BACK FROM EUROPE! CONCERTS & REAL ESTATE!

Well, after returning from Europe a week and a half ago I finally had the chance to catch up on my sleep, pay the bills, and visit with my daughter who was home on break from college. We returned a week ago Wednesday but only had two days off before a rehearsal on Saturday for a program of music by John Williams (Star Wars, E.T., 1941, etc.). Of course the house was packed and the audience loved it. Sunday I taught all day at Oberlin and last Tuesday rehearsals started for this past weekend of concerts, which included Brahms' Tragic Overture, John Adams "Dr. Atomic" Symphony, and the Brahms' 2nd piano concerto. Nice concert!



REAL ESTATE: Had a low-ball offer on one of my listings and negotiations are at that eerily quiet stage (are we losing momentum?) Have a look: http://2505meadowbrookblvd.howardhanna.com/



Another agent threatened to make an offer.. Where is it?? Two other agents showed it this weekend, so maybe we'll get a sale.. Another listing that hasn't gone into the MLS yet should go on this week.



TAX CREDIT- The extension and expansion of the tax credit for home buyers until next spring is a welcome development that hopefully will help get the real estate market back on its feet. Please note: THE TAX CREDIT HAS BEEN EXPANDED TO SECOND-TIME BUYERS AND THE INCOME CAP HAS BEEN RAISED. CALL ME IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS!!



Have a great week and please visit my sites at http://www.scotthaigh.com/ and http://www.scotthaigh.howardhanna.com/

Vienna Update....

Last night the Cleveland Orchestra performed the Beethoven Piano Concerto #4 with Mitsuko Uchida as soloist and after intermission a searing rendition of Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. Prelude to Act I Wagner’s Lohengrin was the encore. The audience loved it and demanded numerous curtain calls. For those of you who know a little about music history, you might be interested to know that Gustav Mahler’s grand-daughter was in the audience during our Thursday night concert and loved it! Only in Vienna…

This morning at the Wiener Musikvereinsaal the orchestra rehearsed a little bit of a new piece that we have played several times call “Chor” by Jorge Widmann and then spent the rest of the rehearsal on the Brahms Requiem with the Wiener Singverein (Viennese Singing Society) and soloists. The Singverein sang really beautifully and it is not surprising, considering they are the chorus for the Vienna Philharmonic and they were singing in their native language of German. The soloists were Simon Keenlyside, a wonderful singer, and the fabulous Malin Hartelius, who sang so stunningly beautifully in the Cleveland Orchestra’s production of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro last spring. The concert for this program is tonight and tomorrow night. On Tuesday the orchestra will take a train to Linz to perform our last concert of the tour. Linz is the hometown of our music director Franz Welser-Most, so it will be a homecoming for him.

Today I’m taking a day off the day from sight-seeing to nap, stay away pastries, and write this blog!
To follow the orchestra’s tour online, go to www.clevelandorchestrablog.com