This Sunday was another full day of music. After the usual lazy
morning, we zoomed down to Stanford to see the 'Great Masters of
Persian Classical Music' in Dinkelspiel Auditorium with TC and Kaoru. This
'supergroup' consisted of: Hossein Alizadeh: tar and backing vocals; Kayhan
Kalthor: kamancheh and backing vocals; Mohammed Reza Shajarian, lead vocals;
Homayoun Shajarian: tombak and vocals. Persian classical music has a little
bit in common with the music of other nearby arab countries or Indian classical
music, but for the most part it is distinctly different. Very much music
to sweep you up and take you outside of your everyday cares. The performance
was divided into a 40 minute tune for the first set, an 80 minute tune
for the second set, and then a quick 7 minute encore to close the show.
Since the show lasted longer than we'd expected, Ting and Kaoru went
home (separately) afterwards, while TC and I drove down to San Jose for
a quick dinner at a Salvadoran restaurant and an all-Beethoven program
by the Orion String Quartet, performing in the Concert Hall at Le Petit
Trianon. Our seats were darn near perfect -- in the center of the third
row -- my only complaint being the giant who sat in front of me and blocked
my view of the first violinist...you can see his head on the left side
of the two thumbnail views.
After the show, TC dropped me off at a bus stop on First Street,
thus the last shot, where I waited about an hour in the rain for a bus
to come and take me to BART...bad planning on my part, but no big deal,
only time-consuming.
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