And now for something completely different

So, this blog is supposed to be about the wind and the sky (as in astronomy), right? Well, bear with me for a minute... bats fly at night... and night time is when we usually go out to observe... and "The Bat" in German is Die Fledermaus... which is a piece by Strauss performed by the Dallas Symphony Orchestra tonight!

Ok, so I'm off topic on this one, but the new DSO music director, Jaap Van Zweden, pulled off a variation on the traditional Viennese New Year Concert tonight - all three encores - and it was FUN!

I have to say with some embarrassment, I've donated a lot of money to the DSO over the years. No, not the donations the tax man recognizes - done plenty of those and proud of it. I'm talking about the number of times I've spent good money to attend a concert only to doze through some portion of it. It isn't that I don't enjoy the music... most of it I really enjoy. It's just that with season tickets some times I have to be there but am too tired or stressed to really focus on the music. Not tonight! It was an hour and a half of lively, moving music... I even enjoyed the Stokowski version of Pictures at an Exhibition.

I'm not the expert that each of my classically trained sons are (Brian on viola, Chris on trombone), but I do know what I enjoy and I thoroughly enjoyed all the music tonight. Of course, it might be a bit of nostalgia. Back when the DSO was less famous, they used to come and perform at area schools as part of their student outreach. Tonight's concert, with The Light Calvary Overture, The Typewriter and the Thunder and Lightning Polka took me straight back to grade school. Of course, now the schools go to the DSO - we were surrounded by kids from several area schools. I hope they enjoyed the concert as much as I did!