Beilman and Yang at Candlelight; other notes and links

Concerts: Candlelight Concerts, celebrating its 40th anniversary this season, hosted violinist Benjamin Beilman and pianist Amy Yang last night in Howard Community College's Smith Theater. Rising star Beilman, 22 years old, amazed us not only with his excellent playing but also his confidence and poise before an audience. The broken string episode that happened in the middle of the Brahms sonata -- that's only the second or third time I've seen something like that happen in my 30 plus years of attending concerts. Beilman excused himself and was back on stage in minutes with a newly attached string, starting where he left off with Yang. They also shone in the rarely played Poulenc sonata, a recently discovered Fantasy by Messiaen, and a Fantasy by Schubert.

Opera: I must get me to the opera house some time this season (WNO's "Manon Lescaut"? Lyric Opera Baltimore's "Rigoletto"?). Meanwhile, here is a friend who went to see the Met's staging of "The Tempest" by Thomas Ades last Saturday (after the real tempest of Sandy) then attended Lyric Opera Baltimore's "La Boheme" the next afternoon.

Movies: Many vintage movies have been spinning on the DVD player at home. I'm continuing to track Laughton's screen career but took a break with another viewing of the black and white sci-fi thriller, "The Thing From Another World". The score is by Dimitri Tiomkin, so can I count that as part of my playlist? Keeping an eye out for great new movies, I might wait for the DVD of "Late Quartet", starring Philip Seymour Hoffman (and three other stars...). The story concerns a professional string quartet that must face breaking up after years of playing together when one of them has to leave the ensemble. This might appeal to any who love the string quartet or other chamber ensemble form and understand the dynamics of relationship between the players and what happens when this breaks down under outside pressures. (And, of course, you can see this as a metaphor for other work relationships.)

Galleries, painting: Don't forget that Jing-Jy Chen's show continues for the rest of November at the Artists' Gallery in Columbia . After indulging in purchases of pottery and painting recently, I bought a couple of lower priced but high-quality prints of Chen's work yesterday. Besides the originals on the wall, have a look at the rich selection of prints in the bins. (All-member holiday show is coming up in December.)

Raccoons in search of acorns have been providing a different kind of entertainment at my condominium recently. Coming home from last night's concert, I found two of them here. The big one, about the size of a small Tyrannosaurus rex, wasn't going to let me scare it from its acorn feast. A few nights ago, a neighbor and I counted at least five raccoons foraging in this spot. So, Columbia Town Center, watch out for the raccoon raiders!