Recitals and Espresso

 This week we marked two events that were a long time in coming. The first was a live movie music recital, and the second was the brewing of our own espresso.

The recital was booked back in June, and I went back and forth wondering whether the hall would be packed or whether we would be playing to an audience of maybe ten people. It turned out that the hall was packed.

I also went back and forth wondering whether we were doing something that was incredibly self-indulgent and narcissistic (Here, everyone! Come listen to us play a bunch of music that we like) or incredibly generous. (We will pay to hire any accompanist and won't charge admission to this concert so that we can share music that you all apparently liked during the pandemic)

The lead-up to the recital was very different than any of our school recitals. Back when we were students we didn't have to change any diapers before the recital or teach James about the Assyrians. For me, playing a solo recital is a very different animal than playing an orchestra concert. Orchestra concerts happen every weekend, and in any given show there might be 45 seconds of total music when I'm playing something that is alone/exposed. At really big shows (playing principal on the Messiah with Trumpet Shall Sound) I might be exposed for a whole three minutes. A recital is an hour of exposure.

But this one was different...there was a sense throughout the whole process that it was just going to be fun and that we wouldn't take it too seriously because it was more about J and I getting to do something together than it was about the quality of the trumpet/flute playing. (Which was still, I think, pretty good)

We got to the hall about an hour early (after noticing that the van didn't start very easily) and asked the kids not to run laps in the empty performance hall. So we warmed up while the kids ran laps in the empty performance hall. A few people poked their heads in, and then Nama/Papa/Aunt Martha arrived to take the boys off of our hands.

It ended up being a packed hall. And it was a great audience. When you are performing you can sometimes tell if the audience is bored/losing focus, and it felt like ours was hanging with us through each tune. On the program were Princess Leia's Theme (because it was the original arrangement in the project, and is still one of the most equal duets in our folder), Wall Rat (because it is such a good flute showcase, and also because Paris), Little Women (because the film is so meaningful and beloved to J, and also because it shows off piccolo trumpet. We also found out once we started rehearsing that it was a childhood favorite of our pianist), and then the Escapades Suite, of which we'd recorded the first movement but none of the others. That suite was the most complete "concert piece" on the program, and we build everything else around that. We took a brief intermission, then did Far and Away (because it was far and away the most popular video that we posted), an arrangement of the Easter Hymn with For the Beauty of the Earth based on J.F.K. (because we thought that we should do some sacred music at Roberts), a suite from Harry Potter (Sirius' Escape, Family Portrait, Hagrid's Friendly Bird, and Quidditch), and then Married Life from Up! to close. (Because this recital was really as much about J and I getting to do something together as it was about flute and trumpet.

And then, when we had finally said goodbye to everyone, taken all the photos, and loaded up the van...it wouldn't start.

So we unloaded the van, called around to any friends in the area who we thought might still be conscious, called the insurance roadside assistance line, and tried to make the best of the situation. At some point (culprit and time still unknown) someone threw up on Felix's carseat, and it reeked the entire way back to our house, stinking up our friend Joy's van. I got a jump from roadside assistance, and was home by about 11. It was not the most elegant end to the evening.

Speaking of things that we've dabbled in but have never fully committed to until now and are henceforth likely to have in our life on a very regular basis, we are brewing our own espresso. This has been in the pipeline since Paris, although we did mess around with a beginner level machine that Oliver and Kylie gave us for a while (getting some decent results) and a moka pot on the stove. (Getting less than decent results.)

We ordered a proper grinder a few months ago, but it was an international order and didn't ship until just last week. With the grinder on the way we ordered the actual machine we'd been waiting on, and it beat the grinder by a week. We didn't want to wait, so we've been pulling shots of my homeroasted Yirgacheffe the last few days with our entry level conical grinder. It's way too much fun. And it's way too expensive of a hobby to get fully immersed in. But if you happen to be stopping by anyway, let us make you a cup of espresso sometime soon...we're getting better with each shot.