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This morning, I awoke to a quintessential autumn day. Thick gray skies, an expected high temperature in the 50s, wind whipping through the trees and scattering the leaves around the yard. To me, the perfect sort of day. I’m gonna go out on a limb and declare that fall has FINALLY arrived in Kentucky. (‘Bout damned time, too.) This is my signal to change out not just summer clothes to fall, but summer music to fall. So I say a fond farewell to salsa and reggae (See ya next, year, guys!), and open my arms for a welcome embrace of classical and chamber music. (I listen to other stuff, too, year-round, but these things are fairly seasonal for me.)

My husband should actually be writing the music blog today, because it’s he, not me, who is the rabid Patrick O’Brian fan in the family. (I like my historicals served up with a very healthy dose of romance.) And it was he, not me, who discovered “Musical Evenings with the Captain.” He did tell me for the blog that music is integral to the books. It’s what initially brings together the two main characters of O’Brian’s novels, Jack Aubrey and Steven Maturin, when they meet in the music room of the Governor’s house in Port Mahon. And the two often play together--Jack on violin and Steven on cello. So the music included on “Musical Evenings” is the same sort of music they would have created during that time. And much of it is the music mentioned in the books.

For example, my husband points to a scene in THE WINE DARK SEA, wherein Boccherini’s Sonata for Violin and Cello in D Major, which is one of the selections on the CD, is very much a part of the scene. Jack’s and Steven’s enjoyment of the ‘89 Port (that would be 1789), inspires them to play. From the book:  “They swept into the next movement, the ‘cello booming nobly, and carried straight on without a pause, separating, joining, answering one another, with never a hesitation nor a false note until the full satisfaction at the end.” (It goes without saying that my husband is also a fan of Port. Thanks, David!)

This is also a great description of the CD, come to think of it. It’s just a really wonderful collection of chamber music, and it introduced me (absolutely NO aficionado of classical music) to composers Pietro Antonio Locatelli and Luigi Boccherini, who I’d never (at least not knowingly) heard before. Their works are joined by those of Haydn, Handel and Leclair and performed by the Philharmonia Virtuosi: Mela Tenenbaum and Alexander Tenenbaum on violins, Dorothy Lawson on cello, and Richard Kapp on fortepiano.

We’ve been listening to it this week in the mornings as we prepare for work and school. It’s a lovely way to start the day. (Even my 12-year-old enjoys it.) And for driving or walking through color-spattered woods with the cool kiss of autumn ruffling your hair, there is no finer music anywhere.