Buying a Guitar in Pasadena (Mahler's Seventh)

Here's a picture of a Guitar Salesman taken on my walk up to Starbucks this afternoon. As this man was coming towards me it appeared that he was selling ukuleles, but on closer inspection these small instruments had six, not four, strings. The pink one was particularly cute. His final price before I walked on was $15.


Here's a previous M.M. post about Guitars on Pasadena streets.

The real authority on Pasadena Guitars is Paul Viapiano (click here for his excellent blog).

Paul recently told about performing in Mahler's Seventh Symphony at Disney Hall with the L.A. Philharmonic conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen. (Click here for that post.) Pairing it with Webern is brilliant programming.

Like Paul, the Seventh Symphony was my first introduction to Mahler. I was in high school in the sixties when I discovered the Bernstein recording in monaural at the Sioux City Iowa Public Library. The Seventh remained my favorite work for decades - until I gave up listening to Mahler altogether sometime in the nineties.

Last week, at another Philharmonic concert, I told this story to someone. She asked me "Why did you lose interest in Mahler?"

My response (instant, unthinking and completely accurate) was "I grew up."

Mandolin Tags: Pasadena California. . . guitar. . . street vendor. . . Los Angeles Philharmonic. . . Gustav Mahler. . . Mahler Seventh. . . symphony. . .growing up

Peanuts mentions Mahler