Last night, Steve and I attended a UCSC orchestra concert. The grad students in Steve’s lab were interested, and though I am a bit anti-social, I agreed to go when I heard that they would be performing the Elgar cello concerto.
We arrived and began browsing the program and noticed that the soloist was Samuel Araya. That name sounded familiar to me, but I figured I was just imaging things. Turning to his profile in the back of the program, however, I saw that he grew up in Long Beach and was three years younger than me. Then it hit me. When I was a senior in the Long Beach Poly orchestra, he was a freshman... I think he sat fifth chair when I was second. I remembered him vaguely as… well, let’s be frank… not the greatest cellist in the world.
Sam walked out and took his seat. I was on the edge of mine, wondering if he had actually been able to master the difficult piece. He began to play, and I was just astounded. I just sat shaking my head as the kid I hadn’t seen in seven years played through the piece. Sure, he made a few nervous mistakes and his pitch wasn’t perfect, but it was amazing. He did a beautiful job and I was just awestruck.
It made me realize just how far I am away from high school. How long it had been to take this cellist who was nothing spectacular to a bachelor of music able to perform the pinnacle of solo cello pieces.
Now I have proof. I am now old (a.k.a. an actual, real adult).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
For those of us who are even farther from high school, could you publish a link to the concerto? Maybe not this guy's performance, but somebody's?
Wiki it (that is, go to Google or Wikipedia and put in "Elgar Cello Concerto"). It has some info and even the 4th movement available to listen to (although it's not the best version I've heard, that's for sure). The only real recording to hear to appreciate the brilliance of the piece is by Jacqueline du Pre, which you can hear samples of one version with the BBC Symphony by going to Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Elgar-Cello-Concerto-Bach-Suites/dp/B000CNEZ4W/ref=pd_bbs_sr_7?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1203830866&sr=8-7 and clicking "listen to samples". It's the first four tracks on that particular album.
As far as I know, there's no legal way for me to link you to an actual full recording of it. ;-)
Post a Comment