Week 4

A Husker in New York

September 29

Wednesday was a day that I packed as full as possible.  Another organist was practicing early at First Presbyterian, so I stayed a bit later at the apartment and took care of some domestic duties.  (Yes.  Even on a sabbatical certain matters must be cared for).  I then went downtown to the church and got my practicing in before trying to get into the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) again.  I had tried twice before and the lines to purchase tickets were so long,  that I gave up.    Wednesday was my lucky day.  I walked into the lobby and directly to the ticket counter with NO LINE!  There was a special exhibit at the museum on the work of Matisse that I particularly wanted to see. http://www.moma.org/visit/calendar/exhibitions/969 Once you had your general admission ticket to the museum, you had to get a "timed" ticket to view the exhibit.  I lucked out again. No waiting.  Persistence pays off.

MoMA is literally just down the street from St. Thomas Church, so I left the museum just before closing time and walked down 53rd Street to the church of Evensong. (http://www.saintthomaschurch.org/webcasts).  From St. Thomas I walked uptown to Lincoln Center and the Metropolitan Opera where I had tickets for the evening performance of Verdi's "Rigoletto".  It was a fine, solid performance from top to bottom of the cast, from beginning of the opera.  And, as always, the Met orchestra is a joy to hear!  It was a truly remarkable musical evening.

 

September 28

The luxury of daily practice time has become joy for me. I enjoy the focus and concentration that I can bring to it when there are no interruptions.  I'm feeling very good about my playing right now.  Bill Entriken has asked me to play again this coming Sunday, and I happily accepted, deciding to play another major work of Bach, the "Prelude in G major".  I cut my time short and dashed off to the Church of the Transfiguration (The Little Church Around the Corner) where I had an appointment to hear a recital and play the 3 manual Charles Fisk organ. (http://www.littlechurch.org/index.html)  This charming building (located at 1 East 29 Street, just around the corner from 5th Avenue) is a little jewel of a building that one enters through a garden-like yard.  It is, due to its diminutive size and intimacy, unlike any other that I have encountered in the city.  The concert was an excellent performance by a violist and pianist.  Following the concert, and after the audience had left, I had time to play the organ, hear the church organist play, and visit with her about her work at the church.

Feeling energetic and a sense of uncompleted tasks on my trip, I dashed uptown to the Metropolitan Museum to do some shopping.  I was very pleased with my purchases.  (http://store.metmuseum.org/).  After that, onto a city bus for the ride down 5th Avenue to St. Thomas Church for a quiet time of prayer in their Evensong service.

 

September 27

I think that the wet, rainy weather from Omaha has finally arrived in New York.  Today is truly the first beginning to ending rainy day that I have experienced. The sidewalks are jammed with umbrella-carrying pedestrians who, in some un-choreographed manner, manage to avoid multiple midair umbrella collisions.  It seems somehow automatic.  I had a fine practice session today, and then dashed off the subway stop at 12th and 7th Avenue to head uptown to The Cathedral of St. John the Divine.  My hope was to get there in time for the demonstration of the organ, and, with luck, have lunch at Tom's Restaurant at 112th and Broadway.  Tom's Restaurant was the exterior for the "coffee shop" in the TV program "Seinfeld".  I succeeded in both.  Lunch was excellent in the busy neighorhood diner, and the organ demonstration was nicely done.

The Director of Music and Cathedral Organist, Bruce Neswick, very graciously and warmly welcomed a large group of interested visitors.  He was generous with his time and did an excellent job of explaining the workings of this giant and historic instrument to a group of non-musicians.  When he asked if anyone in the group would like to play the instrument, I couldn't help myself, my hand went up! http://www.stjohndivine.org/

View a You Tube video of the first demonstration of the Skinner organ at St. John the Divinehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmrJ87h7fhQ

 

September 26

Sunday mornings here are early mornings for me, just as they are in Omaha.  I have played some part of the service here for the past 3 weeks, so I try to get to church to go through those parts before the choir begins its warm-up rehearsal at 9:30 a.m.  This Sunday, I not only played, but conducted the choir in its Introit from the rear gallery of the church at the beginning of the service.  The group responded well to my conducting, always a tricky time when a new conductor works with a group for the first time.  Following worship and a second choir rehearsal running until 1:30, I ran through the World Foods close to the church, and then to the apartment for a quick lunch before heading out for another destination.

I wanted to attend Evensong and the following organ recital at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine (http://www.stjohndivine.org/).  I had been to the Cathedral on a previous visit, but at the time, the  Cathedral was still undergoing repairs following a devastating fire in 2001.  At that time, most of the nave was closed off and a visitor couldn't really get a sense of the building.  There are no words to prepare a person for his/ or her first steps into the interior of this vast building ( 2nd in size only to St. Peter's in Rome).  It must be seen to be believed!  The service was beautifully sung by the Cathedral choir of Girls, Boys and Adults, and while it basically followed the same outline as the services that I have attended at St. Thomas, the feel of the service was quite different.

The congregation was invited to sit in the Great Choir, with the choir singing between the two sides of the divided choir.  It was, and this is hard to imagine in this vast space, an intimate experience of worship.  I plan to return tomorrow for the public demonstration of the organ.

 

September 25

Saturday dawned late for me.  It's OK to sleep in your birthday (or, so I've always been told).  My plan was to celebrate with the perfect brunch.  On one of my previous visits here, I had a great meal at a restaurant called "Friend of the Farmer", a charming little place on Irving Place close to Gramercy Park. The weather was perfect and I set out for the perfect meal at a sidewalk cafe.  I was not disappointed.  I had a quiet table on the sidewalk and great food.  Perfect start to the day. ( http://www.friendofafarmernyc.com/)

Close to a month here and no haircut and it's past time.  How does one find a barber when the same person has been cutting my hair for years.  As I walked down the street close to my apartment, I saw what appeared to be an old-fashioned barber shop.  I encountered a veteran barber named Tony who spoke with a heavy Italian accent.  I didn't understand much of what he told me. He showed me a picture of he and his wife at their 50th anniversary celebration standing with a man who looked like Paul Volcker.  I asked if it was who I thought it was, and he replied proudly that "yes", he had cut Paul's hair for 25 years. I did understand that.

I endeavored then to go the Museum of Modern Art( MoMA ).  The lines were so long that I gave up and visited the museum store.  I'll try that another day.  There's a Matisse exhibit that I would really like to see. (http://www.moma.org/)

 

I finished the day with a lovely dinner at the home of former Church of the Cross member, Kim Lim, and her youngest daugher, Elizabeth Lim Dutton.  All in all, a wonderful day.

 

September 24

Back to practicing this morning.  It was not a terribly productive time.  As you remember, I was up far too late for my comfort last night (the city may never sleep, but I'm very fond of it!). I'm playing the postlude for the service on Sunday as well as conducting the choir in its choral introit from the rear gallery of the church.  The gallery is a lot of steps up.  I'm amazed that the choir has breath left to sing after the climb, and following that they have to dash back down the steps to gather in the narthex for the processional hymn, the introduction for which has already begun by the time they start moving.

I paid a visit in the afternoon to the Frick Collection at 70th street and 5th Avenue. This wonderful museum is housed in the home of the early 20th century industrialist, Henry Clay Frick, a partner of Andrew Carnegie. (http://www.frick.org/)  Frick moved to New York following a split with Carnegie, which was preciptated in part by the famous Homestead Strike of 1892. Frick, an avid collector of great art, designed the home to house his collection, and planned for the home and collection to become a public museum upon his death and that of his wife. 

This is one of those rare museums where the house is as beautiful as the art that it houses.  It is a wonderful place for a quiet couple of hours. Follow that with a cappucino at a sidewalk cafe, and you've got a great way to end the week.

 

September 23

Thursday began with a walk to the subway.  This was unlike any other walk that I've made.  When I reached 2nd Avenue (a block from my apartment), I saw a scene straight out of a disaster movie.  2nd Avenue, a very busy thoroughfare, was completely empty of traffic from 51st south as far as I could see. The street had absolutely NO cars, trucks or busses present.  President Obama was in town for the opening of the UN General Assembly and I suspect that this was all about security.

 

This was another New Jersey day.  Bill Entriken planned a trip to the Ford House in Morristown.  The Ford House was General Washington's headquarters during the winter encampment of 1779-80 at Jockey Hollow. (http://www.nps.gov/morr/faqs.htm)

Following an excellent lunch of fish and chips at an Irish pub in downtown Morristown, we moved on to the Wick house, a farmer's house dating from the encampment.  The significance of this particular house is that many of the enlisted men actually harvested wood for shelter and lived on this farmer's land.  Around 1000 of these soldier's cabins were constructed for the winter. None of these huts survive, but replicas have been constructed.  We returned to Entrikens for a "pie" (vernacular around here for a pizza).  I missed my first train back to the city, the second was late, forcing me to miss a connection at the lovely Newark Penn Station and only getting back into the city in the wee hours of morning.  The streets were as busy at 1:00 a.m. as they are at 7:00 p.m.  The city truly never sleeps.

The winter of 1779-80 was the most severe of the 18th century, making the conditions that the soldiers suffered much worse than at the more famous winter encampment at Valley Forge.  At the Ford House, we were given an excellent tour by one of the park rangers, like the one we encountered at Edison's laboratory, very well versed, knowledgeable well beyond reading from a script and able to give full answers to our questions. First among my questions: "Why the winter encampments?"  Answer: "The armies of this time did little fighting during the winter."

 

September 22

Hard to imagine, but today begins the second half of my New York sabbatical.  The time has flown by!  My day began as it typically does with a short walk to the Number 6 subway at 51st and Lexington and the ride to Union Square, where I get off and walk the two blocks to First Presbyterian.  I am getting  more and more comfortable with the instrument there.  I also feel that the daily practice is paying real dividends for me.  I finished my practice and walked to this subway again; this time the destination was Brooklyn Heights and the church of St. Ann and Holy Trinity, a building that has Landmark Status due to its significant Gothic Revival architecture and its stunning stained glass windows.  The organ is also considered a Landmark American instrument by the Organ Historical Society.  Each Wednesday, the organist of the church, Gregory Eaton, plays a brief recital, and I wanted to hear the instrument(follow link for more information).  Mr. Eaton has spent his tenure at the church in a long-term restoration process to keep this instrument playing.  He is to be commended for his dedication to and passion for the task.  The instrument is beautiful. http://www.nycago.org/Organs/Bkln/html/StAnnHolyTrinity.html

I returned to St.Thomas on 5th Avenue for the time of daily prayer as expressed through the choral evensong service. (http://www.saintthomaschurch.org/calendar/).  One interesting sidelight about being in New York during the General Assembly meeting of the United Nations is to see the increased security throughout the city.  Everywhere you go, police are on street corners, and conveys of dignitaries rumble through reserved traffic lanes.  Because my apartment is just a few blocks from the UN, I can see much of it close up.