In all these years of going to the UC Botanical Garden I’d never gone into the redwood grove across the street: some inhibitory circuit against first crossing to the kiosk to get the gate code, then trucking back over to the parking lot instead of continuing through the main gate where the magnolias and the karoo are calling; but this weekend I went in and found it much larger than I’d imagined, crossed by a stream, there were conifers other than redwoods (Port Orford cedar, westernmost point in Oregon), and I stood a while at the steep wood-benched amphiteater, remembered the Acropolis, imagined playing for an audience of a few friends, slunk away when students showed up.
We like Bartók and it would be strange if we didn’t like Chamber Music From Turkey, Vol. 1 on Hungaroton. I hope more volumes are coming.
