Last week for the first time in two years, we attended a symphony concert. It was such a joy to hear the music in person and not be glued to a small screen! This was the Sarasota Orchestra’sBe Mine concert, part of their Great Escapes series. Guest conductor Sarah Hicks was a lively and informative presence on the podium, and in honor of Valentine’s Day, the musical theme was love. We heard Gershwin’s Overture from Girl Crazy, two selections from Carmen, andMendelssohn’s Wedding March, along with several other works. This was a short concert, just an hour, and perfect for the pre-dinner hour.
The reviews of Julian Fellowes’ latest series have been mixed. But, I like historical drama and am especially fond of the 19th century so, I decided to subscribe to HBO Max to see The Gilded Age. It’s set in New York City in the 1880’s and is rife with snobbery, social climbing, and meanness, coupled with large fortunes. Newcomers, albeit wealthy ones, are not well received unless blessed by the formidable Mrs. Astor.
Young Marian Brook comes from Pennsylvania to live with her aunts, Agnes van Rhijn and Ada Brook, after the death of her father. She has no resources of her own, and in her directness and naivete, questions and challenges the ways of society. One fascinating aspect of this series is its inclusion of educated affluent Blacks. They are exemplified in Peggy Scott and her parents. Peggy befriends Marian and is hired as secretary to Aunt Agnes.
Overall, it’s a darker drama than Downton Abbey. Denee Benton as Peggy is very well played, and it is fun to watch Christine Baranski as the acerbic, dictatorial Aunt Agnes. There are four episodes, and it’s already been renewed for a second season. I’m hooked!
I’m slightly reluctant to blog about Pesto since this neighborhood restaurant has become very popular! We dined there twice in the past two weeks, once with visiting family, and it’s now a favorite. There are three dining areas (the one in the back has a bar) plus tables and heaters outside. The food is Italian, and there’s a wide variety of pasta and meat selections.
We enjoyed the veal and chicken Milanese preparations and their veal scaloppini and have sampled the shrimp-cargot and several of the salads. The wine list is extensive, and several beers are also available. Prices are moderate, portions are substantial, and the food is good!
Note: Header photos of foursome dining out from istock.com.
We ventured to Sarasota for a Christmas musical performance in the Sarasota Opera House last Sunday evening. We felt comfortable going since the production was following the SafeArtsSarasota protocols requiring masks and either a negative Covid test or showing your Covid vaccine card. We thought there might be a line to get in, given the document checking, and were surprised there wasn’t one. Also, we were disappointed that such a small crowd overall was in attendance. Plenty of empty seats and no problem with social distancing!
The performers were instrumentalists comprising an ensemble called Frisson from New York. Violin, viola, cello, string bass, clarinet, oboe, flute, and bassoon were all represented. Except for the leader/conductor, these were young musicians, rising stars. I was particularly taken with the playing of David Gallant, oboist and conductor, and Remy Taghavi on bassoon. The pieces ranged from dances from The Nutcracker to a selection of familiar and lesser-known carols. Unfortunately, the lack of a captive audience made for a somewhat flat event despite the talent on display.
It had been a while since we last dined at Rosemary & Thyme, and we were pleased to return. This time we opted for an inside table rather than outside, but noted that their outdoor patio was full, nicely lighted, and with heat lamps against the evening’s chill. Elias was our enthusiastic waiter, and he took good care of us. The guys sampled specialty cocktails while J. and I had chardonnay. Among the four of us, we ordered Caesar salads, battered mushrooms, and fish chowder followed by fried calamari, halibut, salmon, and the fresh catch which was swordfish. The fish entrees were on a bed of mixed vegetables and risotto. All very tasty! The restaurant is located on Orange Street, Sarasota, in the Rosemary District and serves breakfast and lunch.
FOOTNOTE
I commented on Huma Abedin’s memoir, Both/And in an earlier post before I had finished reading it. It is excellent! She is one smart, savvy woman and her account of her professional life working for Hillary Clinton is impressive and fascinating. She provides a much warmer, richer portrait of the former First Lady and Secretary of State than has often been the case. Abedin does not stint on sharing her own mistakes and faults either. Raised in and practicing her Muslim faith, she somewhat naively gives husband Anthony Weiner the benefit of the doubt several times as their marriage unravels. One gains an understanding of why she was initially compelled to stay with him. It’s a long book but a rewarding one. I look forward to watching how the rest of Abedin’s life unfolds. Highly recommended! (~JWFarrington)
Note: Header photo is the Sarasota Opera House (hungarytoday.hu)
This is the hurricane season that just doesn’t want to quit. It was a wild week with tropical storm Eta bearing down on Florida’s southwest coast. In our area, we experienced torrential rain (8 inches total) and wind gusts up to 50 miles an hour. At high tide, the surge brought brought water and debris through our mangrove hedges closer to our homes than anyone had ever seen. Some folks had roof leaks, but other than that, we were very fortunate. Thankfully, we were spared hurricane force winds.
GENDER DYNAMICS AND FAMILY LIFE
This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
Author Frankel (book page.com)
First a confession, I started this book last year. It didn’t captivate me, and I did a lot of skimming before setting it aside. This year it’s a book group selection so I picked it up with more serious intent. And this time, I became immersed. Oh, it did take a few chapters to become accustomed to what seems like Frankel’s scatter shot or kitchen sink approach to sentences. Put in as many words and related phrases as possible and string it out into a fairly long sentence.
I got past that, and I made the effort to learn the four older children and keep them straight. The bedtime fairy tale that writer/father Penn spins for them featuring Prince Grumwald and Princess Stephanie, plays an important role which I was impatient with previously.
This is a novel of family life. Anyone who’s been a parent, particularly a parent of more than one child, will relate to issues of schedules, schoolyard fights, and the general messiness of kids. More importantly, it’s about a child born Claude who wants to dress like a girl and be called Poppy. How these parents, ER doctor Rosie and author Penn, and his/her siblings keep Poppy’s big secret, and what the ramifications are, make for a poignant, heartwarming, and ultimately life-affirming novel. Recommended!
VIEWING: SWEDEN AFTER THE WAR
The Restaurant, or the translated Swedish title, Our Time is Now (Amazon Prime, Season 1; Seasons 2-4, Sundance for $)
Lowander Family with some of the wait staff (netflix.com)
This Swedish series has been compared to Downton Abbey in its popularity in that country. We too can become immersed in a post-war world seen through the lens of a family-owned restaurant. It opens in 1945 Stockholm at the Djurgardskalleren, a very formal dining room serving traditional fare. The Lowander family: matriarch Helga, sons Gustaf (restaurant manager) and Peter (initially a budding lawyer), and pampered daughter Nina (creator of the DK Club) will soon be celebrating the restaurant’s 50th anniversary. Business is at a low ebb. Chef Backe is a fixture. He both admires and feels threatened by rising chef Calle’s talents.
But times are changing. The wait staff, especially Maggan, seek better working conditions through union membership. Women like Nina feel stifled by dated expectations of a woman’s role. As the 50’s lead into the 60’s, new music emerges, new cuisine is introduced to restaurant patrons, and society loosens up.
The four seasons unfold through the decades into the 1970’s. It’s an absorbing story of loves and longing, failed and successful marriages, and sibling rivalries over who has the most power. All against the backdrop of the social issues of the time. Highly recommended!
CULTURE THIS WEEK
PIANO RECITAL—Jeremy Denk
Thanks to our friend, Patricia, we’ve discovered the rich offerings from the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society. Their first concert was presented live to a small audience and available online for viewing for 72 hours. Pianist Jeremy Denk gave an exquisite performance of pieces by Robert and Clara Schumann, Bolts of Loving Thunder by contemporary composer Missy Mazzoli, and Brahms’ Four Piano Pieces. The Mazzoli piece was commissioned for Emmanuel Ax in 2013 and inspired by some of Brahms’ early work.
Jeremy Denk (latimes.com)
Thanks to my resident tech whiz, we were able to watch on our big screen! Unlike some organizations that set a fixed price for each streamed performance, the PCMS takes a pay-what-you-want approach. This recital was 50 minutes, a perfect length for at-home viewing.
SERENADE FOR STRINGS—Sarasota Orchestra
If you’re local, you’ll be pleased to know that the Sarasota Orchestra has put together its own series of concerts. They are presented live for a small audience in Holley Hall and then later streamed. Live tickets sell out quickly, but the streaming versions are only $10.
The orchestra’s first program, featuring thirteen musicians, consists of works by Tchaikovsky and the 18thcentury composer, Joseph Bologne. We have yet to watch this concert, but our streaming ticket allows five days from the date the link is sent out.
Covid-19 has forced cultural organizations to adapt and be creative in new ways. I foresee a future where you’ll have multiple subscription options. Like magazines that you can receive in print or online or both, there may well be these kinds of paid combo packages for concerts, opera and dance.
I thoroughly enjoyed Patchett’s new novel about two siblings, Maeve, and her younger by seven years brother, Danny. Set in the Philadelphia suburbs and New York, it takes place over many decades. This brother and sister are linked together, joined at the hip one might say, by the house they lived in for some of their childhood. Deserted by their mother who leaves them to help the poor in India, their father eventually marries Andrea, a younger woman with two daughters. Andrea loves the house, takes it over, and after their father’s untimely death, puts Maeve and Danny out.
Bereft and neglected, they live briefly in Maeve’s cramped space until Danny goes to boarding school. Over the years that follow, they drive to their old house, the grand Dutch house, and sit parked outside in the car. There they re-live and re-visit their mother’s abandonment along with Andrea’s mistreatment. Maeve never marries, Danny does, but Maeve holds primacy in his life and his emotions over Celeste, his wife.
What happens when Danny and Maeve reach middle age and their mother re-appears raises issues of forgiveness, compassion, bitterness and disappointment. Danny narrates their story, and he and Maeve are richly drawn characters. Anyone who has left a beloved house behind will identify with their lingering memories.
This novel makes a nice pairing with Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane. In each case, a young person experiences a childhood trauma, be it a horrible tragedy or a major loss, and that event follows and, to an extent, haunts the rest of the person’s life. Being able to come to a reckoning of what happened and move forward and beyond it brings acceptance. Both Danny here and Peter in Keane’s novel achieve peace with the past. (~JWFarrington)
POLITICAL MEMOIR
The Education of an Idealist by Samantha Power
(twitter.com)
If you’re a political junkie, then you will enjoy reading Powers’ detailed account of her time as a White House advisor to President Obama and then later as the US representative to the United Nations. If, like me, you resonate with the life stories of accomplished and intelligent women, then you will find Powers’ personal story engrossing and fascinating. As a child she emigrated with her mother from Ireland to this country and then spent the early part of her career as a journalist and reporter in some of the world’s most dangerous war zones. She never anticipated that she’d work in government, but her positions on Obama’s team have been the most meaningful of her career.
At the time she began work in the White House, she was newly married and soon juggling the demands of one and then two young children. Generous in praise of her colleagues, forthcoming about her own shortcomings and mistakes, candid about what she learns about the roles and limitations of government, Ms. Powers’ memoir is engaging, compelling, and a worthwhile read. (~JWFarrington)
FABULOUS CONCERT
This season the Sarasota Orchestra is hosting a series of guest conductors, part of its search for a new music director to succeed Anu Tali. This week Bramwell Tovey, principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra, led our local musicians in an ambitious and most enjoyable concert. From the opening notes of Berlioz’s Overture to Rob Roy, the playing was crisp and energetic; it continued that way through the entire concert. Guest soloists, Simone Porter on violin and Joshua Roman on cello, presented a spirited rendition of Brahms’ Concerto in A Minor. I found the Andante movement especially lovely. Before conducting William Walton’s Symphony No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Maestro Tovey combined British wit and verve to give the audience a bit of history about Walton along with suggestions on what to listen for in the four movements. This was a tour de force of a concert!
CELEBRATING HOUSE GUESTS
We had a week of company beginning with our son and wife and their two girls followed by my niece from Raleigh, North Carolina. These were lively days marked by tasty meals, time in the pool, some great conversation, blueberry pancakes with Grandma, a dollhouse, blocks and Calico Critters for added diversion and, lastly, an early birthday celebration for almost 4-year old, Frances. The heart-shaped cake, iced with pink frosting, of course, and decorated with berries, was made by Grandpa and a big hit! And not just with the birthday girl!
