Tea and music
On Feb. 22, I was invited to Cliff and Evelyn Orman’s attractive apartment in Presumpscot Commons to hear their recording of Erwin Schulhoff’s “String Quartet No. 1.”
I had written about it after hearing the DaPonte string quartet play it last April at the Noonday Concerts in Portland’s Unitarian Church. In my article I mentioned that Schulhoff died in a German concentration camp – a sad story.
The Ormans have attended many of the DaPonte concerts and their Schulhoff recordings are by that quartet too. Besides a nice warm cup of tea and cookies, I was treated to more quartet music – Gia Comolli’s “#2 Quartet,” written in 1965, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s “#8 Quartet in C Minor,” written in 1960. Mr. Orman told me that was the composer’s most famous quartet of the many he wrote.
I later looked up Shostakovich in “The Encyclopedia of Music.” He was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, in 1906. Together with Stravinsky and Prokofiev, he was one of the greatest Russian composers of the 20th century. He wrote 15 symphonies and 15 quartets. He began learning the piano with his mother, a professional pianist. In 1919, aged only 13, he entered the St. Petersburg Conservatory to study piano and composition. He was a phenomenally gifted student. His first symphony (written as a diploma exercise) won international fame.
In 1934 his opera, “Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District” was produced. It was a savage tale of adultery, murder and retribution. At first it won critical acceptance in Russia and abroad. But Soviet dictator Josef Stalin went to see it and was shocked by its graphic portrayal of sex and violence. On his orders, Shostakovich was savagely attacked in the press in 1936 in an article entitled “Chaos instead of music.”
He continued composing, but in a subdued manner. Until Stalin’s death in 1953, he lived in fear of his life (as he wrote in his “Memoirs,” posthumously published.)
In 1962, “Lady Macbeth” was restored under the new title “Katerina Ismailovar,” and hailed as a masterpiece. In the last decade of his life, he produced seven more string quartets, sonatas for violin and viola, and a concerto for violin and cello.
Towards the end of his life he was allowed to visit the west. He died of heart failure in 1975.
After the nice concert and tea, Mr. Orman showed me the library at the Presumpscot Commons. It was full of many hardcover books, and several shelves of paperbacks. A desk near the book collection allows readers a place to sit and write too. Also, the Westbrook Historical Society has presented the library collection with all the yearbooks from Westbrook High School. That building, so beautifully designed and made into apartments, is the former Westbrook High School.
Bronze medal as good as gold to U.S.
The above headline in the Feb. 25 Boston Herald surely pleased me, for I’ve seen pictures of some females in the Olympics who are terribly upset that they only received silver or bronze medals instead of gold. I would consider it a privilege for them just to be accepted to participate in the Olympics.
The bronze medal winners were males, and won their first ever U. S. medal in curling.
Now, ahem, I was pleased for them, but had to look up the definition of curling in the encyclopedia. I couldn’t tell much from the large picture with the article, showing Skip Pete Fenson, who made the final shot which allowed the U. S. to beat Britain, 8-6. The skip was shouting, after making that shot, and had what resembled a long-handled sweeping brush in his hand.
The Britannica article, one-and-a-half pages long, defines curling as a winter sport, similar to bowls or shuffleboard, played on ice. The rink is 138-feet long by 14-feet wide. There are two contending teams of four players, designated as in bowls, lead, two, three, and skip or captain, each of whom delivers two stones alternately with his opponent.
Beyond that description, I’ve decided I must watch a curling match to really understand it all – at the next Olympics, on TV, I guess.
RECIPE
This dessert recipe was well received at our house last week, and has been requested again. I used it in the American Journal Food Favorites column in 1988. At that time I wrote the recipe writer’s comment: “When I serve it to friends, I never fail to get requests for this recipe.” I hop you’ll try it, too.
EASY HOMEMADE ICE CREAM WITH OREO COOKIES
3 egg yolks
1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk
2 tbls. water
4 tsps. vanilla (I used less)
1 cup coarsely crushed Oreo chocolate cookies
2 cups (1 pint) whipped cream, whipped (Do not use whipped topping)
In large bowl, beat egg yolks. Stir in condensed milk, water and vanilla. Fold in cookies and whipped cream. Pour into aluminum foil-lined 9×5-inch pan or other 2 qt. container. Cover; freeze six hours or until firm. Scoop ice cream from pan or peel off foil, and slice.
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