While waiting for some tea to steep, I sat down at my keyboard and practiced a little piano. I moved the lesson book and as the pages flipped back to my current piece, two words caught my eye: March Slav. Oh, I was stoked.
Those who know me should know my favorite composer. Yes, Beethoven has beautiful and powerful pieces and there's a Bach concerto that I love in its simplicity, but Tchaikovsky...well, this may sound lame, but Tchaikovsky moves me. And it's not the piece that people might think, it's the Overture. It's the March Slav (Slavic March).
Granted the piece in my lesson book is a simplified version, I still played it over and over and now I have Tchaikovsky on my stereo with a full orchestra playing the March Slav. It's...sultry, and hypnotic and powerful all at the same time.
Now...I've had several very cool experiences here in DC, some of those once-in-a-lifetime things. I've been to a few receptions with some very important people, I was on the White House lawn last summer for the welcoming ceremony for Prime Minister Koizumi (no Elvis impersonations though) and have danced for hours to top, international DJs. But the coolest experience by far was opening night for the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center and hearing the March Slav. Along, of course, with the Overture of 1812 complete with fireworks.
To anyone, anyone, who has the opportunity to go hear an orchestra perform Tchaikovsky, I say Go! Go and enjoy and be mesmerized. The percussion will get inside you and warm your blood while the strings will send chills down your spine and give you goosebumps.
Ok. I'm done. I don't think I reveal my "nerdy" side very often, but it comes out with a couple of things: books and music.
And maybe British comedy.
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