Monday 15 April 2019

Detroit Weekend: Art and Music

The Julliard Quartet was in town last Friday and Saturday, and we attended both of their concerts.  Friday night was at Wayne State, and we heard them play a single movement from a Haydn quartet, and the Bartok quartet #3.  The Haydn was truly amazing, one of his later Op. 70 quartets.  The Bartok, his shortest of six quartets, is one of my all time favourite pieces, and they played the pants off of it.

The Julliard also brought along their protege quartet, The Argus, a young group that also performed two works.  They performed the Fandango movement from a Boccherini quartet, and then played a stunning modern work by Tan dun, based on things heard in Chinese folk music and the Peking opera.  The Wayne State theatre is small and intimate; you could never hear chamber music in a better and more intimate setting.

Before the concert we went to the mailbox, where I had the rest of my classic film waiting for me.  Even though we had to go halfway across the metro area at 5 pm on a Friday, we made it there and back with no problem!  How's that for a freeway system?!  We parked ourselves at Eastern Market Brewing Company for a short time, then headed around the corner to Red Bull Art Gallery, where they were having an opening night event.  Three artists were displaying work.  However, only one of them was in the big leagues.  Patrick Quarm has art degrees from Ghana, and his colourful and insightful works were the highlight of the exhibit.  All three artists were present, and he seemed blown away by all the positive comments he was getting, including from us.

 Heads and Tails, 2019, Patrick Quarm.
66" x 39"

Bruwaa, 2019, Patrick Quarm.
80" x 61"

Hood, 2018.  Patrick Quarm.
58" x 43"  


Saturday we were back over for a full concert by the Julliard Quartet.  We heard three works, an early Beethoven quartet (Op. 18 #3), the Bartok one again (Yay!), and Dvorak's American Quartet, one of three major works he wrote while living and teaching in New York.  It was a fabulous concert!


Sunday we were supposed to head over to Detroit again, this time to hear the orchestra and Helene Grimaud perform Beethoven's 4th Piano Concerto.  The weather was so cold and miserable on Sunday, however, and we were so burned out from the previous two days (I have to remember that I am not a young 60 years old any more), that we just stayed home.  Though it is sunny today, we still are wearing winter coats out for our midday walks.  Ridiculous, but real. 

Sunday night we tried to subscribe and log in to a new streaming servie, one I have waited all my life for.  Criterion has over 1500 movies on-line and ready for streaming.  However, their system does't work for a whole lot of people, and after 4 hours of trying to watch a movie, we gave up.  That would have been too good to be true.  Back to Amazon Prime.

Mapman Mike




















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