# "Two for the cheap seats, please."



## mirepoix (Feb 1, 2014)

As a birthday gift (and a surprise) Silje took me to a performance of Shosty's 10th. Also programmed were his jazz suites and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue. The evening as a whole was a success; beforehand we'd a light dinner in a glorified cafe we frequently visit, which always begins with the waiters and her indulging in a 'No, I can charm_ you_ more' contest, where during the course of the meal I had not one, not two, but three glasses of wine. Oh my, I am wild.

The concert was the first time I'd heard any performance of Russian music outside of Russia, and I admit to pausing a moment to think warmly of old friends and love and another life far away.
It was Silje's first time at a classical concert (if you don't count 'Peter and the wolf' when she was a child) but I believe she enjoyed it - and she never once yawned, fidgeted, kicked the back of the seat in front of her, or asked to go to the toilet every five minutes.

A taxi home, the echoing sound of her heels clicking up the stairs, key in the keyhole the first time, and then finally to sleep - with my final thought that despite his seemingly perpetual frown, Shosty had put a smile on my tired old fez.


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