This is my life

I started this at work, but I have so so so so many WIPs in SPN already and this would be massive (basically a rewrite of Season 9), so: ( here, fixed that for you. )

( ETA: A thought about the thing I was DYING for in the midseason cliffhanger episode - and didn't get. )

So I was reviewing a grant application, and I read one of the reference letters. It was a typical reference letter, a little vague maybe, but you know. A reference letter.

That reminded me that I once had a teacher refuse to write me a reference letter. I had worked as his music librarian and they had overpaid me by one paycheck and I had joked that it was a bonus (while handing him the check back). He said he couldn't write a reference letter for someone who felt she could joke about taking money from his coffers. Diiiiiiiiiiiick. He was my first college band director. I looked him up. He's retired now. Then I peeked around my first college, to see who was still around, if anyone. The orchestra director, but that's about it. There was a new clarinet teacher, someone I didn't know - Todd Levy. He's the principal clarinetist for the Milwaukee Symphony, and he has a recording on iTunes of the Brahms sonatas.

It's gorgeous. I texted my brother and we back and forthed about it a while, talking about each other's playing (and he gave me the most flattering comment, I can't even tell you), and just like that I missed being a music major, being so completely lost in the world of classical music I couldn't find my way out.

I couldn't afford to buy Todd Levy's version (though I will on payday, that's a given), but I do have David Shifrin's version (and until now, it was my absolute favorite), so let me share with you Shifrin's interpretation of the two Brahms clarinet sonatas from A Brahms-Schumann Soiree:

Brahms Sonata #1 in F Minor
I. Allegro appassionato
II. Andante un poco adagio
III. Allegretto grazioso
IV. Vivace

Brahms Sonata #2 in Eb Major
I. Allegro amabile
II. Allegro, molto appassionato
III. Andante con moto - Allegro

ETA: Fixed so the links work now. Dammit, someday I will get the hang of addressing the stuff I put on soleta's site.

These are beautiful and complex works, and while similar in sound, very different in tone and theme. Clarinetists usually play them both but tend to love the one they played first the best (I played the F minor first). They're both absolutely gorgeous pieces and I cannot recommend them highly enough, and Shifrin's interpretation is good and his tone quality is what I consider to be the epitome of good clarinet sound (my one caveat: he uses a slight vibrato, and I prefer straight tone, no vibrato - this is why I actually prefer Todd Levy's version).

This, then, made me want to write Cadman and John playing these gorgeous works, so I wrote a snippet of not-Impromptu (Impromptu is from Rodney's POV; I have several thousand words of not-Impromptu written from John's POV). I have no idea if this will make any sense to anyone who is not a professional musician, but I hope it will.

( ~850 words of Cadman and John playing classical music. No, really. )