A glimpse — up close and personal!
This is just a personal coda to this other article.
Hard to believe, since it feels like just a decade since I wrote these thingies on a long-defunct blog site. (Haha, a sure sign of getting old!)
I would call that period the internet’s infant-to-toddler stage. Back then, one even had to learn the code for making the text and images appear in the exact format desired on the shell page. (It wasn’t WYSIWYG yet back in those early days — unlike the way, say, Substack and other blog-hosting sites are today: writers familiar with word processing programs can use them at once with scant instruction.)
Oh — and on re-reading the two pieces now, I just realized that I’d actually caught Martha in a live performance twice that year: the first time in the company of my ex-beau, and the second, with my dear family!
(As for the first post, do ignore the text in green. The article referred to never actually saw print, but can’t recall the reason why.)
SELECTED WORKS mentioned above:
Bach’s Toccata in C Minor:
Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3:
Chopin’s Barcarolle, Op. 60:
Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1:
Ravel’s Jeux d’eau:
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It was after the second concert that I mustered up the courage (and humble my proud self!) to do the typical “fan” thing. At least, I reasoned that this was no ordinary event in the grand classical music world. Who knows if and when I’d get another chance to personally meet Martha? (And I haven’t, actually, since 2002!) Thus, I swallowed my silly pride and went directly “backstage” with a throng of other admirers to meet her, and ask for an autograph like a sheepish Beatles fan, supportive kin in tow.
Looking back on it, am so glad that I did.
Some with more “self-respect” and “dignity” may cringe at this and pooh-pooh the star-struck behavior. Well, can’t help that, but sometimes, seemingly trivial things hold such wonderful memories, too.