Category: Music

Savoring the Sarasota Scene

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MARVELOUS MUSIC

Sarasota has a rich and wide-ranging music scene, and some of the best musical performances all year occur during the Sarasota Music Festival, sponsored by the Sarasota Orchestra. This three-week series in June brings together music students, now called fellows, from conservatories across the country and pairs them with first class music professors and performers. 

Montrose Trio (montrosetrio.com)

 It’s a wonderful partnership that results in some great concerts.  This week at the Triple Crown concert, we had the pleasure of hearing three faculty as soloists along with the fellows, and they were all superb.  Ani Kavafian (Yale) on violin, Richard Svaboda (principal, Boston Symphony) on bassoon in a Vivaldi concerto, and Nathan Hughes (principal, Metropolitan Opera, and Juilliard) in Mozart’s oboe concerto.  But, the crowning piece in this very special concert was Mendelssohn’s Piano Trio No. 2 as presented by the Montrose Trio.  It was mesmerizing and the hall was silent.  The moment the last note was played the audience was on its feet.  

DINING LOCALLY

Durham in Bradenton

Good friends introduced us to the Central Café in old Bradenton.  It’s spacious and airy with lots of tables and a bar at the back.  Its laidback casual feel reminded us of Foster’s Market and the Ninth Street Bakery in Durham, North Carolina.  Although it was our waitress’ first day on the job, she readily went back to the kitchen to get answers to our menu questions.  Among the four of us, we enjoyed the pork chop special, a super lunchtime sandwich, ribs, and the pork tostada.  Add in a glass of beer or wine or even a cocktail and you’re set.   

SAVOR SARASOTA

Each June restaurants in Sarasota offer specially-priced three course lunch and/or dinner menus. This year around 100 restaurants are participating with a lunch menus for $16 and dinner $32.  Earlier this week we dined at two participating restaurants.  At CasAntica, where we have eaten before, we did order their Savor menu and it was excellent!  Several choices for each course and slightly smaller portions which we appreciated.  Especially tasty were the chicken piccata and the veal piccata and a luscious almond cake for dessert!

Umbrellas 1296

This was our first time eating at Umbrellas, the space where Roast used to be, but totally re-imagined.   We loved the décor—-blue walls, comfy blue chairs and banquettes, and attractive pillows. One of the wait staff told us that they were an inclusive place and welcomed everyone of every persuasion, hence the name.  Likewise, the menu is a broad one ranging from salads and small plates to entrees and featuring tacos, fish, a burger, roasted brussels sprouts, and chicken Parmesan.  They too had a Savor Sarasota menu and a pre-theater Opera menu (also 3 courses). 

Instead of either of those, we opted to share a Caesar salad (plenty for the two of us) and sampled the tasty sprouts, very good crab cake, and the chicken parm.  The latter had a nicely spiced tomato sauce, but the chicken had obviously been prepared ahead of time so was a bit dry.  It came on a generous mound of spaghetti.  Paul, the ebullient owner, was touring around the tables and we had an amusing chat with him.

The vibe is lively to loud, but we were there early during happy hour.  Many evenings they also have live music so I wouldn’t go planning on a quiet tete a tete.  We will return to try some other dishes.

SUMMER READING UPDATE

While I published a list of titles I’d like to read this summer in my last blog, I often add in books not on my initial list. Here is one from the list and one I picked up at Hudson News in Grand Central Station. Thanks to those of you who’ve already sent me some of your suggestions—I have added a few titles to my ever growing lists!

Save Me the Plums by Ruth Reichl

Ruth Reichl was editor of Gourmet for ten years before Conde Nast stunned readers and staff by pulling the plug on the magazine.  Restaurant critic for the New York Times and author of several memoirs, Reichl was surprised, and a bit terrified, about being approached to become Gourmet’s editor. She had never run a large organization nor supervised a big staff, but she took on the challenge.  In so doing, she expanded the boundaries of its coverage and re-shaped the magazine at an exciting time in the culinary world.  Reichl is a breezy writer and great company for an afternoon. She shares her doubts and worries, her concerns about neglecting her son when she travels, and highlights some of the egos and outsize personaltiies she interacts with along the way.  A fun read for foodies! (~JWFarrington)

Into the Raging Sea  by Rachel Slade

If you’re looking for a book that will completely absorb you for about 24 hours, this is it.  Slade has written a dramatic account of the last voyage of the American freighter, El Faro, which went down near San Salvador in 2015 on its weekly run to Puerto Rico.  Not only is this the story of that voyage, but it’s also an informative history of the shipping industry, how commercial ships today are regulated or not, along with testimony from the ship’s owners (TOTE) about the company’s restructuring. 

What makes this such a compelling read is that Slade spent time with family members of the 33 individuals on the ship, all of whom were lost.  She also presents the crew members’ actual words from the many hours of conversation transcribed from the ship’s “black box.”  There is an intimacy to her account that makes it both painful and poignant.  With references to Jacksonville, Florida, home to many of these mariners; Maine where some received their training; and Philadelphia where Sun Ship was based; this book should appeal to a wider audience beyond those attracted to the sea.  Slade is a journalist and writer based in Boston. (~JWFarrington)

Note: Text and Umbrellas photos ©JWFarrington (some rights reserved).

Tidy Tidbits: Music & Newport

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UNUSUAL INSTRUMENT

For many of us, our first response when you mention an accordion is an oompah band or the Lawrence Welk show and Myron Floren.  This week we had the distinct and unexpected pleasure of hearing a young Chinese woman demonstrate her virtuosity playing classical accordion.  Her accordion is both heavy and elaborate.  It weighs 45 pounds and has a keyboard on the left side and a whole series of buttons on the right.  Hanzhi Wang played a selection of classical pieces by Bach and Grieg among others that had been arranged for accordion;  if you didn’t see her, you would not have guessed you were hearing an accordion.  

 Wang earned music degrees in Beijing and Copenhagen.  Based in Copenhagen, she tours the world performing and has given master classes at the Manhattan School of Music. Hearing her was truly special!

RECENT READING

NEWPORT THROUGH THE CENTURIES

The Maze at Windermere by Gregory Blake Smith

I’ll start by stating that I loved this novel!  What Mr. Smith has done using Newport, Rhode Island, as the venue and presenting five different stories from five different perspectives in five different time periods is simply amazing.  Sandy Allison is a tennis pro in 2011 involved with three women, none of whom he initially sees as a partner for the long term.  Franklin Drexel, a gay blade in all senses of the term, aspires to marry a wealthy widow in 1896 Newport, although he has no desire for women.  

At just 20, Henry James is spending time in Newport (1863) and observing the scene and the people.  He develops a friendship with a young woman named Alice (same name as his sister) and keeps a journal recording his experiences.  A British officer, Major Ballard, is stationed in Newport during the American Revolution and is obsessed with his attraction to a young Jewess. 

Lastly, there is Prudence Selwyn, a young Quaker of 15 whose mother is dead and her father likely lost at sea. It is 1692, she has one slave, and she must figure out how to live her life and support the two of them.  Three of the stories are presented as diaries while the other two, Sandy’s and Franklin’s, are in the third person.  

Themes of love, lust, betrayal, and duplicity, along with how we present ourselves to the world and each other, echo in each individual’s life.  Windermere is modeled on an old mansion, but the physical aspects of Newport such as Doubling Point and the Jewish cemetery which recur down the years are historically true.  I found all the characters fascinating with the British officer being the least likable and least sympathetic.  

The novel is summed up, I think, in the last letter Henry James writes to Alice Taylor:

“…this sense I have that the hundreds of millions of us who breathe upon the earth are each a unique flame, that we are each uniquely composed within the caskets of our bodies and our minds, that each has an experience of the world as different as that of a fishwife’s from a foundryman’s, and yet we all live the same life (millionaire, artist, soldier, slave), we each of us strive to understand who we are why we are here, to love and be loved, and that, for all that striving, we are each of us lost in the mystery of our own heart.”

Gregory Blake Smith was not an author I was familiar with, but this novel came to my attention from a publisher’s e-mail.  Subsequently, I learned it was one of the Washington Post’sten best books of 2018.  For more on the creation of this work, here is a link to an interview with Smith from the Literary Hub.  (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo is Chateau-sur-mer in Newport from visitrhodeisland.com. Hanzhi Wang photo from opening nights.fsu.edu and book cover image from the publisher.

Tidy Tidbits: Books & Music

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AUTISM ON THE PAGE, STAGE AND SCREEN

This week the island book club read and discussed The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. The selection was prompted in part by the play being presented locally at Florida Studio Theatre in Sarasota.  It has been so popular that the run has been extended through March 17.  

The novel was published in 2003 and the group felt that there is much greater awareness of autism now and the range of autistic behaviors from Asperger’s syndrome to high functioning savants.  And, probably also greater acceptance.  Several had seen stage productions, either here or elsewhere. Generally, they felt the play successfully showed being overwhelmed by too much noise and multiple stimuli and then being further handicapped by not being easily able to communicate one’s thoughts and feelings.  

The lead character, 15-year old Christopher, is very smart, but also very literal. He is upset when his neighbor’s dog is killed with a pitchfork.  His mother is not present (he’s been told she died of a heart attack), and his father is angry with him for doing detective work to determine who did in the dog.  Christopher’s efforts and his findings lead him to make a train journey to London to visit his mother. This trip is a huge undertaking. Written in Christopher’s voice, the prose is straightforward and that plus Christopher’s drawings and diagrams are effective in portraying how he thinks.

I recently began watching an ABC television series, also available on Amazon Prime, entitled The Good Doctor.  Shaun Murphy is a young surgical resident who is autistic.  The hospital’s surgeons hesitate to hire him given his difficulties in communicating.  Under pressure from his mentor, the hospital president, they reluctantly take him on.  While socially awkward and at times inappropriate, Shaun is very smart and sees things on images and scans others miss.  It is an amazing depiction of the challenges even a gifted autistic individual faces in dealing with the rest of the world.

MUSICAL OFFERINGS

Music Monday always has someone of note to offer and this past week, it was Russian born pianist Olga Kern.  Ms. Kern is from a musical family with connections to Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. While clearly talented, having won the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, she is also a delightful personality.  She charmed us with her exquisite playing (Rachmaninoff, Chopin, et al) and with her conversation.

Sarasota and the orchestra have been fortunate to have Anu Tali as music director.  She is winding up her sixth and final year as conductor and this week the orchestra delivered a paean to the community in the form of To Sarasota with Love.  Four principals in the orchestra, violin, horn, cello, and bassoon (all male), were featured in solos or duets.  These musicians, combined with Tali’s fluid, balletic conducting (with hands only and no baton), made for a most enjoyable evening.  She will be very much missed!

RECENT READING

Kitchen Yarns:  Notes on Life, Love, and Food by Ann Hood

Novelist Hood’s book is an engaging memoir with recipes.  She frequently references her Rhode Island upbringing in an Italian American family and her grandmother’s cooking.  The era of Hood’s childhood partly overlapped mine.  She calls out Good Seasons salad dressing, Rice-A-Roni (I never ate it, but certainly knew the ad jingle), and wishing to trade her homemade lunch for a friend’s more appealing one.  I always thought Sarah Wood’s bag lunches with a leftover chicken thigh looked delicious—much more appetizing than my cheddar cheese and mustard sandwich on cracked wheat.    

Hood’s life has had more than its share of sorrow including the early death of her brother and the loss of a child, but her writing is brimming with life and good feeling.  The recipes are mostly comfort food, not sophisticated, and sound tasty on the page.  GoGo’s Meatballs are calling my name! (~JWFarrington)

Note: Header photo of Any Tali by Kaupo Kikhas.

Tidy Tidbits: The Local Scene

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This was a fun week filled with theater, opera, dinners out and in, and long conversations with old and new friends.

SMALL SCREEN

After war in early 20th century Morocco, I’ve taken up a Kiwi crime series.  The Brokenwood Mysteries (available on Acorn) are set on the North Island in a very small fictional town of the same name.  Detective Mike Shepherd is new to the area and has two junior colleagues, Kristin Sims and D.C. Breen.   Often turning up to provide background information and assistance is Jared Morehu, a young Maori man who doubles as a handyman.

Murder is on the docket whether it be drowning in a wine vat, dying on a golf course, collapsing on stage, or cast adrift on the sea.  With four ex-wives and a bit of the city around the edges, Shepherd is passionate about country music and always has a cassette tape or two to pop in when he hops into his car.  These episodes are long, an hour and a half each, but I’m caught up in the experience of life and death in this beautiful somewhat rural area.

NOT TO BE MISSED

Rhinoceros at the Asolo Theater.  Ionesco’s absurdist play, first presented in 1959, has a simple plot line, but raises challenging questions for our time.  How does one remain an individual and true to one’s values when everyone around you is joining the herd?  Creatively staged and wonderfully acted, this production is both humorous and thought-provoking.  We had the added pleasure of seeing this with good friends from Philadelphia.

As a graduate student, the Chief Penguin was a volunteer usher in Boston for five nights when the Metropolitan Opera came to town.  He credits that performance of Bellini’s Norma, starring Joan Sutherland and Marilyn Horne, with sparking his love of opera.  Earlier this week, we were at the Sarasota Opera’s production of Norma, and it was wonderful!  The singing is not quite the level of those divas, but it was very good, especially Joanna Parisi as Norma.  The staging was also nicely done.  There are more performances of both Norma and Rhinoceros.

 

PRE-THEATER DINING

Two of our favorites for pre-performance dining are Muse at the Ringling and Louie’s Modern in downtown Sarasota.  Muse is consistently very good for both lunch and dinner, and we’ve recently enjoyed both.  The quesadilla is a frequent choice of the C.P., and I’m partial to their salads, particularly the green salad topped with grilled chicken and their Caesar.  In the evening, entrees include trout, salmon, and short ribs plus they have crab cakes, always good, as an appetizer.  Service is pleasant and efficient almost to the point of briskness. But they do want to be sure you make it in time for your play!

It’s “the season” as they say, so Louie’s is again offering their Modern Theater Menu (3 courses) for $30.  It’s a good deal!  The portions are a nice size and for each course there is a choice among three options.  We’ve eaten this menu twice recently and the North Palm salad with grapefruit is a light starter, while the salmon with couscous and the chicken breast are both excellent.  The chicken is accompanied by a silky mascarpone polenta and root vegetables.  Dessert offerings include a warm chocolate cake and polenta cake with berries, both of which we’ve sampled.  Muse and Louie’s are both part of the Tableseide group so there can be a bit of overlap between the menus—one example being the delicious and attractively presented burrata with heirloom tomatoes on a coral Himalayan salt block.  

WHAT I’M READING

Ann Veronica by H.G. Wells. Watch for more about this 1909 novel about a modern young woman in a future blog.

 

 

 

Notes:  Brokenwood image from all3mediainternational.com, principals in Norma from mysuncoast.com, and burrata photo from sarasotafoodies.com.  Header photo ©JWFarrington.