checking periodically on progress and the still frozen pipes in the bathroom.....and








Voici! (or in Russian.. because, after all, they did win- Zdyays!)

K, J and Eldest

So, it became necessary that I found something to wear.
To be forthcoming, my Mimi found something to wear. Sometime in the 60's probably. In creme colored wool with a high turned collar, hand beaded in grey and white pearls. I guess that would be "vintage". Huz rolled in from teaching a weekend course to throw on a sport coat and open doors. Off we went to The Big City.
I had made us reservations at a little tapas place a few blocks north of the capitol building. I chose tapas as I wanted the girls to try some new things, and tapas is multiple tries with smaller committments. Remember, experiential gifting.

They did well. I saw mushroom empanadas, pepper chicken, crab and almond, veal meatballs, salmon on sweet potato hash, carmelized cheese, pork tenderloin, spicy potatoes, calamari zarzuela (okay, those squids were in Huz's bowl, but Eldest sampled) and molten chocolate cakes go down. I also saw about 21 soft drink refills happen. That was not part of my plan.


We then piled back in the car for the short drive to the Ohio Theatre. Can I just mention here that valet parking is the bomb? With 4 inches of slush everywhere and 4 young ladies (hey, I'm kinda young. Gram's turning 100...) in shoes not primarily of rubber, the kind sir in the valet box running to get our car in subzero temps is a bit of hero.
The Theater is beautiful. Such a drastic change from a modern day movie theater. We had seats chosen for us by a Symphony consultant who claimed the sound was best in the nearly nosebleed area. She was so right. It sounded like we were in a sound tunnel, every note so true and clear. Everything about the theater is ornate. Marble, rich carpets, ormulu everywhere, damask walls, velvet seats, gold fringe, even the exit signs are stained glass. A tall usher in black tie helped us to our seats and gave us a program, bid the girls an enjoyable evening.
A special bonus for the evening was the girls Band Instructor, Smith, is in the Brass Band of Columbus, and they were assisting the Symphony during the finale of the 1812 Overture. The girls ran into her during intermission. Even better to know someone on stage!
The first two pieces, Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, Opus 25 and Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme for cello were very nice. The cellist was a 19 year old! His name is Julian Schwarz and he was magnificent. What impressed the girls the most was he did the whole piece, and an encore, about 24 minutes of music- without music. It was all memorized. I did not notice this atall. Tells you my musical abilities.
After intermission was a wonderful piece by Prokofiev called Suite from Lieutenant Kije, Opus 60. He wrote it as the score for the movie of the same name made in the 1930s. The movie was deemed unflattering to the Russian government and was never released, but the Suite lives on,  and is wonderful. It is a true,humorous narraration of a fictitious Lieutenant, created by a typo, but the myth was sustained and perpertrated by the army men who didn't want to get sent to Siberia by the crazy Russian Czar, Paul I. The Czar took a shining to the name, Kije, and would ask about him. The brass made up all sorts of stories of the exploits of the fictitious Kije, and the Czar kept promoting him. He even set Kije up to be married, and there was a false wedding with an absentee groom. Eventually, Paul wanted to meet Kije, and poor, swashbuckling Kije had to die. The Czar even attended the funeral, with an empty coffin. The music is as fantastical as the tale of Lieutenant Kije. Thoroughly enjoyable.
And then, the finale:
It starts out gently, strings rolling........