Not only was last night the symphony opening night, but today was the first concert for the Oregon Bach Collegium in almost three years! I've been attending them for several years before that - it's early music played on period instruments, mostly in a small Lutheran church on College Hill, although sometimes they're in the big Lutheran church near campus (which is entirely unrelated to College Hill), and sometimes they're in my neighborhood Episcopal church.
Anyway, my friend GP's husband had been in charge, but he's retired to Italy, and it's a new generation. I almost didn't go because it was so smoky today and the church isn't big enough to have air quality much different from what's outside, but then I impulsively drove there anyway. It was good that I did, as the audience had only about 30 members, so each of us was appreciated - and with such a small group, I could sit nicely apart, comfortably.
We heard works from composers at the Este court in Modena (Italy), written between 1642 and 1684. Let's see: Uccellini, Bononcini (the father of the oratorio-writing Bononcini, not the same guy), Vitali, and Colombi. It was all fine, except the slower parts were rather dull - it took a few more generations before they were writing slow parts that appeal to my ear today.
Another thing that was nice was that everyone there (excepting my former neighbor Ryan P) was wearing a mask. I had mine on outdoors, too, because of the smoke, but others were taking them off outdoors. It did get quite warm inside, though, so I can see the appeal of removing one's mask outside. Later in the day, the smoke diminished a bit, but we're not done with it yet.
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