I have been sick for about 10 days with another horrible cold. I can’t quite decide whether I should go to this concert. I don’t want to sit there disturbing the people around me with my coughing. But when I meet Jon for lunch he is really hoping I will come. So I do.
With the exception of a bad encounter with the hotel front desk when I tried to check in and they made me call John to get permission to do so, I have a really nice day. I ride over with John and drop him at work. I do some shopping, meet Jonathan for lunch at Max’s, and finally check into the hotel. Later John and I go out to dinner at Mistral in Redwood Shores. It is a restaurant that we used to go to when we had the condo. The food is very good.
Then we head over to Stanford for the performance at Bing Concert Hall. In the first half the orchestra plays a piece by John Adams called The Chairman Dances. It’s about Madame Mao and Chairman Mao. It has some interesting parts. Then they play Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, Op.14. This piece is a little more mainstream. After the intermission the Chorus and the Orchestra join forces for Francis Poulenc’s Gloria. I believe I can hear Jonathan! All in all a lovely day with my best guys!
