During Michael’s workout, I wrote part 1 of today’s post.  When he arrived at the hotel, we set out for Tribeca Park on our search for the Sing For Hope pianos.

We found it!

Then, we Ubered (is that a word?) to Michael’s apartment for us to practice a bit.  We dropped by Duane Reade, a relative of Walgreens, for some munchies and actually practiced – finally!

From there, we got another Uber and headed to the Lincoln Center complex.  Our plan was to eat at the same restaurant we’d found before we saw The Marriage of Figaro at The Met.

When we got there, there was some sort of upscale street fair on the grounds.  It turned out to be the American Crafts Festival.

We walked through that to find the next S4H piano, which we located in the Charles B Benson Grove.  Yamaha grand.  There was a woman playing ragtime and a long line of folks who wanted to play.  Turned out the woman played clubs around the city and was using this event to advertise.

Off we went to the restaurant to find it closed for 2 months renovation.  The next place reservations only so we went back to the Lincoln Center and had sandwiches in their coffee shop.  Not bad!

We went to our pre-program Mozart lecture given by Joelle Wallach. Very interesting!

Then, into Avery Fisher Hall to hear an all-Mozart program including:

Piano Concerto No. 21

Symphony No. 38, Prague

Piano Concerto No. 20

Here’s a review of the exact same performance that we attended! The same program had been performed on Wednesday.

Review from the New York Times: New York Philharmonic Gives Mozart His Due

As the festival continues to evolve in directions that have less and less to do with its namesake, the Philharmonic, perhaps sensing an opportunity, offers a Mozart program of its own this week: the “Prague” Symphony and the Piano Concertos No. 20, in D minor, and No. 21, in C, with Jeffrey Kahane as guest conductor and soloist.

The “Prague” must be every opera lover’s favorite Mozart symphony. Composed in Vienna in 1786 and evidently given its premiere in Prague early the next year, it is a virtual caldron of tunes more or less shared with “Le Nozze di Figaro” (1786) and “Don Giovanni” (1787).

More than that, the symphony, played before intermission, evokes the moods and characters of those operas, especially “Don Giovanni.” Mr. Kahane treated all of that a bit matter-of-factly at Wednesday evening’s performance, with little lingering to search out lascivious byplay in dark recesses or to limn a bumbling Leporello.

So it came as a delightful surprise, after intermission, when Mr. Kahane injected the condemnatory sequence of rising and falling scales from “Don Giovanni” into his own cadenza for the first movement of the D minor Concerto. His playing was deft and virtuosic in both concertos, though his fast tempos in the outer movements of the C major resulted in some blurred scalar passages and a slightly hectic feel at times.

You might have feared a certain weightiness from the Philharmonic in Mozart, but Mr. Kahane generally drew stylish playing from a reduced band of 40 or so. The strings had a pliant quality, and the woodwinds were especially fine.

The program was fantastic but we wondered why it was Concerto-Symphony-Intermission-Concerto.  With that type of programming, it started with the piano on stage, then moved out, then moved back during the intermission for the final concerto.

A quick stop at Duane Reade for night time snacks than an Uber home.  We went right by the cruise terminal on our way to the hotel.

Tomorrow’s a busy day with Steinway Hall then boarding the cruise ship.  I may not finish writing these until we get home, depending on WiFi and other activities – but I’ll take good notes 🙂