Yesterday evening we heard Szymanowski's Symphonie concertante, with Conrad Tao as the pianist. I confess I'd never heard of Szymanowski, but it seems he was born in a bit of Poland that was then Ukraine. The piece we heard belonged to "his last creative period", when he had returned "to music strongly rooted in his Polish past". I guess our cultural origins stay with us, come what may.

This was followed by Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony. Though apparently "one of the most frequently performed works of its kind", again it had never crossed my ears.

I loved the big, striding melodies, and the "fate" theme. (Curious... The Guest Cat also talks of fate -- of Machiavelli's Fortuna, and his and Da Vinci's defeated attempts to control the Arno...) But this time, Tchaikovsky turns fate into "triumph over adversity". Boy, do I need some of that...

Conrad Tao was also performing in a recital this afternoon. He'd picked an eclectic range of pieces, and told us he loved juxtaposition, because of its capacity to illuminate. Me too.

The two themes emerging from this particular juxtaposition were "process" (another word for technique, I think) and memory: the remembrance of people and of incidents and of emotions. The first half was a little spiky (David Lang, Elliott Carter, Julia Wolfe), but the second half, Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (in memory of Viktor Hartmann), was quite sublime: "process" and memory in spades.

As I write this, after the concert, waiting for a guest to turn up on the bus from the airport, and eating happy-hour carrot cake at Jeneris, I'm just terribly grateful for the weekend's treasure trove of musical experiences.