A moving experience

Cate and I had an interesting evening last night, taking in an evening of Handel music performed by a soprano, a harpsichord and a viola da gamba. The soprano, Carrie Henneman Shaw, is a friend Robert and I met at the Twins game last month.

In a word: impressive.

First of all, Cate and I both played string instruments growing up but neither of us had ever seen a viola da gamba being performed. It's about the size of a cello, played upright, with seven strings and tuned somewhat like a guitar. It's bowed underhanded and it doesn't have a stand -- it's held between the legs. Fascinating.

And of course, our friend the soprano was brilliant as well. All in all, a nice evening in St. Paul -- bookended by dinner at Cafe Latte and drinks with Carrie and some of her friends afterward.

But the highlight of the evening was probably the up-close-and-personal encounter with the harpsichord. I helped carry and move the instrument after the performance. Barely, I basically helped load it onto a dolly. But moving a harpsichord was something new to me.