(Be patient and watch to the end!)
This video was taken last night as I was walking to the bus on my way to a concert by the OSM (Montreal Symphony Orchestra). All the seats were pretty much full; most Montrealers just deal with the weather and do what they were planning to do anyway. At the end there was a standing ovation, and the conductor, Kent Nagano, who is relatively new to the city and already beloved, addressed the audience. "This is a special day for me," he said, "because I have never seen so much snow in my life!" He went on to say that it made him feel like Christmas, and offered a beautiful encore -- Beethoven's Egmont Overture - to the audience as a gift.
I'll probably go to a couple other concerts during the season; my ticket, in the balcony, cost $22.50 which is enough that I/we don't go often but feel we can if there's something we really want to see. Access to cultural events is, obviously, one of the things I most love about being here. Last night's concert included a pre-performance discussion; Arnold Schoenberg's Symphonie de chambre no. 1; Mozart's third violin concerto played by guest soloist Hilary Hahn (the main reason I went); and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. Nagano is programming all of Beethoven's symphonies during his first two years here, and even though it's so well known and I've heard recordings so many times, this was a really excellent, exciting performance; I don't think I've ever heard it performed live before.
When I arrived, I found my seat next to a man who was alone, and reading L'Art du Bonheur, by the Dalai Lama. I didn't interrupt him but took out my own book and read until the concert began. After the Schoenberg it was clear that there would be a wait until the rest of the orchestra took their places, so I decided to try striking up a conversation and maybe get some French practice. "Que pensez-vous?" I asked. He smiled, and we began talking about modern music, how much concentration it took to listen to it, and about our own musical backgrounds. After Hilary Hahn had played and the intermission began, we continued talking about the Dalai Lama, Montreal as a city, and eventually about where I had come from. All this in French; I was pleased and a little curious because he didn't switch into English; I was getting a good workout in both speaking and listening.
"Oh," he said, finally, still in French, "you speak French well, did you learn back in Vermont?" I rolled my eyes, since I know that's not even close to true, and that I had been blundering along all evening, making plenty of mistakes. I told him I had studied the language in school but that had been a very long time ago; I was trying to improve and slowly it was getting better. "Vraiment," he said, "vous parlez très bien; je le sais, je suis professeur du francais à McGill!" At which point I wanted to fall down through the balcon, mezzanine, corbeil, and parterre into the underground! Instead I laughed, and from then on we spoke in both French and English, finally saying goodbye as I went off to the metro to go home, and he took off on foot. "Vous êtes au pied?" I asked. "Oui, je suis à pied," he answered, without emphasis on my mistake. I nodded and repeated, "à pied!"
My evening ended up à pied as well; instead of taking the bus I walked back home through Parc Lafontaine; the snow had stopped, and it was magical.
A magical evening indeed, of music, an interesting person to talk to, and the bright snowy night! I love that photo of the park lit at night. I miss the snow just for its brightness, especially during the dark nights. By the way, I couldn't see the video - says it's no longer available.
Posted by: marja-leena | December 04, 2007 at 06:21 PM
Marja-Leena, it should be OK now - I made a mistake in the embedding/sharing options dialogue box. Let me know if not!
Posted by: beth | December 04, 2007 at 06:48 PM
Beth, it's working now, thanks!
Posted by: marja-leena | December 04, 2007 at 06:57 PM
Snow! Everyone is posting abut snow and all we have here in France is rain
A little culture would also be welcome from time to time
Sigh
Posted by: Mouse | December 05, 2007 at 01:33 AM
Ho,ho, very funny that your seat-mate he turned out to be a French teacher at the highest level :-)
I just played your video to a Greek colleague who was moaning about the rain in London and the slippery sidewalks; she went away comforted!
Walking distance to a city centre full of wonderful bilingual culture I would love, not so sure about the snow...
Posted by: Jean | December 05, 2007 at 06:36 AM
A place more inclement than Glasgow. Well, I suppose there had to be one somewhere. Today it's just dreich outside. (That would be "wet and dismal" to you and the ch is hard as in loch). It's raining but it's that kind of smirry rain, the fine kind where you don't think it's too bad and you come back in soaked to the skin.
It's been years since we've been to a live concert. I enjoy them but they start so damn late and just exhaust the two of us. Besides I have a large collection of classical music and a decent enough sound system which I know pales by comparison but you do what you must.
I know all the pieces you mentioned. I actually thought I owned all of them but it seems I've got two copies of Verklärte Nacht that I didn't know about. I've also got two copies of Beethoven's Fifth that I did know about. It's been a while since I listened to Mozart's Violin Concerto No 3 though so I left my copy on my desk to listen to later. It's not a work that stays with me for some reason. I can hear bits of all the others in my head right now but not the Mozart.
Posted by: Jim Murdoch | December 05, 2007 at 07:30 AM
What a charming man. I would have enjoyed that concert very much, especially the Mozart.
Posted by: Kaycie | December 05, 2007 at 09:57 AM
How delightful that you impressed a professor with your linguistic skills! The photograph is splendid and you certainly deserved a night of music and conversation.
Posted by: margaret | December 05, 2007 at 11:36 AM
Just recently found your blog and see we have some places in common. When I lived in Danville, VT back in the 70's (I lived a total of 20 yrs. in Vermont), my husband and I would go to Montreal often as our "European" get away ... it only took a couple of hours and there we were, eating wonderful French food and loved the art and everything about the city. We stayed at the Boneventure Hotel often and in winter loved looking down into the streets from there, watching the traffic in the snow, and we'd walk the underground, getting to almost everywhere we wanted to go without our heavy coats. I've been in Virginia since 1979 and I must say I do miss the magical snow at times and Montreal for sure. We had a slight dusting of snow this morning. Very frustrating .... I would like a bit more!!
Posted by: jzr | December 05, 2007 at 03:50 PM
Snow! sigh. Wish we had snow instead of rain. I do miss Canadian winters here, the snow and the low pale sunlight ... stop before I make myself tearful. That was a nice piece, Beth.
Posted by: Udge | December 05, 2007 at 04:45 PM
(sigh)
Posted by: Jeremayakovka | December 05, 2007 at 07:32 PM
what a beautiful picture of the snow
Posted by: m | December 09, 2007 at 11:19 AM
Just by chance, the French professor's name didn't happen to be Roch, did it?
Posted by: Christopher DeWolf | December 11, 2007 at 04:36 PM
And I need to agree, Kent Nagano took OSM's direction just a few years ago and yet, it seems like he has Montreal's soul in him. I hope we will keep him for a long time... It is such a great match. I would be very curious to see stats about concert tickets sales pre and post Nagano's arrival...
Posted by: Jean-Olivier | December 19, 2007 at 03:09 PM