January 19, the day before the inauguration. It was also the day that the National Symphony Orchestra was performing a concert they were calling Portraits of America. It included the national anthem orchestrated by Stravinsky, music from the films JFK and Lincoln by John Williams, Fanfare for the Inauguration of JFK by Leonard Bernstein, Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and a very powerful performance of Aaron Copland’s Lincoln Portrait with narration by Phylicia Rashad. The words of Lincoln and the stirring music by the symphony moved Jen to tears. It was a fitting reminder that our country has survived and been strengthened by very difficult times in the past and we have every reason to have hope for the future if we remain faithful to our values of freedom, tolerance, and diversity.
We were a little worried by all of the road closures due to the inauguration ceremonies and I had spent some time finding an alternative route to the Kennedy Center. Of course, we really had no problems and arrived quite early. We had coffee at the cafe and were able to watch the Trump motorcade travel across Memorial Bridge from Arlington to the Lincoln Memorial.
We took the shuttle to Foggy Bottom where we had dinner at Circa, one of our favorite restaurants for a pre-show dinner.
Then we rode back to the Concert Hall, enjoyed the incredible music, were thrilled by an encore by the piano soloist who said that after listening to American classical music and American jazz, he thought it would be great to end the evening with some American rock and roll. And he played Scenes From An Italian Restaurant by Billy Joel. You can read the Washington Post review by clicking here.
