Romance on Love Day

I love Valentine's Day. I always have. Even when I was single, I took myself out on dates: a movie double-feature with fancy coffee and decadent chocolate dessert in between was my favorite. I looked for a man sitting alone and asked if I could join him. It was in a bookstore, so I also brought along my recent purchase and read as I enjoyed my treat in the silent company of a man across the table. Why not? This year my wonderful husband drove to join me in South Carolina where I arrived two weeks early to get a jump on selling our lake house just to be with me on the "day of Love". Before arriving, he sent me an early valentine in the snow of our Rhode Island yard.

Last night, we went to the Columbia Museum of Art (CMA). We got in free with our (retired) Smithsonian Institution IDs, and saw the Monet to Matisse Impressionists exhibit in the afternoon. We also walked around the entire museum as this was our first visit. It's not nearly as big as the MFA in Boston, but had quite a lot of interesting exhibits anyway with pieces from Botticelli and Sargent included. It was impressive. But one of the most impressive was an exhibit on "healing" sponsored by the Lexington Medical Center. It included many select pieces from high school students in the Lexington County area. We were in awe of the talent of these young people and I became saddened to see their pain from the illness of a friend of relative depicted in paint, photography and multi-media projects. It was a very impressive display indeed. An entertaining exhibit in progress was one of women's fashions created out of everything: paper, old pieces of fabric, crayola crayons and painting supplies. It made me think of my young friend and God-daughter, Sophie. She was clearly ahead of her time in creating shoes and a dress for her sister to wear to prom out of duct tape years ago. She could have easily submitted one of her projects into this exhibit.

After our tour, we went to a family-run Italian restaurant a few blocks walking distance from the CMA: Villa Tronco. It was located in what is now a historic building, and was originally a fire house. The atmosphere was intimate and charming with lots of wood and small rooms. The dining room where we sat had a lovely little bar and terrazzo flooring, just like we have at the lake, except with red tiles. We laughed at this discovery. The rear main dining room's walls were of the original brick and was just lovely with very nice architectural features of trusses in the ceiling. Lastly, on the wall of our dining room was an award presented to the legend husband, Henry Martin, of the family's granddaughter for being the first 1,000 point scorer in USC basketball history. We had delicious, very fresh dinners of Veal Oscar and Chicken Saltimbucco; a bottle of Nero, and shared wonderful chocolate pudding with fresh strawberries and raspberries for dessert. It was a fabulous dinner that was healthfully cooked and not loaded with cheese or breading. My tomato sauce had fresh tomatoes and the pasta tasted homemade.

We returned to the CMA after dinner to attend the "CMA Chamber Music on Main" concert, featuring Artistic Director Edward Aaron on cello. Both of the other original performers for this performance cancelled because of a repetitive stress injury (violinist) and a career enhancing opportunity (pianist). So he was able to have his personal valentine, his wife, perform on piano and Tessa Lark play violin. All three performers hail from the northeast because he talked about the "Storm of 2013" causing problems with their driving to the Columbia concert. But, the concert was magical.

The first piece by Stravinsky was replaced by a Bach solo for violin to open the concert. This is where we saw how adept Ms. Lark is at performing her craft. Her technically perfect fingering was magnificent and her Tononi violin's sound was magical. It was so beautiful, I just closed my eyes and drank it in. Next we were treated to "Mozart-Adagio for Piano, Violin and Cello" by Arvo Pärt. This piece was filled with dramatic dissonances and silences. It was not my favorite piece, but its performance was really interesting.

My favorite piece came next: "Piano Trio in A-flat Major, Hob. XV:14" by F.J. Haydn. The harmonic dissonances and silences of this piece were melodic perfection. We enjoyed watching Mr. Aaron look to Ms. Lark for direction as clearly she was in charge of conducting the concert.  Lastly, we enjoyed a long piece, that was beautifully executed, but not my favorite: "Piano Trio in E-fat Major, D.929" by Franz Schubert. Mr Schubert, we were told, died at age thirty-one, and wrote this piece the year before he died. I was mesmerized to watch each performer become one with their instruments: fingers flew across strings and keys while arms flowed up and down with dramatic effect. It was an extremely difficult program, but absolutely beautifully executed. The acoustics in this hall were wonderful. All in all, it was a fabulous concert.

Lastly, we were treated by Ms. Lark to a bluegrass "ditty" from her home state of Kentucky called, "Bows and Strings" as her valentine to us. It was a rousing piece that had us all clapping and once again in awe of her talent. Her fingers flew impossibly over those strings as the "ditty" kept speeding up. It was fabulous!

We noticed that the audience was comprised of mostly people our age and older. We saw only a few young people. We thought that was interesting. The best treat for Larry, though, was running into one of his professors from the University of South Carolina. Each time we attend something in Columbia, he looks for people he may have known from his past, but never finds anyone. He was very happy to engage with one of his professors and get as caught up as forty years would allow. He was very sweet and looked like the epitomy of a college professor: rumpled, wearing a sweater and suspenders.

It was a very romantic date-night, and we both had a really great time. Happy (day after) "Love" Day to you all! I hope you enjoyed a little of your own romance, whether shared with a special someone, or with your Self. It's all about the Love after all.