昨夜回来写给朋友这么两段，用英文，因为英文打得快。
I just got back. It's an evening to be remembered. Before the concert
began at 8:00, there was a reception, where champagne flew freely, pudding
was served, and a huge cake was cut while a brass band was playing
some light music. I saw the ex-chairman of the festival again and we
talked like old friends. He told me this is the most important
Bach festival in the states, what else do you expect the chairman to
say? at least as far as attracting first-rate musicians from all over
the world is concerned. They stay here for five weeks, other places
may not have the beauty to keep anyone that long:-) We are lucky to
have sponsors from Mercedes-Benz and Rolex---Carmel is the residence
of rich retirees who can afford such commodities. The trouble is the
attendees are mostly gray hairs. They need young blood!
While we were talking, I felt a middle-aged woman gazing at me.Then she approached; it's, oh gosh, I forgot her name, but she adopted a Chinese girl from an
orphanage of Mao's hometown, what an irony! I still remember her appearance
when she just came: thin, yellow, timid, some mucus marks under her nose. She
was two, a month younger than my son, but looked a year smaller. Very soon she
grew into a stout girl, no, a little princess! Her father, David, has a ranch,
which my son and I visited once. We were driving in it for an hour to get to
the center. They had hundreds of cows and ten horses. Their daughter has a special pony, and she not only rode it but she was teaching my son how to ride. David and his wife said, no, it was they who were lucky to have such a lovely daughter! She and David were both dressed up as I was, that was why I did not recognized her at first.
The concert started with Bach's cantata BWV 70, a screen on top of the stage
shows the verse clearly. The bass and alto were particularly good. The soprano
is a gray-haired woman but she sang like an angel, amazing! Then it's Bach's
concerto No. 4 for harpsichord in A Major, BWV 1055. To me the soloist sounded
too gentle, but I am really no judge. Maybe it should sound like that. What
followed surprised me: it's so modern, almost like Stravinsky. No it can't be
Bach. I took out the program and saw under the dim light Arvo Paart, collage
uuber B-A-C-H, no wonder!
After the intermission, we had orchestral suite No. 4 in D Major,BWV 1069 and
Cantata BWV 110. The duet between the soprano and tenor is divine.
LK