running out the clock

Today was my last full day in the Mexican Magic Kingdom -- as some are wont to say about San Miguel.


With nothing planned, I simply enjoyed wandering.  But I did have one task.  To pick up my dress shoes at the cobbler.  New heels.  New soles.  Both the sad victims of San Miguel’s magic cobblestones.


While I was in town, I decided to reprise my stops at several of the churches I had seen earlier.  All of them are filled with more stuff than a good grandmother’s closet.  There is always some detail that will send me into reverie.


But it was Saturday -- a day for weddings and first communions.  If you were not wearing a white dress, there was no chance of entering.  In fact, most of the church doors were not even open.

 

So, I did what any Cotton would do.  I ate.  I headed off to the restaurant that started my stage in San Miguel -- La Grotta.  You might remember it from a day of refreshment. 


I read The Oregonian on my Kindle while eating my pepperoni and onion pizza over the next two hours.  I love lunches in Mexico.  No one is in a rush.


Then I hiked back up Stairmaster hill and did a costume change.  After all, it was another night of chamber music.  Out came my Bob Fosse blacks.


The Parker Quartet was back on stage tonight.  And this program was every bit as good as last night’s.


They started with Haydn’s Quartet No. 5 in F Minor.  Unlike last night’s Haydn, the quartet played it as the Classical Period piece it is.  Playing it straight made the Handel musical references that much more whimsical.

 

The audience’s favorite, though, was the middle piece -- György Ligeti’s String Quartet No. 1, Métamorphoses Nocturnes.  Similar to last night’s performance of the Kurtág piece, Ligeti’s quartet demands great skill and stamina of the performers.  But it demands as much of the audience.


This is the piece for which the Parker Quartet earned their Grammy.  And it is easy to see why.  They bring an appropriate voice to the piece.  Ironically, though, I would not be interested in it as a recording.  It needs eyes on the performers to get the full impact of their kinetic energy.  I tried closing my eyes as if I was listening to a recording, and I had to open them to get the full impact of the piece.


The audience was on its feet as the bows arced into the air.


After that, the last piece (Brahms’s String Quartet No.2 in A Minor) seemed a tad tame.  But the performers did a marvelous job of invoking the Romantic period.  And especially Brahms’s love affair with the gypsy violin.


It was a nice way to round off my stay in San Miguel.

 

But as all things must, this visit is at an end.  I am almost packed (with the obvious exception of my computer).  I will head to church in the morning, and I will then be off to spend August in Pátzcuaro.


My missives may not be as frequent while I am there.  I will be broadcasting from an internet café.  But this page will not go black.


At least, not yet.