We usually go downtown to the symphony on Sunday afternoon, then drive home and call it a day. But yesterday we were culture vultures! Out of the house by 10:00, starting with the Seattle Art Museum, lunch, then a pre-concert lecture, and finally the concert. Whew!
Seattle Art Museum has two special exhibits going: Alexander Calder: A Balancing Act, and Michelangelo Public and Private.
The Michelangelo exhibit was built around a few original drawings in pen and red chalk. Not wanting to appear imperfect to the world, Michelangelo burned most of his sketches, making these scraps especially precious. The most interesting by far was a menu he scribbled on the back of an old letter, showing pictures of exactly what he wanted for dinner that night. He probably gave it to an illiterate servant at some work site.
You see mobiles everywhere now, and Calder mobiles have been reproduced so often you have to remind yourself these were once incredibly original creations. The exhibit filled three large galleries, and they were beautiful and elegant. Just about the entire exhibit was on loan from the Jon Shirley private sculpture collection. The Shirleys' have a big old mansion in Medina, but still it's hard to imagine the domestic space to show off all those big those mobiles (along with his vintage Ferrari collection.)
After the Museum, on to the Rock Bottom Brewery. Here is John waiting patiently for his lunch.
Everything we did was in walking distance, so after lunch we strolled off to Benaroya Hall for the pre-concert lecture on Baroque music. This time the talk was an interview between the guest conductor Nicholas McGehan and the locally based art critic/writer musician/chef Bernard Jacobsen. (If you want an inferiority complex, just read Bernard Jacobson's bio.) Both men are British, so it was a lively interchange and funny talk, considering the "egghead" subject matter.
The concert was all Baroque music which I enjoy, but to an untrained ear (like mine) much of it sounds the same. But this program had variety, with two Handel organ concertos and some opera "incidental" music by Purcell and Rameau. The guest conductor McGehan is often referred to as the "energizer bunny of Baroque music" so it was fun to watch from the 4th row.
Hope everyone had a good weekend!
Seattle Art Museum has two special exhibits going: Alexander Calder: A Balancing Act, and Michelangelo Public and Private. The Michelangelo exhibit was built around a few original drawings in pen and red chalk. Not wanting to appear imperfect to the world, Michelangelo burned most of his sketches, making these scraps especially precious. The most interesting by far was a menu he scribbled on the back of an old letter, showing pictures of exactly what he wanted for dinner that night. He probably gave it to an illiterate servant at some work site.
You see mobiles everywhere now, and Calder mobiles have been reproduced so often you have to remind yourself these were once incredibly original creations. The exhibit filled three large galleries, and they were beautiful and elegant. Just about the entire exhibit was on loan from the Jon Shirley private sculpture collection. The Shirleys' have a big old mansion in Medina, but still it's hard to imagine the domestic space to show off all those big those mobiles (along with his vintage Ferrari collection.)
After the Museum, on to the Rock Bottom Brewery. Here is John waiting patiently for his lunch.
Everything we did was in walking distance, so after lunch we strolled off to Benaroya Hall for the pre-concert lecture on Baroque music. This time the talk was an interview between the guest conductor Nicholas McGehan and the locally based art critic/writer musician/chef Bernard Jacobsen. (If you want an inferiority complex, just read Bernard Jacobson's bio.) Both men are British, so it was a lively interchange and funny talk, considering the "egghead" subject matter.
The concert was all Baroque music which I enjoy, but to an untrained ear (like mine) much of it sounds the same. But this program had variety, with two Handel organ concertos and some opera "incidental" music by Purcell and Rameau. The guest conductor McGehan is often referred to as the "energizer bunny of Baroque music" so it was fun to watch from the 4th row.Hope everyone had a good weekend!
