Veronica's Birthday

Veronica is now 12. As a special treat, we went to the big city of Montreal and went to the inaugral concert of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra at their new home. This as of yet unnamed hall was sold to everyone in Quebec as the perfect place to hear a concert. It is! The construction is much like the Musikverein where (a-hem, a-hem), Claire and I saw a concert. It is a rectangle and there is not a bad seat in the house and is designed for unamplified music. Actually it is a rectange built into a bigger rectangle. I don't know the science. I just know that it works. As you can see, when you are waiting in the outer area, before they open the concert hall doors, you do have a beautiful view of the city skyline -- and a beautiful view of Veronica.










Here is the hall about 20 minutes before the concert began. It was sold out so imagine the place fully packed. Usually, Veronica and I have better seats. But, due to he way the house is set up, we had a great view of the stage, the acoustics were great, and so was the music.














Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kVRBJ0gPRg&feature=fvst



Now, this is the ending of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Music experts, music non-experts and everyone in between will concede that once you see this ending live, you think that you are going to burst. I have had the great fortune over the last 20 years of taking all my family members at one time or another to see Beethoven's 9th. With the exception of 2 of them, everyone has almost leapt off the seat at the conclusion. On Veronica's birthday, when I looked over at her at the conclusion she was fast asleep. The last time that happened was when Claire was a little one. I looked over and Claire was asleep...