awadablog

seattle symphony

i had excellent- if i may say so- concerts with douglas boyd, who had a refreshingly lovely, expressive and fluid approach to the mozart major concerto; one with which i was in great sympathy.
our efforts were well received in packed houses. ( a review). (and another)

i ventured to licorous - sister restaurant to lark a couple of times, and the pork cheek with polenta was worth having twice, and the cured salmon carpaccio was simply delicious.
all over seattle i found the drink lists and beverage knowledge to be excellent. i never had to define a negroni and it was never defiled.
in addition< my favorite gins junipero, and old raj were in plentiful supply.
i also recommend cafe presse, zigzag and my old favorite haunt cafe campagne, ( though the service at the latter suffered on this visit.) my friend david butler's novel "cassius and claudius" will soon be published, joining the brilliant "slavonic dances of josef vidich" in his published oeuvre.
the 'string quartet' "under a sun of lead" is finished and he tells me the next will be piano 4 hands.....
i'll save the restaurant gourmand in ballard where he is the sommelier for the next visit.
i also had the opportunity to re-connect with gerry schwarz the maestro in seattle, and we made excellent use of both my one free day and the sunny weather, on the tennis court.

i also on that day had the opportunity to visit the seattle art museum.
i was not very happy with the collections, dribs of this, drabs of that.
i did enjoy seeing some of the aboriginal art - works of gloria and kathleen petyarre in particular.

wall street???

look for charleston restaurant in the power tables section saturday the 13th october......
a

philadelphia dining and cigars...

so i stuck around philly one more day to practice after the successful concert at curtis with joey.

i had a disappointing dinner at susanna foo , one of the premiere fusion chinese restaurants in the country. though they don't formally use the word fusion, the merger of chinese dishes and french techniques constitutes the same in my book.
while the dumpling platter was good,( and they were gracious enought to provide for one what is normally for two, ) i would have preferred there be a tasting order-like a good cheese plate- so that i didn't have the more delicate lobster ravioli, soybean puree and emulsified coconut-lobster sauce after the mongolian lamb pillows stuffed with tarragon, cumin and leeks with an ancho chile sauce, or after the steamed diver scallop dumplings with thai curry-tomato sauce.

the slow roasted scottish salmon with sake and miso marinade though well cooked, was tasteless...
then again it was scottish (why did i order it?)salmon......

the evening ended at my new favorite cigar bar, mahogany where i enjoyed an opus x. this is a tremendous cigar made by fuente.
i believe the secret of the cubans is that everything comes from the same soil.
whereas many otherwise lovely dominican cigars are marred by the connecticut leaf wrapper, i believe what makes the opus x cubanesque is its native grown wrapper.. a true competitor to cubans.
if you're a lover of fine cigars, and liquours, this place is a must.
i enjoyed a pierre ferrand reserve (try the abel or ancestrale sometime, and highland park 12 yr old scotch.

great chairs and great conversation, and when i'm next in italy i'll thank one leonard insalaco for his tips......

cso opening.

well the opening concerts last week were a success i believe.
the concerts were well attended with enthusiastic audiences, including tom heekin, and a couple of other folks i dunk on at the CAC
paavo and i ran into each other at beluga on wednesday and cajoled mike hama the proprietor, to come to the concert. it's been one of paavo's favorite places over the years, (and mine) and i think it was mike's 2nd concert. we love restaurants, and it's meaningful when owners, and employees of our favorites attend the concert.
Large reception after the 1st night, and paavo and i eventually ducked out to... yes you guessed it.
my mother, sister, niece and nephew were in attendance and enjoyed...
my family and i went to the greenup cafe across the river for breakfast. while the food was good, the 30 minute wait for eggs, and waffles "we had to make more batter"
was not. more batter????? huh?it wasn't as if we were there at 4pm.....

saturday's concert was even more successful. the audience included pete blackshaw, the venezuelan contingent led by carl haney-fellow wine aficionado, and gourmand, and co founder of the cincy pigs of wine.....(also friend of the aforementioned baltimore dudes).another in house reception at the hall followed, and a group of cso administrators, paavo and i dined at nicola's which frankly is the best italian dining in the city.
yes boca is fabulous, and jono fries in the kitchen is a superb chef, but it moved further away from true italian every day. at nicolas, try any of the gnocchi dishes- crispy gnocchi with a 4 cheese fondue especially (yes come with a permission slip from your doctor), or the equally rich braised short ribs. we left there at about 2am and paavo and i went to ....... you guessed it.

lunaire, and ravens loss

trio lunaire played well i'm told but did not move on. aaron reports that at the best the groups they heard were 'subtle' and at worst 'boring'. this i'm afraid is an indictment of our industry and this is indicative of why everyone thinks classical music is boring. today.. shell station listening to mozart being blared outside to ward off loiterers. .. this is sad.
..
couple of wine geeks, one a noted restauranteur in baltimore,tony foreman came in to watch the ravens get ravaged by the bengals. they drank their sorrows down at mortons with a bottle of paul hobbs cabernet 2004i'll be in baltimore in late january, early february, playing at the peabody institute, my alma mater. expect to see us at tony's other restaurants charleston, pazo, and the brand new chingiale.

bloggo numero uno

welcome to the awadablog, the place where you get to see "what condition my condition is in", to get the state of the art-ist. the current affair here is pete blackshaw, chief architect of the awadaweb experience. more on pete later. vitawadagin- the life of awadagin, will just be the general post.
meanwhile labor day weekend finds the trio lunaire.com of ccm  (college conservatory of music, university of cincinnati) on their way to munich for one of the premiere chamber music competitions in the world.www.br-online.de/kultur-szene/klassik_e/pages/ard/ard.html i've been coaching them for a couple of years now, and we had an intensive period of work this summer in preparation for this competition. i believe they will do well, and certainly wish them well.  last night i took them out for a send off to tellers and allyns. negroni's all around, luna merlot 2002, (more on luna later), bell's two hearted and fullers london pride beers rounded out the beverage drinking.
this blog will cover my concerts, where i'm eating , and what i'm drinking, and maybe any notable events on either the basketball court at the cac, or on the tennis court with pete.
holla,
a