Busy Saturday Evening -- Concert and Soccer Game

Saturday evening, I heard Emmanuel Ax play the Brahms Piano Concerto in D-minor in Lyon's Auditorium de Lyon concert hall. An odd rice-bowl shaped concert hall, I sat right in the middle of the 1st level balcony, which overlooks the stage and is right in the middle of the hall. Not the best acoustics (at some times the solo piano was drowned out by the sound of the orchestra), nor any chance to see Ax's fingerwork, but it was good to see my first classical concert in a while. (Actually, come to think of it, my last classical concert was to a (get this) Ax performance in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw concert hall (last-minute returns, and a seat in the middle; also Queen Beatrix was there ... I think).

After the match I dashed over to the Metro B line and hustled up to Gerland for the second half of the match between OL and Nice. OL's been having trouble against its recent competition: two defeats and two losses, after having built up a 16? 20? point lead over the second-place team. OL sits way on top, and the teams in second to sixth place are separated by maybe five points.

On this night, restless supporters hoped for an easy victory over cellar-dweller Nice, but even an equalizer by recently acquired striker Milan Baros was not enough to give them the victory. So desperate are the crowd for a victory that some of the ultra-fans got to sticking this poster on the railings at the stadium: show them that we, the "12th player" support them by holding up your OL scarves and cheering them.

Big game on the 31st between them and arch-rival Olympique Marseille in the quarterfinals of the Coupe de France, a national championship. Now if they lose this one ...