Concert

Chamber Music in Nice as reported by Cindy

I suppose it’s to be expected that there is a price (beyond monetary) to be paid in order to hear some of the most glorious chamber music in the world.  I accidentally found information about a string quartet concert to be given at the Nice Opera on Monday at 12:15.  The tickets were only 7 Euros (US$9) and the timing was right, so off we trudged along the lovely bay on a beautiful sunny day, arriving at noon.  We knew that the seats were not assigned but we were not prepared for near mayhem! 

The lobby was absolutely crammed with people forming a loose line from a stairway on the far left side where 3 ushers were blocking access.  The good news was that all the people who kept arriving after we did moved to the right and to the end of the line – this in a country where they don’t understand lines! No one tried to cut in and at about 12:10 the ushers finally let us pass … up 4 flights of stairs.  Our reward was a beautiful ornate “concert hall” – so to speak – it was long and narrow with about a hundred chairs in rows, and there was no stage.  Since we were at the back of the line we ended up at the back of the hall, which means we could see nothing more than the backs of the heads of other concert-goers.  If I sat up very tall and craned my neck I was able to see the tops of the heads of the two violinists.  Hmmm, if I’d only wanted to hear the music and not watch the musicians, I would have purchased the CD and repaired to my boudoir to listen!  It didn’t help to have noticed on our way up all those stairs that there was a gorgeous empty concert hall (the main opera venue) that was empty.  I have no idea why the concert was not offered there.

But I digress slightly – the musicians - two violinists, a violist, cellist, and oboist - were from the Vienna Philharmonic and they were absolutely fabulous.  The sound was incredible – yes there was the lack of visual accommodation but the acoustics were truly outstanding.  They played string quartets by Schubert and Dvorak and in between the Mozart oboe quartet.  We even got an encore.  If you closed your eyes – oh, wait, you couldn’t see a darn thing – you’d think there were 20 string players up there.  It was a lovely concert and well worth it.

Afterwards we walked to a nearby favorite restaurant, D’Acchiardo, and enjoyed a wonderful lunch.  More on that in the food section of the blog!

-Cindy