Saturday, on a fine, warm California evening, I went with my mother to hear Brad Mehldau solo at the Green Center in Sonoma. If you’ve never been inside this concert hall you don’t know true beauty. The whole building (seats included) is pale pine which produces a fantastic reverberation throughout the hall. Behind and around the stage is more pine interlaced with deep red sound wall. The aesthetic is poetic, and the design is utilitarian for the acoustics. That is a lot of beauty already, and I haven’t even mentioned how the hall is situated on a beautiful green California hill in wine country overlooking farms and vineyards and mountains. A magical magical place to hear music (I’d seen the alpine symphony performed there and my parents saw the Buena Vista Social Club there which is insanely cool).

Mehldau (as stated) was taking the stage solo to play an exciting combination of Bach, original…