MUSIC BOX
Melinda Coffey Armstead, piano & organ
Chapel Concertino
Promenade from Pictures At An Exhibition . . . Modest Mussorgsky (1839-1881)
Barcarolle . . . Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893)
Romance . . . Anton Rubenstein (1829-1894)
How Fair This Spot . . . Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943)
18th Variation from Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini . . . Rachmaninoff
Musical Interlude
Prelude Op. 11 No. 15 Lento . . . Alexander Scriabin (1871-1915)
Offertory
Prelude Op. 23 No. 6 Andante . . . Rachmaninoff
Postlude
Russian Hymn . . . Alexis Lwoff (1799-1870)
I took up piano 60 years ago in October at age nine because ballet school was too expensive and too far away. My piano teacher, Alla Dakserhof, appeared in exactly the right place at exactly the right time to intercept me on my bicycle with two dollars in my pocket. I traveled eight blocks, she eleven thousand miles via Shanghai and Vancouver, I from 511 Fitch St., Healdsburg, California, she from the pre-revolutionary St. Petersburg Conservatoire, Russia. For nine years she guided me with affection and non-negotiable Russian authority (Melindichka, dear heart, your feengairing, PLEEASE!) Ochen Harashow!
If you hear anyone from my household complain that Russian autocracy is contagious, treat it as you would fake news from any biased source.
