Two interesting things:  one, Znaider was quite taken with my Heifetz mute, although he refused to use it for the concert.  “I could not sleep at night,” he said, “knowing that I had deprived you even for one hour of such a mute.”  I guess I’ll hang onto this piece of rubber.  Two, Znaider broke his E-string near the end of the Brahms, much to the delight of the audience.  People always get a kick out of that!  We wondered whether he had rigged it to go off during the Beethoven concerto later in the week.

Then on Saturday, a trio concert with Brant and John Novacek.  Another limited-rehearsal deal, but at least this trio has played together many times.  What a fun group!  Too bad we only get once or twice a year to do this kind of thing.  That program was Haydn E-flat, Rachmaninov Trio Elegiaque, Sibelius Canon for violin and cello (to tie in with that week’s CSO program) and Mendelssohn c minor.  Plus we threw in John’s Intoxication rag as an encore.  That should be heard often, as it’s a thrilling 2 minutes!

Once upon stopping us, Mr. Galimir addressed the lower voices. But he began fumbling for words, and when he did get going it appeared that his speech would take a while. Soovin Kim and Ning Kam, who were playing first and second violins, welcomed the moment out of the spotlight and began talking quietly. When Ning laughed silently at a joke from Soovin, she caught the attention of Galimir, who never needed much prodding to pay attention (always in fun) to female group members!

“Hey, hey, HEY!” he shouted. We all fell silent. “No flirting!” he commanded Ning. “If you flirt, you must flirt with me!”