Hi Daniel! Nice to meet you in Cleveland... Thanks for the pictures. I have a few too, now I'm trying to post them somewhere so I can share. I also have some video excerpts from the concerts (very short indeed), but it is nice to remember. Thanks again! Laura
Ps: definitely, you must have your ringtone saying you did it well. I also remember Ron Mc farlane telling you that every time he listened to you, you improved. Do it! :-) -----Original Message----- From: Daniel Shoskes [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, July 03, 2006 10:17 PM To: lute@cs.dartmouth.edu Subject: [LUTE] LSA First impressions I'm still recovering from the LSA Festival and I think it will take me a few weeks to process it all. To start with, I've made a quick page with pictures at http://web.mac.com/dshoskes/iWeb/Site/Photos.html A few preliminary impressions: 1) All the concerts were phenomenal. O'Dette playing Melchior Newsidler was the greatest example of left hand ischemia I have ever seen! Some of the pieces rarely went below the 8th fret. Maybe a lutenist would dare to put one of these knuckle breakers in a program, but this had one after another. 2) Earl Christy is not just the guy who has every manuscript page of baroque lute in jpegs, he proved he is the guy who can play them too. 3) Ellen Hargis was the biggest surprise to me. I have thought for many years that she is one of the finest early music singers around. Her concert showed a level of voice control and musicianship far above what I had already considered to be her top form. It also helped that in a song about Persephone in Hades, nature provided some authentic thunder claps. Fans of her recordings with Paul should not miss any opportunity to see them live. 4) Bob Barto playing Reusner, Hagen and Weiss. I think I probably took a few breaths during the concert but I can't actually remember any. 5) Toyohiko Satoh playing French Baroque music on an all gut strung 11 course lute. That literature is still a challenge for me to fully appreciate, but I came the closest to it at his concert. 6) What other musical group gives us such unbelievable access to the top performers and teachers in the world? In a 3 day period I had private lessons with O'Dette and Satoh and played in Master Classes for Barto and McFarlane. Do second year cello players get to have lessons with Yo-Yo Ma and Rostropovich??!! 7) Question of etiquette: since I recorded my lessons, would it be poor taste to take the clip of Paul O'Dette saying to me "You really played that beautifully" and making that my cell phone ring tone? 8) Chris Morrongiello, the first "Pat O'Brien Lectureship" holder, gave fascinating talks on English Pavans and the use of the table as a historically correct prop and amplifier for the lute. Just because I am not writing about the other concerts and classes, doesn't mean that they weren't also excellent, these are just the things that made the greatest first impression on me. DS To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
