Getting onto the SSU campus and finding a parking place was a Goat Rodeo. Forty-five minutes before showtime, I got on the end of the line of cars on Rohnert Park Expressway waiting to get in the single lane campus entrance closest to the Green Music Center. The line of cars crawled all the way to a parking lot near the front of the campus and I had to sprint to make it to my seat in time. Next time I will arrive MUCH earlier and have dinner there, or I will enter through the multi-lane front entrance, because it is closer to last-minute parking.

The music was fabulous, as I knew it would be, having listened to the CD so many times, and re-watched the Colbert Report show featuring them. I was in the hall (as opposed as out on the lawn as for Pink Martini) upstairs in the balcony facing the performers. There is another raised seating area behind the performers. My location had been described in the Press Democrat as acoustically optimum. I was distressed that I did not hear the acoustic version of the CD by burping up $80 for a ticket. It was amplified, and my friends who were on the lawn, and enjoyed the excellent video coverage, heard exactly the same thing I did.

I was hoping that this string quartet, which is what it is, could be heard unamplified in the hall. It was a great performance, wonderful stage presence by Yo-Yo Ma and Chris Thile. My favorite performer, both on the CD and live, is Stuart Duncan, the fiddler. Must purchase more CDs of his work.

I think Edgar Meyer, the bass player and composer of most of the work, will become considered a classical modern composer. His work is elegant. The Strings blog published an interesting interview with them about the technical aspects of their work. My favorite piece, however, was his transcription of a Bach piece for two flutes and a continuo. It was performed on the Bass, Cello, and Mandolin. Only Yo-Yo Ma used music. And he pointed it out.