Twice to C-U

So this is Spring?
We had about two inches of snow accumulation on Easter, and an overnight low of 15 degrees!  Forty miles south of us in Lincoln, they had a record low of -1 degree!  The puddles have been frozen most mornings this week and we are supposed to see 18 tonight.  Still winter if you ask me.

Tuesday afternoon a group of us headed down to C-U and Smith Hall for nephew Ned's last recital.  The first half was a lecture based on his doctoral thesis on the history and evolution of Beethoven's Violin Concerto in D major, Opus 61 from commission in 1806 to final published work.  Then he performed it for us with piano accompaniment.  It is amazing to watch him play a 45 minute piece from memory and do it so well!
We went to Black Dog Smoke & Ale House for some great BBQ afterwords.

Last night we headed back down to C-U for the Jupiter String Quartet concert at Krannert Center.  One member of the quartet has been Ned's grad school instructor, who we have met at his recitals. They all are "artists in residence" at the U of I.  Ned is really, really good, but this group is amazingly talented!  I would say flawless!  The most unique piece that they performed was Ode to Napoleon Bonaparte by Arnold Schoenberg.  This difficult piece involves the quartet, piano accompaniment, and a narrator reading Lord Byron's poem, Ode to Napoleon.  Byron's sarcastic, critical poem made a political statement celebrating the fall of Napoleon. Schoenberg set it to music in 1942 to make a political statement against Hitler as the tide of war started turning against him.  The other music performed were by Shostakovich and Beethoven.  It was a beautiful evening that turned into another late night.

That chant to the sound of the viol, and invent to themselves instruments of musick, like David;
Amos 6:5