"When witches were waltzing...."

Actually they would have been doing a jig or an Irish reel! *LOL* Happy Halloween everyone!! We spent tonight enjoying the Enid Symphony Orchestra. Sound odd, perhaps? Not really, since the program was "A Celtic Halloween" featuring Mithril! Yep, my favorite Celtic group arranged a Halloween program and our 'on-the-spot' maestro, Mr. Doug Newell, snapped up the chance for their first ever performance of the program!

The evening began with our own ESO performing Mussorgsky's "A Night On Bald Mountain" - they did a fantastic job with this piece. In my mind I coul see the animations from Disney's "Fantasia" as the music played! Next was the ESO performing Saint-Saens' "Danse Macabre, Poeme Symphonique, op. 40". A young local violinist, Sarah Youn, was the soloist for this piece. This young lady is amazing! She is a freshman at Enid High and, at her young age, has aleady been the Concert Master (the leader of the first violins of an orchestra and by custom usually the assistant to the conductor) for the Honor Orchestra at the Tri-State Music Festival for the past two years AND has been the Concert Master for the All Oklahoma Youth Orchestra. The math is right there - she was a lead violinist while attending the 7th grade! I can't wait to hear this young lady in a few years - I'll be very surprised if she hasn't garnered national attention by then.

And then Mithril began their program. Oh - I just can't say enough about this group, and I'm so very glad that Doug has had them back two years in a row. They began their program with the rollicking "Halloween Jig" and "Lilting Banshee". Next came a set of "The Ghost", "The Banshee's Wail Over the Mangle Pit", and "Banshee Reel". Next was "The Women's Lament for the Dead (Inishere)" - a beautiful, flowing song that made me see pictures of the hills and coasts of Ireland. Next was "Merrily Kiss the Quaker's Wife", "A Fig for a Kiss", and "The Choice Wife" - the guitar player was so intense on these that he broke a string clean off his guitar. *LOL* Then they took us to the Shire with songs from "The Lord of the Rings": "Concerning Hobbits", "In Dreams", and "Bilbo's Birthday". Then came their 'international' portion, as they called it: "The Celtic Silk Road", "The Camels' Hump", and "Purgatory Chasm" - these songs had a very Middle Eastern sound to them. And they closed with a set they called "The Devil's Box". Apparently, and I did not know this, the fiddle was known as the Devil's Box - way back when, everyone was expected to be sober and pious but whenever there was a fiddle playing, people danced and sang and were said to be ensnared by the "Devil's Box". This set was a jumble of pieces of tunes including "The Devil Went Down To Georgia", "The Devil in the Kitchen", "The Devil's Dream", and "Howling Wind". It was a rousing end to a wonderful concert.

Honestly, if you ever get a chance to see Mithril, or even just to listen to them - take it! They are four wonderfully talented musicians who LOVE Celtic music and it shows! Oh, and all of the pieces they performed tonight - every one of them was orchestrated by their flute player, Andra Bohnet. She has a way of making the accompanying orchestra a big part of the music, yet they never overshadow the performers of Mithril - the orchestrations are seamless!

It was a fabulous evening all the way 'round. Now don't be too scared of the ghoulies and ghosties and long-leggedy beasties and things that go bump in the night! *G* I just love Halloween!

"With the echo of Mendelssohn's tune...."

And it's a pretty good echo! *L* The concert began with the ESO playing Mozart's "Symphony No. 41 in C, K. 551". Very pastoral and very nice. I freely admit that I did snooze a few times but hey...I've been up since 6 am so cut me some slack! *G* Next we had a brief intermission and then our competition winner. The music was Mendelssohn's "Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E Minor, op. 64".

Marat Gabdullin is a very nice looking young man who was born in Russia and began studying the violin at age 5. By age 7 he was a soloist in a performance of the Vivaldi Violin Concerto in A Minor with the Ufa Chamber Orchestra in Russia. My ears, especially when it comes to violin music, are completely untrained, my brain, however, is NOT...and Vivaldi at 7 years old is pretty doggone good!!!

Not only did he play the entire performance (approximately 40 minutes of music) from memory, he also showed a presence and sense of performance you don't generally see in someone in their early 20's. The violin was no more and no less than an extension of his arm. If you watched his face as he played you could actually see love for the music and love for the mere sound of the violin flow across it. In fact, it appeared that his love of the music was so great that, when he received a standing ovation, he almost looked embarassed - as if to say, "I'm just the vessel but isn't this music awesome????" *L*

Marat won the 1st prize of $3000 and apparently the competition was quite stiff. They introduced the second place competitor and, for the first time ever, awarded a second place prize because this young man was also so good. Doug Newell, our Maestro, explained about getting some pretty well-credentialed adjudicators to judge the performances and he was really glad that he didn't haveto make the final decision - the three finalists were all that good!

All in all it was a very enjoyable evening - David and Marilyn have excellent seats! *LOL* I'm generally up for taking their tickets any time they offer them. They have front row in the balcony and since it's such an intimate venue they are probably among the best seats in the house. Aren't connections wonderful sometimes?? *G*